Youth DOCs: recording critical glances on personal identity, youth culture and contemporary reality Erasmus Project

Project Title

Youth DOCs: recording critical glances on personal identity, youth culture and contemporary reality

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 : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Social dialogue; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

“Youth DOCs: recording critical glances on personal identity, youth culture and contemporary reality”

Key words: youth culture, social identity, critical viewing, documentary video and and documentary theatre

Context/background: Among youths, there are issues on “social identity and understanding of the other”, issues on “development of cooperation skills” and issues on “intercultural understanding and stereotypes” that need be critically addressed particularly in the context of the current economical crisis and the raise of violence and racism.

Projects aims to develop:
a) a partnership between two European educational regions, to create innovative educational procedures and to share good practices
b) a student centered teaching methodology which promotes active learning and uses video and drama documentary techniques to research students’ collective views on their own youth culture and personal identity as well as their views on the culture of the partner region, in the context of the current economic crisis and the raise of violence and racism
c) a teachers’ training course, a teachers’ educational guide, video tutorials and an open-educational resources based on the methodology implemented in this project.
d) collaboration between teachers/students and media/drama experts
e) a sustainable network between schools and institutions and to encourage future partnerships
f) students’ group work and enable them to create and share doc-films and doc-dramas and develop peer evaluation skills

Number and profile of participating organizations
Two (2) educational authorities as main Partners, 14 local associated Partners (4 educational organizations as methodology experts and 10 secondary education schools as implementing partners)
Project Partners:
Directorate of Secondary Education of Eastern Attica, Athens, Greece (DSEEA-Gr) (coordinator)
Local Authority of Education-Bayrampaşa, Istanbul, Turkey (BiMEM-Tr)
The 4 Local Associated Partners that provided the experts and developed the methodology:
Karpos Centre, Greece
Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr), Greece
University of the Peloponnese/Theatre Studies Department, Greece
Innovative Educators Association (IEA-Tr), Turkey

Number of people involved: Management Group: 4. Experts Group: 11. Teachers Group: 47, Students: 150

Description of undertaken main activities & results attained :
a) local and transnational meetings for the “Experts Group” (exchange expertise and design methodology)
b) workshops for the “Teachers Group” local (4) and transnational (2) to acquire dramaDoc and videoDoc skills, debate issues on youth culture and identity and discuss issues on the projects’ methodology
c) school interventions: common teachers and experts workshops in schools for students to develop 24 video and drama documentaries
d) local Student Festivals (4) for sharing video and drama productions and feedback each year
e) students’ and teachers’ feedback and comments on youth culture and skills via the specially designed platform “..in our own view” -a virtual festival
f) International Conferences (3) in both countries as multiplier events
g) Training Course for teachers (35hours) based on project’s methodology
h) production of 8 video tutorials both for teachers and students on dramadoc and videodoc techniques, of a Teachers’ Handbook and a of a interactive digital platform (http://myopinion.youthdocs.eu)
i) a WebSite www.youthdocs.eu for project monitoring, (calendar, schools’ productions, educational material, Intellectual Outputs etc)
j) a evaluation report

Methodology and tools (short)
Students from secondary schools in both regions, in groups, were invited to reflect upon, negotiate, choose, produce/record and exchange audiovisual messages, i.e. short (4-8min) videos or dramas, on what they believe should be preserved from their natural, man-made or social environment, as representing important aspects of their own youth culture and identity. The trigger-question is: “which elements of your youth culture would you choose, as a group, to create a short film or drama documentary for another youth group to see and comment?». Videos or dramas must be based on own personal stories, and must have the form of the documentaries. In these doc-films/dramas, students, in cooperation with local partners (local associations, NGOs, municipalities, etc), at a first stage, present their collective views of their own community-region and, at a second stage, of the community of the other region in the partnership.
Teachers work in partnerships with film and drama experts.

Impact:
Teachers: professional development, skills in sharing good practice, ICT and working co-intentionally with experts,
Students: development of personal identity, critical thinking and decrease of stereotypes, new skills on audiovisual expression (video and drama)
Educational Authorities: local school network, Festivals, Conferences, Web Platforms and Material

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 142827 Eur

Project Coordinator

Diefthinsi Defterovathmias Ekpedefsis Anatolikis Attikis & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Bayrampasa Ilce Milli Egitim Mudurlugu