Sendeki Yankımı Keşfet Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sendeki Yankımı Keşfet

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Disabilities – special needs; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Considering the history of humanity, it used to be less common to communicate with different cultures in traditional societies, whereas in modern world, social dynamics require us to act with a high level of empathy. Empathy is not something that can be spontaneous or memorable; it is meaningful in case it is part of everyday habits. Decrease of this part with time leads to turning negative behaviors in humans into a habit. In that case, does our education system find solution to these negativities? While our education system makes specialization in a field (mathematics, science etc.) a dominant element, it does not focus on acquiring good behaviors. In order to provide a philosophical change in the concept of “respect for differences”, the Ministry of National Education started teachers trainings in scope of Inclusive Education Project. We wish to comprehend empathy and turn it into behavior with the idea that strengthens and complements our Ministry’s project. Within the scope of our project, we will have significant experiences with 13 local events. There are details of all our activities on monthly basis in the attached activity guide. The aim of each activity is presented in detail. 10 teachers, 30 students and 20 parents from each institution will take part in these activities. 12 activities will take place within the scope of international activities. A total of 64 teachers and 36 students will take part in transnational mobilities. Our project activities are planned in three stages: 1)Recognizing your own emotions 2)Expressing emotions 3)Recognizing and accepting feelings of others. Activities will begin by noticing their own feelings. It seems not possible for individuals who cannot express themselves to realize the feelings of other individuals and respect their differences. Activities will be carried out methodologically based on drama, group play, role playing and sharing activities. Our aim is to improve the empathy skills of the groups taking part in the activities by means of these methods and to disseminate it to wider audience. Each partner institution is an important part of local and international activities. Among the project partners, there are teachers highly experienced in the field of the project. This will gain quality on the implementation stages. In addition to local activities, international activities are very important in terms of experiencing and sharing of good practice. We are aware of the fact that we need to carry out activities in a meaningful plan with our project partners who have different conditions from us. Collaboration with different teachers, students, cultures, institutions and systems will enable us to raise empathy on a philosophical basis. These activities, which we start with a small group, will become widespread in our institution and in our environment and the number of people we reach will be an important indicator of our success. Moreover, there are many values that our project will add to our institution standards. We are curious about the renewed educational practices of Poland and Bulgaria after their joining the EU. We aim to compare our responses to common problems with Macedonia having close geographical position to us; to observe the impact of authorizing local administration in respect to education management by softening centralist structure on the education systems of our partner in Portugal, to experience practices in education systems in respect of democracy culture, respect to differences and empathy and to integrate good classroom practices into our corporate structure. All these experiences will undoubtedly contribute to our understanding of mutual language learning and European culture and contribute to a healthier integration with Europe. As a result, all of our project experiences will show that empathy in education is as important as specializing in a field. In line with the 2023 vision of National Education, studies that will contribute to the formation of a qualified and inclusive education are extremely significant. We need all good practice in order to sustain existence of all our differences in a valuable way in complicating society. It is also among our expectations to obtain a sound and practical scientific basis for the results intercultural differences may bring out. Thus, we would like to have a road map for future studies. As a result of all these experiences, we will create a booklet containing information such as the importance of empathy in education and the activities of the project to be published in partner countries as well. In line with the experiences we will gain at the end of the project, our students and teachers will be ensured to sustain and spread the feeling of being aware of the other with the studies to be carried out outside the classroom by planning activities in benefit of Community Services (Kızılay, Yeşilay, Lösev..) at the beginning of each term. That’s why we call it “Find my echo in you”.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 116955 Eur

Project Coordinator

Sehit Uzman Cavus Egemen Yildiz Ortaokulu & Country: TR

Project Partners

• OU Vasil Levski Vratsa
• OOU Petar Pop Arsov
• Agrupamento de Escolas D. Sancho I
• Szkola Podstawowa nr 9 im. generala Jozefa Wybickiego