The EUropean Heritage in the politically and culturally changing world as means Against Radicalization Erasmus Project

Project Title

The EUropean Heritage in the politically and culturally changing world as means Against Radicalization

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; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

The European Heritage in the politically and culturally changing world as means to fight radicalization is the project which resulted from a successful TCA held in Germany in October 2017,in which the need for it occured. The partnership which ran from September 2018-February 2021 composes of 5 Primary Schools:
-Primary School of Skopelos,Lesvos,Greece(coordinator)
-Szkola Podstawowa Nr 1 im. Tadeusza Kosciuszki w Mierzecicach,Poland(Partner)
-Primary School Daliou 2,Cyprus(Partner)
-Escola Básica de Apúlia,Portugal(Partner)
-Osnovna skola Jurja Sizgorica,Croatia(Partner)
Most of the participating institutions are located on the borders of Europe, experiencing the immigration crisis,phenomena of xenophobia and radical views that have challenged us to find means to redefine our sense of belonging and develop open-mindedness along with social skills.Thus,the project explored several aspects of the European Heritage,the Historical,the Industrial,the Social,the Political,the Natural and the Digital tangible and intangible heritage,in the contemporary world,which has changed drastically, and how these shared cultural assets can be used in education as means to fight radical views and to strengthen the social cohesion and resilience of societies.
Our target groups were primarily more than 200 upper-elementary students of the partner schools,but the rest of the school students were also actively involved in the activities,as they were integrated in the school curriculum and there were project walls,open days,exhibitions,blog entries,presentations and workshops in which they participated.Students with fewer opportunities and SEN were prioritized in the mobility actions.Parents,teachers ‘associations,policy makers such as school counselors, were also involved to achieve maximum dissemination and long-term impact by changing attitudes and school policies.
Through experiential learning techniques,blended learning and peer learning,which is the most appropriate methodology for the upper-elementary students that were targeted,in terms of comprehension and consolidation,we achieved our aim to promote cultural literacy, to raise awareness on the importance of preservation of the cultural heritage and active participation in social affairs with tolerance and resilience.The activities scheduled were numerous and short to keep the primary students motivated and engaged at all times,performed in transnational groups especially on-site during LTTs.There were especially adapted materials for SEN students as well as linguistic preparation before the mobilities.There was monitoring and assessment throughout the project,by means of Erasmus+ useful documents,questionnaires,surveys,interviews and a Learning Diary which was kept to set deadlines and keep track of the scheduled activities.
There were 6 LTTs-one of which a virtual mobility due to Covid-19,to carry the project through its preparation,implementation,consolidation,evaluation,dissemination stages to keep the intercultural communication flow and to foster intercultural approaches to heritage.The activities that were carried out during the mobilities featured the European Cultural Heritage but in the context of social inclusion, cultural understanding, in order to strengthen our identity as European citizens,to build resilience,to promote intercultural dialogue and change attitudes.
Dissemination practices were carried out throughout the project and not only in its final stage as the end-products have been designed to have long-term orientation purposes:
-a coursebook with the accumulated lesson plans and sub-products(links to digital material used and produced,dvd,scrapbooks,photos,etc),through which the project evolved, will serve as a handbook of good practices for teachers at local,regional,transnational level
-a Fanzine(both digital and print) in 6 issues after each LTT,where all the gained knowledge,the activities and the experiences will be published. It has been distributed to all school students, the wider community, local schools and local public libraries, policy makers.
-a Cultural Heritage Thesaurus kit which was filled with realia collected during the different stages of the project is a permanent exhibit in each school and as a way to achieve sustainability of our project it will travel and will be formally presented, it will be borrowed by regional schools to exploit its content extending the impact of our project
-display areas and exhibitions not only in our schools but in public educational events
-a blog and a public Twinspace, in which the whole project will be made visible aiming at more than 5000 views
-workshops,Open Day ceremonies,multiplier events especially designed managed to involve a big number of people in the wider community as well as policy makers and stakeholders to disseminate the intellectual outputs realised by the project.Students were awarded certificates of participation and Europass certificates for both teachers and students.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 141755,91 Eur

Project Coordinator

Primary School of Skopelos & Country: EL

Project Partners

• Szkola Podstawowa Nr 1 im. Tadeusza Kosciuszki w Mierzecicach
• DIMOTIKO SCHOLEIO DALIOU 2
• Agrupamento de Escolas António Correia Oliveira
• Osnovna skola Jurja Sizgorica