Europe and Democarcy at school Erasmus Project

Project Title

Europe and Democarcy at school

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: Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

“Europe and democracy in the school” is a project that aims to promote citizen participation in secondary secondary schools as one of the fundamental values ​​of current democracy. Our main objectives are to understand what citizen participation consists of both in Spain and in Germany as societies that are part of the European Union; develop attitudes, such as taking responsible decision-making or group discussion of ideas, that contribute to the formation of citizens with a critical spirit; promote active participation and responsibility in the school environment and learn to respect and value the opinions of others as reflections of the various societies and symbols of stability in a rapidly changing world among others.
Our methodology is fundamentally based on project-based learning and we have designed a series of activities that provide students with learning opportunities in a democratic environment and improve students’ communication, collaboration, decision-making and problem solving skills. For it, we will create an eTwinning project that will allow us to combine the mobilities of virtual and physical exchange of groups of students. In this way, the materials will be available in the TwinSpace for all the participants, and in the meantime, stable communication will be obtained among all the participants. Collaborative work and cooperation will be two essential elements for the creation of content relevant to the project’s objectives.
Our exchange activities will boost two aspects in particular. During the first year we will focus on how to develop citizen participation in school as an ideal environment to begin to train students in civic and democratic education, assuming responsibility in decision-making about a school more adapted to their needs or ideals. The second year we will carry out two exchanges with groups of students to work through simulations the values ​​of democracy to students and encourage their participation in forming opinions and develop attitudes to participate actively in society and politics.
Among the results that we want to obtain we can highlight the creation of curricular didactic activities (Toolkits) thanks to the use of collaborative tools available for free on the internet, materials to support democratic processes, dissemination posters, etc. Among the intangible results we can highlight the improvement of communicative and sociocultural competence in all participants or prepare students for their future role as citizens.
This project will have a very positive impact on all participants. This impact is expected at various levels that involves not only the school community of the associated centers, but also several local and regional institutions, both Spanish and German, as well as stakeholders in the promotion of democratic values. The repercussion in our centers will come from an increase in international cooperation, a greater awareness of the democratic legacy of the European institutions and the improvement of organizational capacities. All this will be reflected in the use of short and long-term results that will serve to introduce innovative methods learned during the project, participate in decision-making processes in a responsible manner, attract interest in participating in European projects and promote a sense of belonging to the EU sharing several common democratic elements of our society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 59712 Eur

Project Coordinator

Instituto Enseñanza Secundaria SAN JOSE & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Nell-Breuning-Berufskolleg