Shifting of meanings: National Monuments – Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow Erasmus Project

Project Title

Shifting of meanings: National Monuments – Yesterday – Today – Tomorrow

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; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning

Project Summary

What do monuments do? Do they still offer a reason for identification in a uniting Europe? If so, with what or with whom, or what? May monuments be changed or toppled? What value do monuments have today? What should new monuments look like and what should they represent? These are just a few of the many possible questions that can be the subject of a joint investigation in a common project. National monuments should be the starting point for the joint work. Accordingly, the project has a regional historical focus and becomes supra-regional by working with several european schools.
For each monument, even if there are several monuments on site, a documentation should be created and thus promote the propaedeutic work and the use of modern media such as iPads. The documentation to be created will record the circumstances of the erection and use historical sources to document the symbolic value the monument had at the time of its erection and the event to which it was linked.
The pupils should discover the monument in real life on site and record the actual state of the monument as well as the current state of research. Experts on site should be involved in this process.

In addition to the propaedeutic work in the subject history, the socio-cultural contents should not be neglected. Pupils should have the opportunity to question local people about its symbolic value today. Part of the questioning should also be the person’s relationship to the European Union and whether the monument has a pan-European value.
Although the project has a historical focus, there are numerous links to other subjects. An overarching aspect could be an internal competition in the field of art with the aim of designing a pan-European monument. A jury of colleagues and the students could then evaluate the designs and award prizes to the three best designs during the final meeting.
The aim of the project is to work out the different meanings of national monuments against their historical background and to examine whether a change in meaning or interpretation has also taken place against the background of a unifying Europe. The question arises whether monuments of national importance are still relevant today. The techniques required in history lessons for the investigation and interpretation of sources and representations should be the focus of the interpretation work. In terms of cultural history, the current level of awareness and the significance of the respective monuments in the population should be investigated by means of surveys.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 146960 Eur

Project Coordinator

Widukind-Gymnasium Enger & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Instituto de Educación Secundaria Pedro Cerrada
• The Ridgeway School and Sixth Form College
• Sophianum Sg,
• Kopernikusschule Freigericht