Refugees in Europe – Our Future in Motion Erasmus Project

Project Title

Refugees in Europe – Our Future in Motion

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Integration of refugees; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

CONTEXT AND NUMBER OF PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS
This project was a strategic partnership of five partner schools which have been in close contact for many years (France, Spain, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Germany) and have found a new partner with unique features for this project, ABC Koleji in Ankara, Turkey.The six participating schools have chosen this topic “Refugees in Europe – Our future in motion” due to relevance and immediacy. We as teachers wanted to prepare our students for a changing Europe in which they learn how to cope with many different cultures and will benefit from living in a multicultural, but a united Europe. The title referred not only to the changing European future but also directly to people on the move.
MAIN ACTIVITIES
Before the start of our project we decided to reflect the movement of refugees in the order set for the short-term exchanges: From the first contact with Europe to the struggles refugees have to face in their everyday life; from the historical point of view to the most recent events. In all countries involved, neo-national tendencies gain strength and democratic and European values are in danger. The first of the project’s most important objectives was to prepare our students against these neo-national tendencies in their own country and strengthen the attitude towards democracy in the European community and the idea of a united Europe. To support this goal, it was necessary to show our students different perspectives of the refugee crisis in Europe. Furthermore, students gained competences in media literacy by reflecting on the national and European coverage of the refugee crisis on TV and in newspapers. Through personal contact with refugees the project participants understood the background of the refugee crisis (e.g. reasons for leaving the countries of origin, living conditions for refugees in European countries, legal process for asylum seekers) and got motivated to help refugees actively. Through personal contact with refugees our students developed empathy and fought stereotypes. The project “Refugees in Europe- Our future in motion” was designed for 13-16 year-olds from different nationalities, social backgrounds, school communties and experience on the refugee topic. Activity days and charity events were the core activites of our project as we knew the project participants would seek motivation and interest from this. Getting active together in sports-activities, cooking events and tandem partnerships built up a positive attitude among the project participants. Talks and debates with experts provided first hand information on the background of the refugee crisis. Personal stories of refugees broadened this theoretical knowledge and enabled stronger long term learning effects. Not only did the project participants analyze the media coverage within Europe, but they also created TV/webradio shows and newspaper articles themselves to disseminate the project results. Simulation games and activities helped our students to put themselves in the shoes of a refugee, but also European institutions. The methodology of our project was built on the belief that personal contact and experiences with refugees and diversity in general will have a stronger impact on the long term learning than only theory. This is why we included refugees and stories of personal experience in our project whenever possible. Expert knowledge was integrated, too. We implied continuity as a method of our project by establishing Erasmus+ Clubs with weekly meetings for the preparation and disseminatination of the project results.The flexible adjustment of activities was a basic element of the methodology used in this project.
RESULTS AND IMPACT
Some of the most important results were the TV and radio shows, presentations of various refugee related topics such as European borders and the displays with photos and summary articles of the short term exchanges in each partner school. An induction programme was created to improve the integration of refugees within the partner schools. Additionally the topic of refugees was used to create new curricular courses for students at the German partner school. The attitudes of our project participants towards refugees and the future of Europe were greatly affected: Students understood the hardship, the needs and the motives of refugees to leave their lives behind and the need to find a common European solution to the crisis.
LONG TERM BENEFITS
Looking at the long term benefits of this project, the students learned how to get actively involved and respond to challenges in society not only on a national but also on a Europan level. The students appreciated the idea of human rights and the idea of a united Europe and will on the long term imply these ideas into their everyday life.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 117155 Eur

Project Coordinator

Heinrich Heine-Europaschule & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Zakladni skola, Praha 13, Mladi 135
• COLLEGE SAINT EXUPERY
• IES SANTA CATALINA DE ALEJANDRIA
• ABC Ortaokulu
• The Whitby High School