Xenos, we’re all foreigners Erasmus Project

Project Title

Xenos, we’re all foreigners

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: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Migrants’ issues; Creativity and culture

Project Summary

The project is called XENOS – (in Greek both the foreigner, the refugee and the host, the one who receives). This word was used as an acronym to define the outlines of the project: Xenophilia, Education, Numerical (Digital) platforms, Odyssey, Scene.

In 2019, the Paul Verlaine College, located in Paris, began an exchange with the 2nd college of Koropi, located on the outskirts of Athens, as part of a pairing agreement between the Paris Academy and the County of Attica.

A postal exchange began between the students, but the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly interrupted this process. The agreement and educational convergences were immediate between the French and Greek teams. Erasmus+ would allow us to expand this initial partnership and to reinforce again the common dynamic.

To present our project, we explain the acronym XENOS.

Xenophilia: (from the Greek xenos- [ξένος], “foreigner, unknown” and -philia [φιλία], “love”), at the heart of our project, it refers to a strong taste for cultural and ‘civilizational’ aspects, foreign to its own nation, which we wish to cultivate in our students.

Education: We are launching an Erasmus+ project to raise awareness and educate young people about common European values, promote inclusion, combat school drop-out and engage them in a transnational project to develop their cultural and civic openness. The audiences who will take part in the project’s activities are 20 student volunteers enrolled in the theatre workshop of Verlaine College, some of them with disabilities. They will be supervised by four teachers, one nurse and one actress. In Greece, 20 students from the 2nd Koropi College participating in a cultural workshop that promotes the Francophonie will be supervised by two teachers and the principal.

Numerical (Digital) platforms: the primary tool throughout the project, including the eTwinning platform, it will allow exchange, collaboration, production and communication between peers but also with anyone concerned or interested in the project.

Odyssey: mobility is a powerful lever to introduce students to other ways of living but also to a common cultural heritage. This is not a school trip but an adventure, for today’s Ulysses, who returns to the roots of the European Union and its values “of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, (…) including the rights of minorities.” (Article 2 of the Maastricht Treaty).

Scene: the aim is to go through the theatre to acquire civic and cultural values and enrich the Franco-Greek exchange. Theatre is a universal language, that of the body and words. It was born in Greece and founded the values of European humanism.
By studying the “Suppliants” of Aeschylus, we will carry out a work of reflection and adaptation on refugees. History is made by the victors and by men, except in some cases, as in Aeschylus, where the notions of democracy and asylum rights are viewed through the struggles of women for equal rights. We chose this tragedy because the subject of this work is still a persistent issue.

The planned activities are linked to a collaborative show created from the tragedy of Aeschylus. Our methodology is based on regular electronic exchanges and punctual mobility. A first mobility of French teachers will take place in November 2020. The partners will meet four times over the two years and will interact through digital media like eTwinning on a regular and progressive basis. They will prepare the final show to be given in France in April 2022 following artistic rehearsals and documentary research. These activities will achieve the project’s objectives insofar as young people will develop their personal culture, build together an artistic and cultural project and understand in a concrete way citizen and humanist issues. Mobility activities will be highlights as they will be able to discover a country, a culture, lifestyles that are both close and different from their own, which will encourage exchanges and questions.

The expected results are both individual and collective. We anticipate every student to make academic progress (mastery of the French language – both oral and written, digital skills, appropriation of cultural knowledge) and good personal inclusion regardless of the obstacles.

At the collective level, laying the groundwork for international openness, creating emulation around theatre and European collaborative projects among peers and disseminating the best practices acquired during this experience will be the expected benefits that will contribute to the long-term influence of our institutions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 65970 Eur

Project Coordinator

COLLEGE PAUL VERLAINE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• 2 GYMNASIO KOROPIOU