Traditions et folklore liés à l’alimentation Erasmus Project

Project Title

Traditions et folklore liés à l’alimentation

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 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Early School Leaving / combating failure in education; Teaching and learning of foreign languages

Project Summary

The project “ Tradialiculture”( Traditions et folklore liès à l’alimentation) , spanned in two years, was addressed to teachers and students of reception and catering stream of two vocational schools : Institut “ Ilon Saint-Jacques” of Namur in Belgium and Istituto Statale di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore “A. Damiani “of Marsala in Scilly.

The project had the following objectives:
– Find out traditions and folklore of the geographical areas implied and experience new cooking methods and techniques.
– Enhance linguistic , ITC and vocational competences in relation to the course of study students were involved in.
– Enhance students’ interest and motivation above all of those students suffering from drop out problems.
– Learning and sharing different cultural traditions and cooking techniques.

The target group of students ranged between 16- 19. At Institut “ Ilon Saint-Jacques” they attended the fifth or sixth year of “Tourisme” and “ Hotellerie” streams. At Istituto Statale di Istruzione Secondaria Superiore “A. Damiani” they attended the fourth or fifth year of “ Enogastronomia”, “ Sala e Vendita”, “ Pasticceria” and “ Accoglienza turistica” streams. The number of students and teachers involved was about 200.

The following activities were implemented during the project:
– Every student realized a survey on traditions and folklore linked to the local diet. The result of each survey was the creation of a dossier based on a regional recipe or a product remarkable for its history or for the tradition it embodied. The students’ dossiers consisted of two parts: on one hand the explanation of the recipe or the product and on the other hand the explanation of its history and folklore. Students could submit their dossier in different ways and supports.
– Dossiers presented at Marsala and Namur “ cooking live expositions” were assessed according to the selection methods decided in a previous transnational meeting.
In each school, 17 dossiers were chosen and presented at the “ cooking live exposition”.
In order to exchange cooking methods and techniques 17 couples of students were partnered by teachers to work in pairs. The selected students realized the translations of their dossier and of their partner’s dossier in the second foreign language studied at school ( French- Italian and Italian- French for the Sicilian students; French- English or Dutch for the Belgian students). On the website you can see every recipe with its translation.
– A programme of visit and stay was organized in each country on occasion of partners arrival.
– At first Belgian students visited Sicily on a 10 days staying, 7 of which financed by Europe Erasmus Projects. During the stay, 4 days were dedicated at the organization of the “ cooking live exposition “ showing people, who took part, the 17 selected recipes with their history and folklore.
– In order to do that students worked in pairs cooperating ( exchange of good practices ) . During the stay they also had the opportunity to discover the region and to live a couple of days in host families ( that is their partner’s family )
– Subsequently, 17 Sicilian students went to Namur and stayed there 10 days (7 of which financed by Europe) with a similar organisation.

The most used methodologies were based on a participatory, cooperative learning in full immersion.

At the end of this two-years project:
– Every participating student passed successfully the school year
– Every participating teacher contributed doing the best for its organization
– The two “ cooking live exposition” aroused a lot of interest in the two countries ( See the media report).
– The website ” http://www.comenius-marsala-namur.com/index%201.html ” and a Facebook page ” https://www.facebook.com/Erasmus.Tradi.Ali.Culture/ ” were created at the beginning of the project to spread and share the related activities and results.
– The most of participating students are still keeping in touch with their partners.

Long term, all recipes in French and Italian, as well as all project data, can be viewed on the e-books published on the website.
The project realization and implementation results have aroused other teachers’ desire to get involved in new Erasmus projects. In the coordinating school, an Italian language course will be provided for students of Tourism stream

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 46300 Eur

Project Coordinator

Institut Ilon-Saint-Jacques & Country: BE

Project Partners

• Istituto statale di istruzione secondaria superiore ” A. Damiani”