Tolerance Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Tolerance Europe

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The project “Developing tolerance and mutual understanding” involved 5 schools from 5 European countries: Poland, Italy, Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania. According to the SWOT analysis done by each partner in their institution, the partners indentified a series of common needs that have led to the decision to implement a project about tolerance. Violence, aggression, intolerance, racism, ethnic discrimination were the tendencies that were being observed in the behavior of the students from all the partner countries.
The World Values Survey showed that Poland, Turkey and Italy were the least racially tolerant countries, while Bulgaria and Romania seemed to be the most tolerant countries. This result along with the diverse educational and cultural background of the partners facilitated the implementation of a successful project.
The project objectives were:
-to develop civic competences and increase self-esteem of students from 5 EU schools
-to facilitate understanding the concepts “tolerance” and “mutual understanding” at a personal level and in the European context
-to equip participants with practical examples for acting as civic-minded citizens
-to raise awareness about diversity and cultural identities promoting social cohesion
-to boost the feeling of belonging to the EU community.
In accordance with the Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union, we have envisaged that that international cooperation haveprepared our students for living in a multicultural society being aware of the EU values, appreciating diversity. Students interiorized tolerance and mutual understanding as active civic attitudes. For reaching the overall aim of broadening the civic mindedness emphasizing the importance of tolerance and mutual understanding impact in daily life, we decided to use an innovative approach.
We used an innovative approach to reach the project objectives. Combining the advantages of using ICT in education with the Five Factor Model theory tackled the 5 personality dimensions:
-openness to experience: students were encouraged to express their emotions and ideas using Art. Theyhave created together the movie “Tolerance through my eyes”, scenarios for the Forum theater, digital photos, prepared artistic moments for the Festival of tolerance and mutual understanding.
-extraversion: team building activities, sports competitions and board games were stimulating students’ assertiveness, sociability and personality.
-agreeableness: working in international teams and creating products together were developing students’ cooperation skills. The tangible products that they were creating together were flashcards about the topic, the dictionary of the project, handmade bookmarks and thematic puzzles.
-neuroticism: students experienced (un)pleasant emotions, anger, depression, anxiety and vulnerability during the Forum theater/ theater activity. They have become aware of how intolerance is perceived by others, develop empathy and they have seen how important is to be an active citizen.
The use of ICT during the activities, supported by internal cognitive aspects of learning led to innovative outcomes results tackling learning abilities.
The activities were designed to develop the tolerance, mutual understanding, intercultural competences, social and civic spirit. The international cooperationhave broadened the cross-cultural knowledge and understanding about the countries, cultures and values strengthening the feeling of belonging to a united Europe.
A number of 48 students (aged between 10 and 14 years old) attended the international meetings – LTTAs. Students were being selected before the activities, with the usage of transparent criteria decided by each project partner taken into consideration: English skills, ICT skills, motivation and involvement in the school-based activities. A number of 40 teachers were being directly involved in the project mobilities, and teams were formed at the school level to facilitate a better implementation of the project. Approximately 2700 students and 120 teachers/adults were indirectly involved in the project. Other participants who enjoyed the benefits offered by this Erasmus+ project were the administrative staff, students’ families, pedagogical staff, educational advisors, policy makers and representatives of the local authorities.
The tangible products of the project were an audio dictionary, photography exhibition, calendar of the project, common movie, e-book, flashcards, thematic puzzles, handmade bookmarks, project webpages, project logo, flyers, DVD of the project, brochure.
The intangible results were the development of life skills, key competences, cultural horizon, inter cultural understanding, team working skills and knowledge about the topic.
All the project results were available on the project website. The dissemination plan helped to reach a large audience and made an impact at local, regional, national and international levels.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 121075 Eur

Project Coordinator

Zespol Szkol w Krypach & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Scoala Gimnaziala “Grigore Moisil”
• EYÜP GÜMÜSSUYU ILKOKULU
• “$t. St. Cyril and Methodius” Primary School
• Istituto Comprensivo Pasquale Mattej