Open Education for Young Europeans through History, Art and Cultural Learning Erasmus Project

Project Title

Open Education for Young Europeans through History, Art and Cultural Learning

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 school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Integration of refugees; Migrants’ issues; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

Due to the ongoing refugee crisis and migration waves reaching Europe from Asian and African countries, many thousands of migrant and refugee children have reached the EU countries and have, following different processes in each country, managed to enter the host countries’ school educational systems. This has put the educational systems in all receiving countries under considerable stress, especially in countries of the South of Europe like Italy and Greece that have received the greatest numbers of refugees and migrants to-date due to their position as EU border-countries, as well as in final destination countries for migrants and refugees fleeing to Europe, like Norway.
The schools receiving migrant and refugee children are often not prepared to integrate these new pupils to the school community and provide a safe learning environment for key skills like language learning.
The Global Education Monitoring Report 2019 (GEM Report 2019) published by UNESCO concludes that teachers who are the heart of the education systems in the host countries are inadequately prepared to manage multilingual classrooms and help children of a migrant or refugee background in need of psychosocial support. A survey by Fine-Davis, M. and Faas, D. 2014 confirmed this in six European countries – half of the teachers participating in the survey felt there was insufficient support to manage diversity in the classroom.

The “Open Education for Young Europeans through History, Art and Cultural Learning” project (Open EYE) focuses on creating an open learning methodology based on History, Arts and Cultural Learning, as well as the necessary implementation tools, that will enable teachers of primary education in Europe (formal and non-formal) to support their students in language learning and integration in their school and community, in nowadays multilingual and multicultural classrooms.
The target groups supported by the project include:
a. teachers of primary education and social workers supporting the community integration of young immigrants and refugees
b. the school students themselves and especially young immigrants or refugees of primary school ages.

This project aims to use history, art and culture to overcome barriers to learning and to aid integration into new communities. History, art and culture can be used to introduce children with limited language skills to new ways of communicating, resulting in learning taking place and reducing the feeling of segregation in a new environment.
The main objectives of the project are:
• To equip educators of primary education (teachers, social workers) in formal and non-formal settings with skills and knowledge to work in a diverse multicultural classroom, in order to create a safe learning environment for all pupils.
• To facilitate language learning in an immersive context, and enhance support for integration by promoting the sharing of cultural values and norms through history, art and cultural expressions.
• To ease the transition experienced in cultural change and start the process of building confidence and personal growth after a traumatic life-changing event.
• To influence policy makers in each partnership country to provide guidance and educational support for the effective integration of children with a migrant or refugee background into the educational system.
• To offer stakeholders in the educational community of every participating country a place in the project and a platform for exchange of experiences and best practice, helping them to systematize their networking.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 226265 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITETET I SOROST-NORGE & Country: NO

Project Partners

• Izobrazevalni center Geoss d.o.o.
• Museum of Greek Children’s Art
• SYMVOULOI ANAPTYXIAKOU SCHEDIASMOU EREVNAS KAI ORGANOSIS ETAIREIA PERIORISMENIS EFTHYNIS PRISMA EPE
• PROVINCIA DI LIVORNO
• Osnovna sola Litija