Neighbours in Europe Act together with Respect Erasmus Project

Project Title

Neighbours in Europe Act together with Respect

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

Our NEAR project (Neighbours Act together with Respect) involves two schools: Kaufmännische Schulen Marburg (Germany) and Salling Efterskole (Denmark). In the course of two successive school years, 15 (or 30 during the stays in DK) Danish and 20 German students per school year examine historical changes on a comparative political, social, cultural and private level. A period of 125 years was chosen as the Kaufmännische Schulen Marburg celebrate their 125th anniversary in 2021. The overall project and its results will be presented to a broad public in an exhibition within the framework of these festivities.
The Salling Efterskole will be 100 years old in 2021, but the plans for the anniversary celebration have not yet begun.
The project focuses on two aspects. Firstly, in times of increasing nationalisation tendencies, commonalities are to be discovered and explored through learning together, living together and working together. The aim is to create a sense of togetherness. The common European heritage can be experienced, the knowledge about it is deepened.
All students are intensively occupied with a country that was previously foreign to them, they are guests there. They endure differences, understand ways of life and cultural peculiarities in the historical roots. By looking into history and changing perspectives as guests and hosts, they recognise the need for empathy and acceptance. The students thus live the European idea and expand their intercultural competences.
Secondly, the students further develop their personal competences, in particular: communication skills (English as lingua franca), conflict and criticism skills (through changing small groups), critical judgement skills (through confrontation with past and present), media competence (working via TwinSpace) and flexibility in thinking and acting.
Using Denmark and Germany as examples, two EU countries are compared – each with a historical focus (1896 and 2019/2021). In each of the four project phases three main topics are offered. The students can choose from these topics and work on them in a creative, largely self-directed, production-oriented way. One topic always relates to politics and society (e.g. migration), one to culture (e.g. means of communication) and one to everyday life (e.g. fashion). On the one hand, the topics are deliberately kept open, on the other hand, the students are encouraged to examine central areas of life. The students work in small groups of 4-6 persons, the composition of the groups changes once per school year. This is to ensure that no one remains in one role within their group for one school year. In this way, the students can try out new tasks and thus fully develop their abilities in another group. Furthermore, the new composition should stimulate more diverse creative processes.
At the end of the first school year the project will be handed over to the new school groups in Germany and Denmark. These will be prepared and instructed for the further work in the project by the outgoing students with the help of personal conversations, short video messages, etc.. The special chance in this approach lies in learning to understand what it means to hand something of which you have grown fond over to a new generation and at the same time to be held responsible for creating something new on the foundation of the existing.
The products and the concretisation of the contents of the main topics is carried out by the students by negotiating these in a process-oriented way with each other. Teachers, who are clearly assigned to each group, can give impulses and act as coaches. A medially diverse material pool is provided for each of the four mobilities in cooperation with the teachers of the subjects German/Danish, History, Politics, Design and Animation/Media Design. In order to support the students in this difficult work of project planning/organisation, regular team discussions and evaluations take place, the results of which are to be made fruitful in the form of guidelines for further work.
Knowing the creative potential of the students, it can be assumed that a kaleidoscope of different products (cookbook, photo story, short film, self-made clothes, etc.) will be created, which will give new, interesting and profitable insights into the Danish and German past as well as into the current developments/situation of both countries.
In addition, the processes that have taken place, as well as the final products, can be regarded as a treasure that can be looked back on together with pride and appreciation.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 65600 Eur

Project Coordinator

Kaufmännische Schulen Marburg & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Salling Efterskole