Joining Hands for a Better Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Joining Hands for a Better Future

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 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Migrants’ issues; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

The project “Joining Hands for a Better Future” focused on the topic of migration. We started this partnership because we all believed that dealing with this topic was crucial in order to help our students acquire intercultural sensibility and avoid biased behaviour against the foreigner based on suspect, fear, lack of knowledge. We think that after taking part in the project our students are more open-minded and well informed and can reject conformism, racism and xenophobia and manage diversity. The project developed according to the following stages: a) research into the past, into the flows of migration in 19th and 20th centuries; b) study of the present situation characterized by the massive arrival of flows of migrants for economic and political reasons; c) proposals of inclusive education.
When we discussed and wrote the project, we started from the idea that young people needed to know their own history of emigrants, the reasons why a lot of people had to move to a foreign country and the difficulties they had to face there. Getting to know the past would help the youth develop a different attitude towards contemporary migrants who leave their native places to look for better living conditions. The next step was to get in touch with young refugees and asylum seekers who study in our schools and/or live in reception centres and understand what makes them different from us. Finally, by bringing together all the reflections and research the participants were able to make their own proposals.
The objectives of the project were: • To promote social inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding; • To achieve high intercultural competences; • To improve language competences; • To develop digital skills.
The secondary schools involved in this project are IIS “L. da Vinci -Nitti”, the coordinating school; Lycée Blaise Pascal from France; Agrupamento de Escolas João de Araújo Correia from Portugal; Liceo Caracense from Spain. They have different experiences but share the same commitment to combating geographical, social and educational inequalities and encouraging young people to think critically.
The participants were selected using the criteria of school merit, good competence in the English language, active contribution to extracurricular school activities. Students with fewer opportunities were included, a disabled boy took part in all the activies and in the LTTA in France, and many participants were from family backgrounds characterized by cultural differences and economic obstacles. The project teams supported these participants by using the methodology of cooperative learning, by holding workshops and exposing them to a wide variety of cultural inputs. The number of the students, from 16 to 18 years of age, who participated in the learning/teaching/training activities is at least 19 per country, the number of teachers 6 per country but all the partners managed to involve more participants.
Most activities that were done in the course of the project were meant to raise awareness, learn to learn, create the proper working atmosphere and provide the students with the necessary tools to accept diversity. The activities consisted of research, interviews, workshops, meetings, exhibitions, reading out loud events on International Migrants Day and World Book Day, besides the learning/teaching/training activities in the four partner schools. The outputs are Prezi presentations, digital diaries, timelines, press articles, interviews to migrants, the project blog, videos, a calendar and a handbook of reflections on migration and proposals of inclusive education.
The impact is the participants’ enhanced ability to think critically and exercise judgement; their greater motivation for learning and a higher sense of initiative; the increased dialogue and cooperation among education stakeholders; the teachers’ increased ability to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds.
The longer-term benefits concern the positive response of students and their parents when they see the school commitment to providing quality experiences. The students show a sense of belonging and pride while their parents have already expressed satisfaction for the actions taken. Furthermore, this successful project helps to make our network of European schools bigger with teachers who will keep co-operating and comparing their approaches and methodologies.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 107424,42 Eur

Project Coordinator

IIS “L. da Vinci – Nitti” & Country: IT

Project Partners

• Lycée Blaise Pascal
• IES Liceo Caracense
• Agrupamento de Escolas Dr. João Araújo Correia