Looking for regional traces, finding ways in Europe. A German-Norwegian project Erasmus Project

Project Title

Looking for regional traces, finding ways in Europe. A German-Norwegian project

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: Rural development and urbanisation; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Background and overarching objectives
The background of the project was the growing need of European people in turbulent and uncertain times for European cohesion and transnational cooperation to enable peaceful coexistence through the development of intercultural competence. For this it is necessary to deal with one’s own regional, national and international history on the one hand and on the other hand to work out commonalities and differences together with foreign partners and to develop cooperation possibilities on this basis. We understand the work processes, which in our case refer to the partner country Norway, as universal, so that they can also be applied to other transnational contexts.

Number and profile of participants
The project lived from the close integration of teacher activities and student activities. The interested teachers organised themselves in a project group. At each school there was at least one coordinator who acted as contact person for SuS, teachers and other participants. At the German school, there was an Erasmus-club, which intermixed again and again (every six months), so that more and more pupils worked on the project. The working group was mainly concerned with research, brainstorming, teaching, surveys, contact with the partner school, etc. The Norwegian group of pupils consisted mainly of members of the German courses. By this, language promotion could also be promoted. The remaining tasks were carried out over the 24 months in various groups of pupils (courses, classes…). Due to this broad project it is not possible to give an exact number of participants.

Activities and methodology
In concrete terms, our students initially dealt in class with topics relating to their environment (regional/national historical aspects; social, geographical, political and economic topics). The insights from the research in their own country were prepared by the students themselves in the form of workshops as courses for the exchange students and were carried out during the first student activity (7 days each), which consisted of work phases as well as leisure activities. In concrete terms, this means that the German pupils first took part in the Norwegian workshops and the Norwegians attended the German workshops during the subsequent pupil activity in Germany. Not only was there a change of perspective, but didactic, pedagogical and methodological skills were also trained. When planning the workshops, the students were encouraged to prefer extracurricular learning venues. The decisions were reflected and evaluated by all participants after the workshops so that adjustments and improvements could already be made in the project itself. Each exchange student attended two workshops. The results from the other workshops were made available to all participants in plenary sessions. These presentations were held by the visitors themselves in English in order to make the yield measurable on the one hand and to enable activation on the other hand. At the end of the student activity, ideas were developed on the basis of the findings, which were then incorporated into the exhibition.
The 2nd student activity (five days each) was dedicated to the preparation and opening of the exhibitions at both locations. In addition, other interesting extracurricular learning locations were visited, which further strengthened the partnership.

Results
intercultural competence, multilingual homepage, billboards, exhibition with exhibits, initiation of transnational contacts

Long-term benefits
The exhibits will be exhibited as long as possible in the schools (at least in parts), the homepage will be further maintained and the transnational partnerships will be further initiated. The benefit of European cooperation will be disseminated through the participants’ experience reports.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 60530 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium Traben-Trarbach & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Ytre Namdal Upper secondary school