National minorities – treasure of Europe. Erasmus Project

Project Title

National minorities – treasure of Europe.

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: Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; Teaching and learning of foreign languages; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The project “National minorities – treasure of Europe” set itself the goal of showing cultural richness of Europe on the example of Belarusian minority living in Poland and Lithuania, and Lithuanian minority in Poland. By implementing the project we achieved intended goal – to make people aware of common heritage of all three nations: Polish, Belarusian and Lithuanian as heirs of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
The aim of the project was also to raise standards of teaching and acquiring knowledge by enriching the activities of schools with new forms, tools and methods of work aimed at supporting institutions in the didactic process aimed at enabling learning about culture and traditions of national minorities covered by the project activities. This contributed to strengthening professional competences of the teaching staff.
One of the goals achieved is developing of linguistic competences of the project participants in the scope of a foreign language during international meetings. This informal aspect of language learning enabled the participants to overcome their own barriers related to the fear of speaking a foreign language.
The objectives of the project were achieved through various activities carried out locally in each of the schools and through joint international meetings – 3 short-term exchanges of groups of students in schools of all project partners and a short training program for employees of all schools.
Activities carried out in schools included numerous workshops for interested students: the so-called white singing and folk dance workshops, workshops on Belarusian symbolism, workshops on contemporary folk art in Belarus and Lithuania, handicraft workshops, editing photos, making films, album editing workshops at the publishing house.
Project participants were also involved in artistic activities in their communities, such as the organization of traditional Belarusian and Lithuanian rituals, participation in a recitation and art competition, artistic concerts and school performances.
There were also actions taken for the benefit of the school and local community by participating in a charity fair, creating Ethnographic Chambers in schools in Hajnówka and Vilnius and cleaning up the parish cementary in Punsk.
There were also organized activities to improve the implementation of the project: a working meeting starting the project at the coordinator’s school, videoconference before the start of the first short-term exchange of groups of students or a meeting summarizing implementation of the project at school in Vilnius.
Project participants also participated in excursions to broaden their knowledge of important historical and cultural sites.
While implementing the project, we managed to achieve all the assumed results. Ethnographic Chambers have been established in the gymnasium in Vilnius and in the high school in Hajnówka, which are already used by the school community. A mini-dictionary with basic vocabulary in English, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Polish was developed and published. As a result of singing workshops, a songbook of folk songs from Podlasie was compiled and published; a catalog of Belarusian symbols and an album and a video promoting the project were developed.
An important result is development of training materials from the training visit of teachers involved in the project on methodology of teaching minority languages ​​and interesting methods of developing a sense of national identity, as well as development of drafts for English lessons and their implementation in school practice.
Tabs were created on the schools’ websites informing about implemented activities. It is expected that establishing permanent cooperation between the applicant institution and partner organizations participating in the project will result in implementation of further joint undertakings within statutory activities of schools. During the meeting summarizing the project in Vilnius in October 2021, the head teachers of the above-mentioned schools signed a cooperation agreement.
Implementation of the project enabled participating young people to gain a deeper understanding of importance of a sense of their own identity, while respecting cultural heritage of their countries and openness to values ​​of other cultures in Europe. The project made it possible to broaden the horizons of its participants by understanding that promoting their own customs and traditions enriches a cultural mosaic of their countries of residence. Project activities made participants feel that they were a part of European culture and understand their contribution to European heritage. It also rimproved their language skills.
Communities of all schools, and even local communities, will use developed results in the form of tools for didactic process and exchange of pedagogical ideas.
Deepening of cooperation with local institutions involved in implementation of the project will strengthen the position of schools in local communities.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 65700 Eur

Project Coordinator

II Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace z Dodatkowa Nauka Jezyka Bialoruskiego w Hajnowce & Country: PL

Project Partners

• Vilniaus Pranciskaus Skorinos gimnazija
• Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace z Litewskim Jezykiem Nauczania im. 11 Marca w Punsku