Common Past and Common Future Seen through the Eyes of Austrian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Turkish Students Erasmus Project

Project Title

Common Past and Common Future Seen through the Eyes of Austrian, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Turkish Students

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Ethics, religion and philosophy (incl. Inter-religious dialogue); ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The idea for this project emerged against the background of intensified European integration vs. the strengthening of nationalist tendencies in many European countries. Based on the notion that the EU, as the most important peace keeper after World War II, will only be able to continue its project of integration if the majority of its citizens, especially young people, actively share and support the European idea with conviction, we started in fall 2015 a school-partnership on the topic of historical legacy.

Our aim was to show our common grounds in a shared cultural history. Though there have been many confrontations in our past, an even more copious cultural transfer has enriched our everyday-lifes as well as our high cultures. Moreover, we tried to look through the eyes of others at our own history. This way we strove to comprehend that in the end there is no “national” history, there is only one common history from different points of view, exegesis and representation. To see history through the eyes of others does not only help to understand each other, but also oneself. It becomes easier to overcome stereotypes and to foster tolerance and togetherness instead. As for current history, we put stress on our firm conviction that nationalism can never be any alternative for humanist ideals and common human rights.

Four high schools participated in the project: two grammar schools
(7 SU “Sveti Sedmochislenitzi” from Sofia and Cagaloglu Anadolu Lisesi Istanbul) and two vocational schools (BHAK Bruck an der Leitha and Györi Deák Ferenc Közgazdasági és Informatikai Szakközépiskola from Györ). 15 students aged between 15 and 18 took part from each school, with the exception of Györ with only ten students.

The main activities of the project were the four trips to the four participants‘ countries. In November 2015 the common Roman and Byzantine heritage was studied in Istanbul. The architecture and history of the Hagia Sophia, as well as its influence on the future architecture of mosques in the 16th and 17th centuries was one of the highlights.

Our second trip took us to Györ in May 2016, where cultural adaptation in music, the visual arts, cuisine and the bathing culture were discussed taking examples from the 15th to 18th centuries. Beforehand, international teams of pupils had prepared the topics using digital communication technologies. Within the presentations cultural transfers from the Orient to the Occident, as well as Oriental inscriptions were shown.

The workshops of the third excursion to Sofia focused on the phenomena of nationalism from the late 18th to the 20th century. In workshops transnational groups of students studied the theory and historical aspects of nationalism, the image of Turks in the Austrian press, as well as the linguistic influences of the Turkish language on Hungarian. Further examples of the peaceful coexistence of Turks and Bulgarians under the Turkish rule of Bulgaria, as well as the movement of the young Turks were analysed. A plenary discussion of nationalism in history and today closed up the topic.

The last meeting for the project participants was in April 2017 in Bruck an der Leitha. The main topics of this exchange were the current migration crisis and human rights. The students were involved in diverse activities, such as drawing, discussions, speeches, role plays, and listening to music of peace and resistance at seven learning stations. Within these activities, human rights were experienced and artistically represented. Part of this main topic also comprised a guided tour through the United Nations Office in Vienna.

The cultural programmes in each country were exceedingly varicoloured. We visited historical sites, archeological museums and museums of arts, churches, synagogues and mosques, and we also saw theater plays, the spiritual dance of the Dervishes, and in Vienna we watched an opera. The diversified and intense cultural experience was singular for the students. Additionally they gained a lot of knowledge and experience in foreign languages, mainly by the use of English as common language, but also in German and Turkish as foreign languages.
We look back on more than two years of an extraordinarily successful best practice project in every aspect, with very attractive and well-executed activities which undoubtedly leave their mark on our minds.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 148522 Eur

Project Coordinator

BHAK/BHAS Bruck/Leitha & Country: AT

Project Partners

• 7 SOU “Sveti Sedmochislenitsi”
• Györi Deák Ferenc Közgazdasági és Informatikai Szakközépiskola
• Cagaloglu Anadolu Lisesi