European Heritage: opening minds for integration and progress Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Heritage: opening minds for integration and progress

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 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage

Project Summary

The project, European Heritage:opening minds for integration and progress,intended to boost young people’s awareness about exclusion, the importance of integration , intercultural understanding and EU Citizenship.This was achieved by analyzing and sharing the European intangibile cultural heritage and by involving students in active learning experiences with the aim of developing especially those attitudes and skills essential for mutual respect and solidarity (as the ability to negotiate , to accept other viewpoints, etc.), their motivation to learn and their key competences. Students’ foreign language competence was implemented especially during the international meetings since all tasks proposed required the use of English for debating, agreeing, disagreeing, expressing one’s opinion,etc.; students’s digital competence was raised thanks to the use of web.2.0 and 3.0 tools for geolocalization, sharing, editing audiovisual documents, and their social-cultural competence as a means to facilitate their access to further education or the labour market.The project participants ,4 secondary level schools from Belgium, Italy,Poland and Spain, combined their experience and in the two-year period the project lasted , carried out a Kickoff meeting, held in Belgium to fix short exchanges ‘calendar, students’ selection criteria and to detail the activities and tasks to do before during and after each short term exchange of students and teachers and 4 LTTA where pupils and teachers have taken part . Each LTTA had a proper specific objective and was preceded and followed by set tasks and activities : C1 LTTA Spain “Mapping our cultural heritage” aimed at enriching students’ knowledge about their own intangibile cultural heritage and that of others and to be aware of the links and differences ; C2 Poland “Acting against exclusion and prejudice” aimed at analysing the exclusion problems at each partner school, on organizing an awareness inclusion campaugn within each local reality to foster tolerance and to prevent gender, ethnic,and socio-economic exclusion; C3LTTA Italy “European Citizenship to foster inclusion” aimed at relaunching European consciousness among young people by making students aware of each country’s contribution to the EU, of past and present national episodes of intolerance and prejudice, on how Europe can help to guarantee inclusion; C4 LTTA Belgium “Building European Integration”: this was focused on heritage and integration; it intended to give students the opportunities to visit the European Institutions in Brussels, meet European Commisioners , to interview witnesses of discrimination, to partecipate to workshops about inclusive methods and activities. This physical mobility couldn’t be accomplished because of Covid-19, but students shared their graphic novels on a form of exclusion really occured at school / local reality and on the way the community,the country, Europe reacted by uploading them on a padlet present on the Etwinning space and by producing a QRcode (the part in which the character of Erasmus had to travel from one country/novel to the other and find a final message of integration is missing). Among the results and outcomes there are: short films, visual displays, an interactive map, an awareness inclusion campaign, surveys, the Etwinning platform, timelines ,a Report of best practices (in English and mother tomgue), a graphic novel (in English and mother tongue).Even for this project short-term exchanges of pupils have been vital to achieve the project’s goals and to boost in students a more open attitude to other ways of life. So students have become more aware of exclusion, bullying, etc. they have learnt to behave in a more tolerant way,to take an active role in their communities by accepting other cultures or socio-economic realities and they are majorily aware of their responsibility as young European citizens to change the present situation , to tear down walls ,dividing lines and stereotypes.. They have increased their motivation towards learning and their key competences .They have improved their foreign language command by working in international groups, interacting in the project’s language and developing those skills and attitudes needed for team work and integration So students have become more fluent in communicating with other people, have learnt to use digital tools in a corret way, have a major sense of belonging to a common European space , by knowing more about Europe and its peoples ,by being more active in European initiatives .The project had also positive effects for teachers and schools in terms of professional competences development , implementation of new methodologies and school management: changes in terms of organization and of strategies implemented to tackle exclusion and to prevent students’ early-school leaving . Now that the project is over we expect that the project’s outcomes and results will continue being used to address the topics of exclusion , prejudice, European cultural diversity both inside and outside the participating institutions.That’s why we promoted and presented the project results within each school communityin a virtual way), and by sending copies of “The Report of Best Practices” to other local schools, to social/cultural associations, to local Universities, Town Halls, Regional Department of Social Policies, to Europe Direct Offices , by creating a spot in school libraries, and by presenting the project results on school websites, on the Etwinning platform,the Erasmus Plus Project Results Platform. This can also be a source of inspiration for future projects or initiatives.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 90870,44 Eur

Project Coordinator

LICEO SCIENTIFICO STATALE MARIO PAGANO & Country: IT

Project Partners

• IES PEDRO JIMÉNEZ MONTOYA
• Sint-Jozef Sint-Pieter
• I Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace