MAKE JEWELS, NOT WAR ! Erasmus Project

Project Title

MAKE JEWELS, NOT WAR !

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: Creativity and culture; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education

Project Summary

As an antitheses presents two allegorical realities defying each other, the project “Make jewels, not war!” intends to associate vocational teaching (“make jewels,”) to a type of learning where the notion of citizenship is central (“not war!”). Beyond the obvious “living together” part, this partnership commits to “making together” for three years, and claims that the european foundations are fundamental and that diversity helps each person to evolve and develop. Five partner schools, in five different European countries, share a jewellery vocational training and the will to engage their students into pedagogical projects. The anxiety towards cultural, technological and heritage differences that can be found at the heart of the european territory and throughout learning the same profession, turns out to be a powerful wealth to support the pedagogical innovations and the educational policy set in our institutions.

As a roundabout slogan, enhancing the value of both the professional knowledge and citizenship, the project “Make jewels, not war!” highlights the will to build a common pedagogical, historical and european training, through the social and cultural role of a jewel. Along the three years of our partnership, we will lean on three sociological orientations a jewel may convey :
1) The first year will be used to sensitise everyone to the jewel as witness of the past, a heritage of our civilisations, having commemorative, holy, patrimonial, or reliquary functions.
2) During the second year, the jewel will be part of the present, in a more symbolical way, a more activist and collaborative function of the jewel, seeing it as an object that can convey a message.
3) The third year offers the jewel a world full of possibilities, a plural symbol that places aesthetic and expression side by side, a social world where the jewel is a talisman full of protecting virtues but also bearing a legitimate humanist epilogue that should be built around common values of commitment and european citizenship.

As the metaphor of our pedagogical ambitions, the project “Make jewels, not war!” is forged in the plural every year through four different activities within each school :
a) “research” / the objective is to note and recognise the identity and diversity landmarks of professional and cultural situations through local ressources and partner ressources, in order to prepare crafting the creative projects.
b) “create” / the objective is to develop a creative project, taking the added wealth of diversity and singularity into account, according to an agenda promoting creativity and the links made between learning and citizenship.
c) “telling” / the objective is to report through writing and analysing professional experiences, to convey ideas made richer through the contact with partners, but also through the testimony of those accompanying the project, parents, professionals and coordinators of each country.
d) “showing” to others / the objective is to present and promote the concrete objects, as temporary and definitive results of european creations of each academic year, a collection of jewel, itinerary and collective exhibitions, editing school journals and books revealing testimonies and pictures of jewellery making.

Proclaiming its pedagogical priority of promoting social inclusion, the project “Make jewels, not war!” intends to spark new learning processes for the teams committed to the partnership. A relevant dissemination of the result will be sought through exhibiting and publishing our production and opening our pedagogical horizons towards the most fragile students possibly presenting signs of school dropout and thus most vulnerable in their future professional insertion.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 101700 Eur

Project Coordinator

LYCEE PROFESSIONNEL JEAN GUEHENNO & Country: FR

Project Partners

• ISTITUTO D’ISTRUZIONE SUPERIORE SUPERIORE “B. CELLINI”
• Escola Artística António Arroio
• IATA