Países, Escuelas y Personas; Construyendo la Paz Erasmus Project

Project Title

Países, Escuelas y Personas; Construyendo la Paz

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social dialogue

Project Summary

Observing the current European context (and also worldwide), in which the partner institutions of this project are, we confirm the presence of conflict in the society in which we are immersed.

We start from a broad understanding of the term conflict, not just referring to armed conflicts, but also. Over the last century , Europe has been the scene of wars in which the countries of this School Association participated : World War I (whose centenary is celebrated this year 2014), the Spanish Civil War, World War II , the emergence and use of increasingly devastating weapons : bombs , landmines , chemical weapons …

Today’s world is a world in conflict at many levels: economic, commercial, social, cultural, ideological, demographic, labor, educational, generational, gender, technological, scientific; a structurally violent environment. This is reflected in our schools.

This world is based on a model of development and economic growth with negative consequences for the environment. The global ecological balance is threatened. The relationship between human beings and their natural environment is also a source of conflict.

This world which is subjected to changes that are not always managed peacefully due to the lack of the necessary resources to do it: knowledge, attitudes and values of unity, participation, dialogue, negotiation and cohesion. On the contrary, the prevailing pattern encourages division, power and competition.

We know that conflict is necessary and inherent to relationships among human beings and inherent to societies; we even consider it as necessary for personal, social and scientific development; conflict highlights missing elements in ourselves, our relationships with others and with the environment and knowledge about the world . Nevertheless, we must move from a negative and destructive approach to a positive and constructive one. Then it is in this step to look at the conflict as an opportunity for personal, environmental and social transformation, where we think our educational institutions task is essential. Quoting the idea expressed here by the Colombian educator Paul Lipnizky in “The Forbidden Education”: “Everybody talks about peace but nobody teaches manners for peace in the world … they teach manners for competition, and competition is the start of every war”. We also believe that it is our job to promote awareness of values inspires peaceful conflict management, union and social cohesion.Starting from these considerations, the School Association project we have decided to work on is entitled :

COUNTRIES, SCHOOLS, PEOPLE; BUILDING PEACE.

First of all, we can find the meaning of PEACE in the values lying underneath the following quotes:

“Peace is not merely the absence of war, while there are poverty, racism, discrimination and exclusion, we can hardly achieve a world of peace” Rigoberta Menchú; Nobel Prize for Peace 1992.

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with him. Then he becomes your partner” Nelson Mandela, Nobel Prize for Peace 1993.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 48400 Eur

Project Coordinator

IES CARLES SALVADOR (ALDAIA) & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Istituto di Istruzione Superiore “G. Caselli”
• IJburg College
• Collège Victor Hugo