Remembering the Past for a Common Future Erasmus Project

Project Title

Remembering the Past for a Common Future

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 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Inclusion – equity; Home and justice affairs (human rights & rule of law)

Project Summary

The background of this project is to enhance the historical consciousness of our students. By understanding their local history in the light of the history of Europe, they will gain knowledge on how to learn from the past in order to act responsibly within the framework of our common European democratic values today. Learning about human rights abuses of the past, through methods that will promote critical thinking and first hand experiences, the students will enhance their modern democratic citizenship, become active citizens in the future of Europe and withstand similar forces that led to terrible human rights abuses in the past.

The connection between historical consciousness and critical thinking is at the centre of the project, and critical thinking is a core skill in the field of history. In today’s society and digital landscape, this skill is even more important due to us, and our students, being bombarded with information in every aspect of our lives. To engage in critical scrutiny of historical sources on human rights abuses locally and in Europe, the students will be better at separating between trustworthy and untrustworthy information, and they will learn how to produce high quality media themselves by using digital technology. This will furthermore lead to the above mentioned active citizenry.

Participation in this project will therefore:
– increase students’ critical thinking skills, digital competency and media literacy.
– foster cooperation and understanding between a diverse group Europeans.
– strengthen networks both between the partners and between the individual students and teachers involved.
– make students participate actively and fully in democratic life.
– increase the use of foreign languages in different settings.
– give students a better understanding of their local history, the European Union context, and the shared history between the members of the project.
– increase the students ability to withstand the forces that work against the above mentioned principles through manipulation, propaganda and disinformation.

This strategic partnership consists of 6 upper secondary schools offering general education which prepares the students for university studies. With more than 5000 students all together, from Norway, Poland, Romania, Germany, Belgium and The Basque Country in Spain, participation contributes to the institutions’ ambitions to provide their students with high quality education through internationalization and European cooperation. During the mobilities, there will be at least 24 teachers and 150 students directly involved in experiential history education. In addition, external partners such as city archivists, museums, guides and organizations, as well as all the students studying history in the institutions through the local history projects, will be involved. Through dissemination of the project locally, regionally and nationally, the number of indirect participants are also vast.

All the project’s activities and methodology are hand picked in order to reach the above mentioned objectives. By studying controversial and uncomfortable parts of local and national history through experiential learning with different perspectives on the topics, students will improve their ability to think and act critically. Working critically with historical sources, taking part in simulations, historical re-enactments, attending lectures and producing multi modal media products of their experiences will lead to enhanced media literacy, critical thinking and digital competency. Working with the local project in the schools and in intercultural groups during the exchanges will increase their foreign language skills and cooperation skills. In turn, all this will be important in developing the students’ historical consciousness, which is the overarching objective connecting the activities and methods to the visions of the EU and Erasmus+ programme.

We envision that this project will establish strong bonds between the partner schools and lay the groundwork for further cooperation in the future. The experiences schools, their staff and their students gain from participating in a European project like this, are invaluable to the institutions and for the further integration of Europe. To see that cooperation and unity, through a project which also focuses on the contrary, is possible, and that international partnerships are the way to go in order to build these values, is powerful. Another long-term benefit is the digital project book which will serve as a guideline for the history teachers in the years that follow this project. It will be available online for the participating schools, but also as open source materials for other interested institutions. This project, which will be a success, will serve as fuel in order to create active, critical citizens who know, through experiential learning, that their actions today mean a great deal in creating the Europe of tomorrow.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 180199 Eur

Project Coordinator

Mysen videregaende skole & Country: NO

Project Partners

• USABALGO LASKORAIN IKASTOLA SCOOP
• Humaniora Kindsheid Jesu
• Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im. ks. Piotra Skargi w Sedziszowie Mlp.
• Liceul Teoretic Nicolae Balcescu Medgidia
• Parler-Gymnasium Schwäbisch Gmünd