Urban and rural values in Norway and Germany Erasmus Project

Project Title

Urban and rural values in Norway and Germany

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: Creativity and culture; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

Context/background
The village of Bjørkelangen, with a population of less than 4000, and Forst (Lausitz), with a population of 18,000, both lie in rural areas. Bjørkelangen lies approximately one hour from Oslo and Forst lies approximately two hours from Berlin and Dresden. Our two colleges, Bjørkelangen videregående and Friedrich Ludwig Jahn-Gymnasium, have been involved in a very successful exchange partnership for over twenty-five years, so there is an excellent, well established flow of communication between contact people, teachers and students. One of the main aims of the exchange partnership was to make students aware of the cultural differences between Norway and Germany. This awareness also helped the students see their own everyday behaviour and way of thinking from another perspective. We believe that this Erasmus+ project will add an exciting, important new dimension to the old partnership by nuancing the question of cultural differences through its examination of cultural values within each country, rather than simply between them. We have chosen to focus on attitudes towards rural areas and large cities because of the location of our colleges and their catchment areas.

Main objectives
There is no denying that the main objective of the project is to develop the linguistic and cultural competence of the 60 students who will be directly involved in the project. Travelling to another country, experiencing its everyday life first hand, and speaking a foreign language in authentic situations has proven to be an excellent way to develop those competences, not only for the over 1000 students who have travelled between our two colleges during our successful partnership, but for millions of students like them all over the world. By staying with host families, we aim to utilise that possibility to the full.
However, this is not simply a traditional class trip. We want the students to work together to learn about many different aspects of living in the Norwegian and German countryside, and we want them to compare their findings. In addition, we want them to gather information during their visits to three large cities, Berlin, Dresden and Oslo, and reflect on the similarities and differences between these cities and the rural areas around Bjørkelangen and Forst. We hope this learning experience will provide a more nuanced understanding of cultural differences than a simple comparison of everyday life in Norway and Germany, and will raise their lever of intercultural competence, thus empowering them and making them more employable in an increasingly interconnected world.

Participants
60 students and 4 teachers will travel during the project, but many other people will be involved either directly or indirectly, especially at the days spent at each college. Two coordinators and some non-travelling teachers will also be involved in the planning phase. During the dissemination process many students, teachers and other members of staff will learn about the findings and other aspects of the project.

Activities
The students will give presentations to each other about the history and culture of the cities they visit and each lunch together. They will interview people on the street about city life. In the countryside they will cycle, canoe, make campfires and eat traditional food. While at the colleges they will compare and contrast local news stories, reflect on and discuss the contrast between the city and the countryside they have experienced, and will create artwork that depicts their experiences.

We want the students to select from a list of research activities connected to the countryside and the city. In the second year of the project we are expecting to add and perhaps remove some of the activities based on the feedback we receive at the end of the first year.

Methodology
There will be a mixture of planned, formal activities and more spontaneous, informal activities. The tasks will be goal-oriented and directly related to the objectives of the Erasmus+ project. All four language skills will be covered and there will be a creative task at the end. The students will be given responsibilty to organise some of the act

Results
We are expecting the students to learn that there are more similarities than differences between Norway and Germany because of the rural/urban focus, rather than a Norway/Germany focus. We are hoping that by nuancing the cultural analysis they will gain a greater understanding of the cultural differences that exist within a country, and the shared urban and rural experiences across national borders.

Longer-term benefits
We expect the students who are directly involved in the project to gain long-term benefits through improved foreign language skills and increased intercultural competence, making them more employable. By involving local newspapers in the project, we hope they will be interested in the results and will write articles about them.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 60504 Eur

Project Coordinator

Bjørkelangen videregående skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Gymnasium Forst