DEMOCRAC(Z)Y- Crazy for active participation Erasmus Project

Project Title

DEMOCRAC(Z)Y- Crazy for active participation

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Early childhood education and care; Social dialogue; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

The first years of a person’s school education are the cornerstone of the preparation of active citizens .Through learning and experience in the school environment, children can develop habits and skills for lifelong commitment to a democratic way of life. Our main goal is to raise students’, teachers’, parents’ and the local community’s awareness of implementing and promoting a democratic lifestyle. Our activities aim at developing competencies and skills related to a democratic way of life. We use attractive and experiential approaches that promote participation in decision making, development of responsibility, awareness of obligations and rights, freedom of expressing ideas, mutual respect and respect for diversity, so that children learn to be responsible, operate collectively and participate actively in school and community activities. The creation of our project promotes collaboration between educators from other countries and social environments to improve their ability to work collaboratively, to exchange and develop ideas, practices and methods. Each associate has contributed and will continue to contribute in the spectrum of diversity in democratic educational practice. This variety of methods will enable all participants to exchange good practices gaining benefits from various experiences, improve the quality of education in each facility of participants and bring about lasting change throughout the community and society. We aim to bring together people of different cultural backgrounds and therefore with different attitudes and perceptions that will interact effectively through the exchange of experiences, reflections and ideas.Together we will take joint actions to promote democracy in the education and wider community. The schools will open the door to partnerships with the community, parents, coworkers, and upgrading teachers’ professional development and training.The project includes the participation of 6 primary schools. Two kindergartens from Greece, one from Italy and one from Croatia and two elementary schools from Spain and Belgium. The two schools in Greece have been collaborating for two years on partnership projects and their cooperation has borne fruit. The principals of both schools have been trained together in the Freinet Method and belong to Teachers4 Europe.The teachers in Belgium apply the Freinet method while the teachers in Spain, Italy and Croatia participate in innovative educational programs that promote collaborative learning and acceptance of diversity. All teachers participating in the program are advocates of democratic education.The concept of the project is a collective idea of all the schools that collaborate and all the participants took part in the writing of the proposal by proposing ideas and suggestions. There will be 6 short training sessions to achieve the goals pursued. During meetings teachers can share their experiences on innovative ways of working with children and parents and participate in open classes, discussions and workshops. The activities of the project will be attended by the students, the teachers of the school units, other school staff, the parents of the pupils and the local community. The eTwinning platform will be used for the implementation of the project, which will serve as the repository for sharing activities and toolkit for each partner. For the effective implementation of the project, the Greek management team and the project management teams in the schools that collaborate have clearly defined the objectives, methods and results to be achieved and they have outlined them in a strategic planning plan.The essence of the project’s effectiveness will be measured by qualitative and quantitative indicators recording the ultimate impact it will have on society. For example, as a source of inspiration for others. We will look at the achievement of the project’s goals and results in all participating schools and will be disseminated to the media, social networks and in-school training and conference conferences. Implementation of the project will show not only the importance of education democratic way of life but will enhance educational competencies – standards across the local community of the participating countries. Democracy requires an attitude of life and democratic education is what is needed in the world of constant political turmoil and emerging technologies.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 124120 Eur

Project Coordinator

nipiagogeio paralias Vergas & Country: EL

Project Partners

• 2nd Kindergarten of Peania
• Istituto Comprensivo “Militi”
• Ecole fondamentale communale Célestin Freinet – Liberté
• Djecji vrtic Djecji svijet
• Escola Pericot