Project ECLECT (Every Child a Leader Every Child a Teacher) Erasmus Project

Project Title

Project ECLECT (Every Child a Leader Every Child a Teacher)

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: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Pedagogy and didactics; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

‘I finally realised what I came here to learn. To learn from the people. I am surrounded with and to learn to recognise who I am and what as a person I want to be.’ Door [17]

‘ECLECT got me out of my comfort zone. From being a shy person I learned taking the lead.’ Lois, [16]

‘‘From solving a EU problem to finding yourself’

Project ECLECT (Every Child a Leader, Every Child a Teacher) was designed to combine European wide school partnership with the development of collaborative learning and personal leadership strategies. To create the conditions for the development of self directed and responsible learning, teamwork and leadership. As changemaker schools of the Ashoka network, we found with four schools a common interest to encourages positive change. As a worldwide network Ashoka has the ideal of every young person to become an adult changemaker, capable of taking creative action to solve a social problem. In our visions this social change is crucial to face the problems of the 21th century. And as innovative educators in traditional, Montessori and Democratic schooling, we had a wealth of experience to bring to the project. Our aim was to create a ‘best practice’ of coaching techniques, exercises and measurement of this new collaborative learning and personal leadership course.

Participants of project ECLECT were high school pupils from 15-17 years old who are familiar with innovative education. The project consisted of two yearly cycles which were iterative. The first year a group of 32 pupils (4 nationalities) worked on a self-chosen European topic. The second year the process was repeated, but improved and reinforced by the experiences of the first year. Not least by the coaching of the pupils from the first year. While collaborating and evaluating, pupils searched for their own qualities and strengthen their personal leadership. Mentors offered the scaffolding and encouraged reflection and evolution of each group and individuals practice.
We agreed in an early stage that learning is too often two dimensional in which the children are the passive participants connected to the teacher and the textbook and not each other. We asked ourselves the question: what if a group of adults accepted the challenge to host a gathering of students from four European schools and over two years, try to create just one school in which connection and authentic purpose were the driving forces behind all we did? We were convinced that this was the key condition to approach our goals. But in order to achieve this, ECLECT could not run like an ordinary school if we hoped to achieve the extraordinary. And this meant that we as teachers, were pushed outside our comfort zones and were forced to reconsider our roles of educators.

So in our project youngsters had an equal voice to the adults and were encouraged to share their wisdom and insights with us. Very quickly we realised that our usual fascination with end products and outcomes needed to be balanced by an understanding that the process and the daily experience of sharing food, conversation, play and nature was equally valuable and rewarding to all. Process was at the heart of our work. We learnt to be flexible as changes of schedules became the norm and sixty people found ways to understand each other and find creative ways to resolve conflict and work together overcoming language and cultural differences that was more than we could have imagined when we sat designing the project in 2016. We tried to create the external and internal conditions to support the emotional transformation of the individuals involved, both adults and youngsters.

The project did something amazing to the kids.Their level of motivation was exceptional. They wanted to be involved in every aspect of the project. It seems that giving them choice, instead of creating the opportunity to disengage, drew them closer into the project. As was visible at the last final meeting where we tried to capture the essence of the project and distill into the idea of creating a booklet as the main output of this project as a whole. The kids tried to skip classes to be with us (the teachers) to share their ideas, experiences and emotions about ECLECT. Many succeeded and their insights are an implicit part of this final product.

The impact of ECLECT is visible in the reflections of the youngsters and the teachers involved. As it is in the observations of direct familie of the participants, which we also asked for feedback. Moreover the impact is visible in the booklet we are creating. All our knowledge and experience of this really extraordinary journey is captured in this document. This booklet is the drop which creates a ripple in the ocean of social connections and entrepreneurship which disseminates the best practises to other schools and Ashoka institutions. Spreading this social change – albeit on a modest scale – around the globe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 99100 Eur

Project Coordinator

Vathorst College & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Fundació Privada Sadako
• Sands School
• Montessorie Oberschule Potsdam