We Are All Citizens of the World, Our Culture is Our Identity Erasmus Project

Project Title

We Are All Citizens of the World, Our Culture is Our Identity

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Creativity and culture; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy

Project Summary

It seems Europe is experiencing some difficult times (e.g. democracy crisis, nationalistic trends, refugee crisis). We wanted to build up bonds which would help young people in our countries to deal with all the difficulties, or at least with some of them. We wanted to emphasise how important cultural identity is and how it can be shared with other participants with all the respect. Our students could find differences and identify similarities between the cultures of the countries involved in the project. Moreover, a leading role in sharing cultural identity aspects played collaborative learning.
The project “1 ID” involved three schools from very different parts of the continent (one from an Asian part of Istanbul, one from Tuscany in Italy and one from Central Europe-Poland). This set of partners who were secondary schools, where one school was a vocational on-Italian, guaranteed that the main objectives of the project could be achieved successfully. The other two were comprehensive schools.Our project tackled the following issues:

– discover and implement new approaches to deal with cultural diversity and identity, that can be found in our countries and schools,
– take into account such areas like social and cultural issues, creativity, linguistics – in order to motivate our students to be aware of their roots and to accept people with different backgrounds and origins,
– share and aquire and then introduce into our schools` life new teaching methods and solutions which correspond with our students better, especially those who experience difficulties
– find and develop practical innovative teaching approaches with the use of ICT and well – tailored activities to satify our students needs and expectations.

We have achieved the enhancement of collective memory in every community – the awareness of environmental, cultural and existential issues, and increased active citizenship in local community (to be an introduction of this positive attitude in adult life). We have raised our students` and teachers` awareness of being a European.
It was necessary to help the youth understand their cultural identity and realise that there is a variety of cultures, and every nationality has a different background. Understanding others by collaboration and interaction online as well as in person was achieved at a higher level.

Methodology used was based on team work, cooperation online and during school project visits, involving new and not earlier applied methods (photo sessions, photo exhibitions, visiting museums, creating costumes, writing formal letters). Our project enabled us to take advantage of various ICT tools and approaches (photo processing, movie making, surveys, mural desingning). The internet was the medium most often used to communicate and share ideas, exchange solutions to arising problems and to store the tangible results of the project such as self- made costumes used in photo sessions with architecture in the background in our towns/countries, photo exhibition, recipes, a movie with all the results. The life of the project was reflected on the Facebook website, blog and eTwinning (Twinspace).

The impact of the project cannot be underestimated. Students enhanced their language skills (wider spectre of vocabulary, better fluency). Their self-esteem has got higher thanks to contacts with peers from other countries, they have become more aware of their cultural identity and have understood their culture better. Their proficiency in the use of ICT has been really amazing (photos, movies, blog, website, surveys). The young participants found places/ buildings needing improvements in their town and followed their ideas the to the authorities in formal letters.
Designing and painting “1ID Mural” was one of the most involving activities. Students experienced a lot of artistic moments while creating it, gained wide knowledge on mural as a form of art, learned different graphics approaches and could fulfil while painting the same theme in all three schools. Cooperation of a big number of students in Poland, Italy and Turkey was extraordinary and really fruitful.

Teachers have benefitted from the project as they have improved their linguistic competence, widened their knowledge on the partnership countries, shared and implemented new methodologies, struck long-term cooperation with the partner schools. Parents gained new information of the partnership countries. The project encouraged tolerance and respect towards other cultures, awareness of cultural identity, appreciation of the school education and non-formal one. It definitely improved the quality of international and human relationships which hopefully will last for many years.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 77700 Eur

Project Coordinator

IV Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace im.B.Prusa & Country: PL

Project Partners

• ISIS “Arturo Checchi”
• Istanbul Anadolu Lisesi