UNited In The European Differences Erasmus Project

Project Title

UNited In The European Differences

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: Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; Cultural heritage/European Year of Cultural Heritage; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

The UNITED project idea was shaped by two major priorities characterizing its start in 2018. These two were very closely connected and comprised the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI and the European Year of Cultural Heritage. As a cosequence the project was aimed at dealing with the central questions of “war and peace“ by learning from the experiences in the 20th century to consider answers to current challenges of growing nationalism. The main aim was be to create awareness of mechanisms of discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance by working on common activities based on theortical discourse, creative output and communicative challenges with a special focus on today’s forms of commemoration and the meaning of cultural heritage to further our understanding of the connection between past and present.
One major aim was the concept of including local or regional heritage sites into the learning process and to use these as stating points for research on forms of commemoration. Thus the region surrounding the French school with its remains of the fightings in WWI (Vimy) lead us to focus on the importance of history and the commemoration of the victims of World War I. Further visits to the castle of Wewelsburg near the German school and the house of Anne Frank in Amsterdam also helped to work out strategies for extracurricular places of learning dealing with the history of WWII. Unfortunately, the planned visit to the Race biology Institute’s archive in Uppsala in Sweden could not take place.
To avoid the history of war to happen again the students reflected on their own behaviour but also their own identity by dealing with their cultural heritage. This was meant to support the students’ process of finding their own identity but also make them aware of its meaning for the formation/emerging of both national and European identity. The students collected examples of cultural heritage in oral tradition by doing research on the history of WWI, by creating “museums in a suitcase” and conducting interviews on the meaning and making of traditional dishes documented on video. They shared it with the other nations, compared it and found similarities and differences to become aware of cultural divisity. The reminding of the two world wars and of the cultural heritage lead the participants to a better reflection on their own behaviour as individuals as well as European citizens sharing many common grounds. During the project meetings the participant also had the possibility to get to know the manners of the host country to deal with commemoration, cultural heritage or other project-related subjects.
To pay tribute to current developments and the integration of students with a refugee or migrant beackground the participants dealt with stories of migrants or refugees in a project called “Let me tell you my story” to create a better understanding for their situation in general and to overcome fears of contact and prejudices. Some of these interview and/or stories were recorded and published on the project website and etwinning. The importance of current peace-keeping missions, especially on a political level, was meant to be underlined by simulating a “Model European Union” to appeal to the students in a personal way so that they would be motivated to deal with the possibilities of maintaining peace in their everyday lives. Instead of realizing and staging this model EU during the last meeting with mixed teams from all partners this had to be done in the respective schools with the students taking over the roles of different countries.
As a long-term result of the project the respective schools now have a well-founded stock of methods to work on the topic of commemoration and cultural heritage such as the “museum in a suitcase” (together with the presentation method of a gallery walk), interviews with contemporary witnesses recorded on video as well as more personal and creative forms like conducting a poetry slam. The students thus had the opportunity to practice non-violent communication, reflect on latent forms of discrimination around them, for example cyber bullying, and to actively fight against racism and discrimination by dealing with their thoughts and fears in a creative way .All these have found their way into the curricula of the respective schools to rely on for furture learning activities. To foster media literacy and critical thinking the students’ final product was the preparation and presentation of a poetry slam and illustrations which were collected in a book and printed out by the Dutch team.
The creation of a song against racism and well as the planned discussions with former members of nationalistic organizations or discussions with local politicians about current topics like migration and integration meant to foster critical thinking/ making the participants aware of the latent dangers of extremist thinking and/or encourage social and civic engagement had to be cancelled because of covid 19.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 81159 Eur

Project Coordinator

Europaschule Ostendorf-Gymnasium & Country: DE

Project Partners

• AEP Lycée St Paul
• Almunge skola
• Stichting voor Voortgezet Onderwijs Uden
• Jakobstads gymnasium