Learning Democracy and Civic Engagement Erasmus Project

Project Title

Learning Democracy and Civic Engagement

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: Gender equality / equal opportunities; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

The two-year partnership project “Learning Democracy and Civic Engagement” brings together 4 partner organizations – high schools from Norway, The Czech Republic, Estonia and Spain. The purpose of this project is to help the youth to be conscious of the value of democracy and to be responsible for it. The sustainability of democratic principles is currently an important pan-European theme. At a time when populism and extremism are growing, it is necessary to look for specific or concrete inspiration that can be used in schooling to promote the democratic thinking of young people. Within this project we undertake to use a unique methodology – The European Youth Parliament methodology – which is a good starting point for awareness of need of civic engagement and responsibility. We use this methodology from the beginning of the project and we would like to transfer it directly to the teaching so as to assure the sustainibility of the project results.

In our network of 4 partner schools from 4 European countries we have chosen 4 key/relevant project topics related to the project objectives:
1. European Youth Parliament, Round Tables with Politicians (NO)
2. Political Engagement and Participatory Budgeting (CZ)
3. Civil Society and Civil Initiative (EE)
4. Equal Opportunities, Women and Children´s Rights (ES)
Each school in the partnership is responsible for just one topic and in addition is the coordinator of one short-term exchange of groups of pupils or training activity.
The project aims to:
– strenghten knowledge about democratic processes,
– teach the youth a methodology which gives a practical approach and experience about making resolutions as a working tool and democracy in practice,
– develop civic and political engagement,
– make arguments, discussions, negotiations with the respect to cultural and social diversities,
– write case documents which form the basic element for making decisions and resolutions,
– apply for improvements in the school, town or local environment,
– gain knowledge and experience about democracy and cultural heritage in other European countries,
– gain knowledge about voluntary and charity campaigns,
– cooperate in mixed international teams.
Relevant outcomes can be decribed as follows:
– 4 resolutions made during commmitee work,
– 4 mini-project applications based on participatory budgeting,
– 4 proposals how to start the specific civil initiative,
– 4 presentations based on the topic of a list of 10 basic rights for children seen from a different point of view,
– videos from every student workshop,
– ECVET certificates for the participants of student workshops,
– project website (Google Web and eTwinning) with the description of the project activities carried out, photos, videos and above mentioned project outputs.

However, our project is a broad and deep partnership which in no way focuses solely on project meetings. So we design a detailed plan of an intensive and continual virtual or remote cooperation on the project topics. eTwinning common space and project Google Drive will be used as a tool.

In this project several groups of participants are taking part:
1. Students from the age of 15-18, attending upper secondary school. They paticipate on all project activities, starting with preparatory work, next virtual or remote cooperation and ending with 4 training activities.
2. Teachers of social sciences, languages and cultural studies have to learn and use the European Youth Parliament methodology and implement it in their subjects.
3. Regarding several project topics we have established a collaboration with several local expert groups:
– The European Youth Parliament (EYP)
– Local representatives of the city councils
– Civil servants from the city government
– Representatives of the Retired People Association

Participation in this project has very strong impact to all 4 involved schools. The sustainibility of the project results is one of the key aspect of this project.
1. The knowledge of European Youth Parliament Methodology will be shared within the teachers of involved schools and will be used in the lessons of social science and languages. T
2. The knowledge and competences of participatory budgeting will be the starting point for long-term continuation of cooperation between the schools and local authorities.
3. All participating schools will strive for ammendment of curricula with respect to acquired skills and competences in the 4 key subtopics of this project: European Youth Parliament, Participatory Budgeting, Civil Society and Civil Initiative and Equal Opportunities.
4. Involvement of local and regional external expert groups become the starting point for long-term cooperation with the civic-activity organisations.
5. Implementation of ECVET certification system will continue in other international projects.
6. Using eTwinning virtual space as well as Google Documents and Websites should standardize effective communication methods.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 95540 Eur

Project Coordinator

Askim Videregående Skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Narva Kreenholmi Gümnaasium
• Mendelova stredni skola, Novy Jicin, prispevkova organizace
• IES Infante Don Juan Manuel