Dear EU, what would we ever do without you? An international collaboration of Germany, Ireland and Romania as an active countermeasure for European fragmentation tendencies. Erasmus Project

Project Title

Dear EU, what would we ever do without you?
An international collaboration of Germany, Ireland and Romania as an active countermeasure for European fragmentation tendencies.

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: Teaching and learning of foreign languages; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development)

Project Summary

The Brexit is what moves the people in Europe today. It is the expression of the developments that could be seen throughout many European countries: people get together and separate themselves from the European Union.
We as a school and an international team, still believe in the power of the EU to be the only way of ensuring our kids a peaceful life within the EU and beyond. Thus, we want our participants to get to know the EU´s dimensions as well as the benefits of a European membership.
Three schools experience the EU. Each one sends a team. At first, each school and each country will be visited. At this point the EU und its influences on individual lives will be examined. Finally, the teams will travel to Bruxelles to get to know the institutional EU.

The project follows this principle: „the journey is the reward“. We utilize the journey in order to get the students used to the idea of the EU as a peace project. Special competences should be strengthened throughout the participation and the students should be able to carry these competences into their peer-group. The goals, with regard to the competences, can be describes as followed:
Intercultural communicative competences:
– personal horizon expansion
– gaining new perspectives on European topics
– diplomatic communication with others
Language competences:
– gaining access to different languages
– learning strategies for efficient learning
– equipment with new communicative methods
Personal development:
– enhanced self-efficacy
– ability to cope with challenges like the final school exams
Media and methodic competences
– expansion of existing knowledge in the field of (digital) research, analysis and presentation
– making use of new apps.

In total 30 students will take part in this Erasmus+-mobility. Each school sends up to ten students who are in the age between 14 an 16. These children all show an advanced fund of languages, especially English. And they already have a few methods regarding independent learning strategies (working on/with content, presentation of content) at hand. The participating children are mature enough to recognize the relevance of the European peace project. They are aware of their function as ambassadors for the EU. The national groups are heterogeneous themselves and as a whole team even more. We welcome this fact because it attributes to a sustainable exchange.

The project is based on the idea of mutual visitations and the joint reconnaissance of each others worlds. Activity C1 will take place in Germany. This stay will focus on experiencing the Rhein-Ruhr-Metropole (importance of the coal for the genesis and development of the EU). We will visit the EZB in Frankfurt (aM) as well. Activity C2 leads us to Ireland where we engage ourselves with the topics Irish division, Northern Ireland Conflict, and the Brexit from an Irish perspective. We would like to visit Dublin, Dundalk, Carrick-on-Suir and Cork. Afterwards, Activity C3 is going to take us to Romania where we will visit Bukarest and Timișoara. The goal is to research linguistic parallels within or among the European languages.
Last but not least, Activity C4 is going to take place in Bruxelles. The international team is going to have one day of orientation within the city and one day for studying the academics. Still, the main aspect will be to learn more about the institutional EU (parliament, council, commission). We conclude our activities by installing a „Future-Laboratory“ where we want to collect ideas on how to
strengthen the feeling of affiliation towards the EU.
Methods: The main aspect will be the documentation of our journey. Herein lies special potential for gaining skills in the fields of linguistic and methodical competences. The participating children form a team (each country one team) and they are responsible for digital (filming) and analog (diary) documentation of the journey (the responsibilities will switch depending on the current whereabouts).

Vital outcomes should be the development of the before mentioned skills in the fields of communication, languages, personality, and media and methods. We would like to raise the students’ awareness for their role in maintaining a peaceful EU and empower them to distribute their experiences. Also the learning products such as a film, fotos, travelguides, presentations and quizzes are targeted outcomes for this project.

In the long run the Erasmus+-project should initiate international networks that can be used as a platform for student exchanges in terms of Europe. Furthermore, we want the experiences and learnings to be of influence regarding the curricular development of our schools. This affects additional projects like AGs, Europe-lessons, and much more. The benefits of the peace project EU will be spread by our students and thus carried out within the school’s community as well as the familial environment. Our hope: International exchange helps decline European tendencies of fragmentation.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 97560 Eur

Project Coordinator

Martin-Luther-Europaschule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Liceul Teoretic “Nikolaus Lenau”
• Edmund Rice Secondary School