A Sustainable Future: from the Ideal City to the Sustainable City Erasmus Project

Project Title

A Sustainable Future: from the Ideal City to the Sustainable City

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education

Project Summary

Improving European education, “enhancing the performance of education systems”, working towards a more sustainable Union, have been set as two of the key targets in Europe’s strategy “ to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy” by 2020. In this scenario the 7 members of the project “A sustainable future, from the Ideal City to the Sustainable City” were committed to developing the quality of education, to providing all the students with the competences necessary to reach their potential, to succeed in a global and changing community and at the same time promoting sustainable education in the curriculum subjects.

The objectives of the project derived from the above listed current challenges of education in Europe and in the singular countries, from the limits of some of the actual didactic procedures and from the needs outlined by the single institutions.

The common thread that ran through the project was sustainable education (whose concepts have a great appeal on young learners) which can connect them to their community inspiring active citizenship, preparing pupils to be responsible citizens that will use entrepreneurial values and approaches to solve major sustainability problems; citizens who will build healthier communities while addressing the challenges of the 21st century. At the same time, exploring their countries also from a historical point of view through the analysis of the characteristics of the Ideal City of the past times, and the transformation of their living environment, the young learners were encouraged to rediscover their own culture, history and traditions to better understand the urban, socio-economic changes of their own countries getting the chance to discover what the European citizens have in common and differs them.
The project activities led students to explore the Ideal City of the past times to identify those aspects of good government that could be applied to the Sustainable City of the future; from the investigation of their urban background and the needs about their living spaces expressed by the different groups interviewed, students developed and planned visions of a future community; they jointly planned, designed, re-invented their urban backgrounds to realize a scale model of the“ Sustainable city of the future”, model that was presented to the decision makers together with their Manifesto, a resolution calling for a common effort and real teamwork for the future of our Planet, a document that also aims to spread the Global Goals of the Agenda 2030.

The project contributed to enhance the European dimension of school education developing greater interest in all the dynamics related to the international planning and managing; it helped to make School Action Plans and curricula more international rising the standards of proficiency in core subjects. The partnership enriched the ordinary school curricula with embedded modules and practices on Entrepreneurship, ESD, STEM subjects and Clil modules; contents dealt with through international comparative perspectives; new approaches to encourage students to develop a set of cognitive, affective, behavioral and critical skills that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.

The students enhanced their cultural awareness, intercultural dialogue being better prepared to become members of a connected and cooperative global community; they experienced and practiced active citizenship strengthening the “sense of belonging” to the social, cultural and environmental context of their territory.

The project empowered teachers’ high quality professional development strengthening didactic practices to improve outcomes for learners. Thanks to the exchange and sharing of good practices, staff members developed innovative student’s centred, teaching methods and approaches transferable in different contexts that can produce long term effects on education programmes.

The project greatly contributed to empower the level of management of the schools in their various members increasing organizational flexibility, improving delivery expertise which supports school-wide global learning enhancement.

The involvement of families, local authorities, world of work in a continuous correspondence of cultural enrichment, gave everyone the opportunity to enforce the dialogue and the collaboration with the school institutions fostering joint responsibilities in the educational process.

The cross-cultural dialogue enhanced cooperation at all levels, greater understanding and appreciation of diversity; everyone involved had the opportunity to get to know and appreciate different cultural realities creating an open-minded attitude toward the distinct and richly varied global society, a positive signal in the national and international context that seems to give rise to fear, racism, xenophobia, and other forms of intolerance.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 109975 Eur

Project Coordinator

Istituto Comprensivo Paolo Soprani & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Anne-Frank-Schule
• Seminário Diocesano de Leiria – Colégio de S. Miguel
• CCE PASICO II
• Osnovna sola Pesnica
• Collège Sainte Thérèse
• DEDELER ORTAOKULU MUDURLUGU