CultureShake Erasmus Project

Project Title

CultureShake

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Integration of refugees; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

In 2015 there was a so-called refugee wave, which shattered Europe and generated the need for teaching material for schools. In the three year project the CultureShake team thought how to tackle this problem transdisciplinary from different disciplines and to find a solution with regard to already existing issues in schools with multilingualism.
CultureShake is a strategic partnership project in the Erasmus+ programme. The consortium consists of project partners from four European countries: Germany, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The main topics are inclusion, integration of refugees and digital learning. Covering these topics the project provides teaching material and tools for the secondary classroom. The underlying theory is based on EU reports and papers such as “Education and Training 2020”, the declaration on “Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education” by the EU ministers of education written in 2015 as a reaction to the terrorist attacks in France and Denmark. A follow up to this declaration is the “Report on the role of intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity and education in promoting EU fundamental values” by Julie Ward.

This is resembled in the CultureShake objectives which are the following:
• promote foreign language learning, cultural awareness
• promote multilingualism and the use of mother tongues
• enhance digital learning
• develop the European dimension in education particularly through the multilingual focus
• use the transnational expertise of the project members
• encourage the best use of results, innovative products and processes
• produce sustainable development of cooperation between the partner countries and institutions in the field of education
• promote language development and ability to impart gained knowledge
• support pupil-centred learning
• stimulate an understanding for multilingual diversity and similarities
• embrace transculturality as an aspect of modern life
• develop transnational expertise
• the use of modern technologies

On this basis the international project team designed teaching material and tools for the secondary class level. The content is Shakespeare and two of his plays: “A Midsummer Night´s Dream” and “The Tempest”. The transdisciplinary team developed the following products:
1. Method guide for teachers: Shakespeare in the 21st-century classroom,
2. CultureShake online dictionary,
3. Peer teaching material,
4. “Exchanging Culture Shakes”: a teacher manual for multilingual and transcultural school exchanges,
5. Module for further teacher education.

The products are available as open access on the project website http://cultureshake.eu.

Besides learning activities and transnational project meetings we undertook a vast range of dissemination activities with students and teachers in workshops. We also are in contact with museums and spread our project at international conferences. The feedback was overwhelming and also the impact we had with this project on our institutions regarding internationalization and research activities. We also have longer term benefits with the networks we established and mobilities we implemented between the partners for exchange on the project as well as future collaboration. Statements by stakeholders and participants of our multiplier events are available on our project website.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 150326 Eur

Project Coordinator

PAEDAGOGISCHE HOCHSCHULE KARLSRUHE & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Stiftelsen English School Gothenburg
• Friedrich-Woehler-Gymnasium
• UNIVERZA NA PRIMORSKEM UNIVERSITA DEL LITORALE
• Shakespeare Birthplace Trust