Democracy Begins at Home Erasmus Project

Project Title

Democracy Begins at Home

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Access for disadvantaged; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

CONTEXT
What we plan by this project is to found the base for instructing pupils as to democratic values, political frameworks and our rights and obligations to be included via the tools which we already have – participation in social life, youth enterprises, discourse with decision-makers, stating political decisions by voting tools. In addition, through the project activities, we wish to instill in pupils principal democratic values such as opportunity, respect, resilience, correspondence, solidarity.
In spite of the fact that in a few nations “Democracy and active citizenship” is a subject which is taught at schools, thiw isn’t the case within the 5 partner countries. This is the reason why Erasmus+ subsidizing is going to offer us the opportunity to work together and collaborate so as to implement activities that could later be included in a discretionary educational course for our future students.
GOALS
1. to enhance pupils’ mindfulness of democatic values and means nationwide and within European settings (minimum 70% of pupils)
2. to advance pupils’ consciousness of social distinctions as a source of affluence nationwide and in the European diversity system (evaluated through coordinated monitoring of pupils, conversations)
3. to develop pupils’ critical thinking, problem solving and contentious discourse aptitudes
4. to form the ground for participation of colleges with NGOs within the local society (minimum 5 school-NGO communions)
5. to fortify the relation between colleges and national agencies (included within the dissemination of primary outcome)
6. to enhance pupils’ communicative skills in English (B1 level of competency)
7. to empower the forming of a modern discretionary educational module in order to tutor Democracy and Being Citizen within the partner institutions
NUMBER AND PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS
C1-C4 – 96 pupils chosen from the target team of pupils aged 11-14, with various backgrounds, some with learning challenges, others from poor or dismembered families, guided by 2 instructors/exchange
C5 – 12 instructors – 1 coordinator and two syllabus specialists from the project group
ACTIONS
4 pupil exchanges (C1-C4) and one joint-personnel training event (C5):
C1 – Individuality (personal, nationwide and European) and democracy
C2 – Democracy and political life. Choice-creating mechanisms. Elections and power of individuals
C3 – Democracy and people’s involvement. Civil society
C4 – Searching for human rights – Making justice work. Productive discussions
C5 – Improvement of modern syllabus on Democracy and being an active citizen for sustainability

METHODOLOGY
At the beginning of the project, every institution chooses the members from the intended team of students aged 11-14, depending on their expressed interest, motivation in the topic and level of English competence (A2). They become the working team for the whole project and perform the activities either specifically, through support within the exchanges, or in a roundabout way.
During the exchanges, members participate in workshops, do group work, carry out research on the particular subject in order to get data from distinctive sources, form opinions and draw conclusions. Following this first stage, they are involved in making works of art, blurbs, draws, recordings, campaign recordings and mottos, flashmobs, to demonstrate their creativity.
RESULTS
Through applying the planned activities, we expect to get these results: lesson plans and test exercises, workshop materials and presentations, students’ inquiries, blurbs and other craftsmanship delivered by pupils, recordings, school blogs, bulletins, drama presentations, shows, recorded flashmobs, e-brochures, certificates of participation, recorded talks, Europass portability reports, ultimate outcome– modern syllabus on Democracy and Being Citizen.
IMPACT
One of the aims of the project is to develop the students’ sense of participation, to incorporate them into the life of the society and to support its improvement within the medium and long period. In this regard, the project is going to lead to a closer relation between the school and the local society, with local NGOs that we are going to have common activities with in the future. The schools will acquire a more dynamic role within local society.
Furthermore, the partner schools are going to develop their curricular suggestion with the innovative proposal of the syllabus on “Democracy and Being an active Citizen” which is hopefully going to be utilized within the future years. This kind of practice would distinguish these schools from other schools and eventually convince the latter to utilize it. Since our pupils and instructors have, as of now, profited from the project, we aspire to inspire other schools as well.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 151649 Eur

Project Coordinator

Ebdomo Dimotiko Scholio Chiou & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Szkola Podstawowa im. Jana Pawla II w Kluczach
• Agrupamento de Escolas General Serpa Pinto de Cinfães
• Gazi Ortaokulu
• Istituto Comprensivo Capitano Biagio Puglisi