Escaping War: Sharing refugees’ memories. ELP and e2-Transfolio working together for a better Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

Escaping War: Sharing refugees’ memories. ELP and e2-Transfolio working together for a better Europe

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Integration of refugees

Project Summary

Escaping War is a bilateral KA2 project between Institut Vall de Llémena in Girona and NMS In der Krim in Vienna. The participant children were 11/12 years old when they started the project, which had a duration of 36 months.

The project deals with the subject of exile children. The final product is a documentary in which the Spanish students interview elderly people, who were children when they had to leave Spain because of the Spanish Civil War. The Austrian students interview kids who have come to Viena escaping from the Syrian Civil War.

Our main goal is to arise empathy for the refugee kids among our kids, by letting them find out that not long ago their own families were in a similar situation. Also, the project tries to make the Syrian refugees aware that other people in Europe have been through their same situation, and have successfully overcome it.

To make the documentary we first trained our teachers in audiovisual narrative. Our teachers then trained our students in Spain on audiovisual narrative and in other technical aspects related to shooting interviews. Our students would then travel to Vienna to teach what they learned to their Austrian partners, so they would be able to shoot their own interviews to Syrian refugees.

To arise empathy among our students, we designed a set of activities that involved researching on the past of their own families. They also crossed the French border on foot through Pas de Lli in the Pyrenees, just like more than 500.000 Spanish refugees did back in 1939. All activities made are shown in the documentary itself.

When the documentary is finished the students travelled to Brussels to present the it in the European Parliament, hoping to contribute to build a better Europe by stating their critical view of the refugee crisis to the European institutions.

Escaping War is also a continuation of a previous KA1 Job Shadowing between the same institutions, which addressed the needs of both schools to improve their teaching practice with learning portfolios. The Spanish school has a high level of experience in the use of new technologies, creation of rubrics and assessment for learning. On the other hand, the Austrian school masters language and cultural diversity as well as the implementation of the European Language Portfolio. Thus, it is also a goal in this project to enrich both portfolios and teaching practices as we developed a project that can’t be completed without true collaborative work, assessment for learning and project-based learning. The process of creation of the documentary is assessed with a bank of rubrics which were jointly created by students and teachers from both schools.

The project has an impact in both schools in terms of promotion of European values and European citizenship, and also in terms of innovation in their teaching practices. While the Austrian school incorporates project-based learning and assessment for learning techniques, the Spanish school enriches its learning portfolio and consolidates as a school of reference in the field of the use of video in education. Escaping war boosts the international projection of both schools and tries to generate an impact beyond both institutions, using the documentary to disseminate European values whilst sharing the learning process of our students in the project website and the documentary itself.

Spanish and Austrian non-refugee kids have not only empathise with the refugee kids, but they create a product together to express their discontent with the management of the refugee crisis in Europe and, most importantly, take action to make a better Europe by participating in the European institutions that represent them.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 41950 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut Nou de Sant Gregori & Country: ES

Project Partners

• NMS/VBS In der Krim