dEmocRASMUS Erasmus Project

Project Title

dEmocRASMUS

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: Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

In nearly all EU countries the support for populist parties has increased in the last years, as the latest election results have shown: in the Netherlands “Partij voor de Vrijheid”, in Norway the “Fremskrittspartiet”, in Sweden the “Sverigedemokraterna”, in Germany the “Alternative für Deutschland” and in Portugal the “Partido Nacional Renovador” are very present in the media or have obtained strong results in the last elections. The political discourse in Europe has changed. Alternative media, hate speech and conspiracy theories influence the public opinion and, accordingly, also our students. A lot of these tendencies including racism and terrorism are anti-democratic. Another problem in all partner countries is that the voter turnout of young people is lower than in other demographic groups. At schools we recognize that student participation in student councils and other committees of participation is at a low. The reason for this is not our students’ lack of interest in being involved but rather they need more knowledge and skills in order to become active and critically-thinking citizens. So, this project focusses on the promotion of civic education as well as engagement and general knowledge about democracy. The participating students will be between the ages of 15 to 17, so they are on the verge of voting age.
The project is modularized along five mobilities, each of which is hosted by one of the partner countries and revolves around a different sub-topic. Five students from each country will attend every meeting, but more students work on the project in classes or clubs. The students participating in the meetings serve as multipliers in their school communities. The first meeting in Germany, “Democracy and me” (C1), focusses on the connection between the individual and democracy as a system. In a “village simulation” the students are confronted with basic questions democratic societies are faced with. During the meeting in the Netherlands, “How democratic is my country and Europe” (C2) we visit the EU institutions in Brussels. Then, the students compare and discuss their national democratic systems and reflect the role of the EU in them. Democratic values are dealt with in more detail during the mobility in Norway, “Democracy and the freedom of speech” (C3). The visit of the memorial in Utoya shows the dangers of hate speech, conspiracy theories and fake news. Furthermore, the students learn how important freedom of speech is for a liberal society. Coherently, the next meeting in Sweden deals with “Media and democracy” (C4), because there is a strong connection between free press and free speech. Digital media influence the public opinion in a specific way, which will be examined during a cooperation with the University of Lund. The students contemplate their own media usage and fake news as a digital phenomenon. The last meeting in Portugal provides an outlook into the future of European democracy (C5). Based on the example of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution and the experiences of the festivities around the 25th April, the students shall realize that democracy is not self-evident but needs to be fought for and preserved by active citizens. With their dystopian and utopian films the students can demonstrate dangers for our European democratic societies and collect ideas as to what should be done in the future.
The methods of this project are a mix of lectures, field trips, hermeneutic analysis and activity-oriented methods.
During the project, the students create word clouds, short films, interviews, journalistic and teaching material (“psycho-test”, photo-story, blog, report) to prepare the transnational meetings. At the end of the project there will be a digital magazine/an ebook including all the results and concrete manuals to conduct the activities in differing contexts. It will be possible to use the generated material for learning and teaching activities. Furthermore, interested citizens can use the product to educate themselves. The final product will be published for everyone via the internet. The project is accompanied by a blog, on which you can follow the project digitally. Furthermore, we want to improve the civic education at our schools, e.g. we plan for the students to develop a micro-training for their classmates in which they learn how to counteract bar-room clichés. In most countries the curricula on political and media education will be revised and the project’s results will be involved in this process. Also, the participation of students in democratic decision-making-processes shall be increased at all schools during and after the project.
“dEmocRASMUS” should serve as an idea generator for other schools, civic organizations and young people as the addressed problems concern everyone, and everyone needs to take over responsibility. Also the partner schools want to use the project as the starting point to initiate further international and local projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 143170 Eur

Project Coordinator

Erich Kaestner Gymnasium Laatzen & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Mailand videregående skole
• Agrupamento de Escolas da Lixa
• Oranje Nassau College
• Polhemskolan