The term "Europe" or "European Union" has a contemplative image. If you think about it, compounds like the financial crisis, sovereign debts, Brussels bureaucracy and - more recently - the movement of refugees from Africa and Asia will come to your mind. Not to forget also the intra-European labor market movements. Europe is a difficult issue for Europeans. What is still missing despite open borders and the approach of states which once were enemies is a common, positive occupied sense of identity. What does "home" mean in this context? With the help of the project the understanding of “home” should be defined from the perspective of different project participants. Similarities and differences between the various cultures within Europe should be worked out in order to develop a better understanding of each other and for each other. Seven partner schools from Luxembourg, Romania, Norway, Turkey, Czech Republic, Austria and Germany will participate.The Romanian school can provide important background knowledge about Romanian emigrants for the planned project. The same applies to the partner school in Opava / Czech Republic. The Turkish school of Karsiyaka / Izmir is important because it can represent both sides. The side of the emigrants (eg. Austria and Germany) and the side of the refugees who arrive from Syria and must find "home” in Turkey. The European opposite pole is represented by the partner schools from Lister / Norway, Vienna / Austria, Ettelbruck / Luxembourg and Bielefeld / Germany. These schools (and countries) must provide a welcoming culture, so that the immigrant citizens can feel at home in the country to which they emigrate, enjoy learning in the new school, work and live, and are motivated to learn the foreign language. The countries have to provide an educational process that promotes skills and contributes to create conditions to get a real chance on the training- and labor market for the immigrants. The partner school in Ettelbruck / Luxembourg has experiences in dealing with refugee classes for several years and can provide these experiences to the other schools. During the project meetings there will be coordination meetings at different locations. The center of the project work is a “future workshop” with the title "How can school be a place of home?". In addition, a "stereotype shock" is realized - the exchange of students works with the help of eTwinning. Also another project meeting will be held on eTwinning. At the end of the project, a student conference will be carried out. The aim is to optimize and develop materials to reflect (feedback culture) with the help of this conference. The purpose of this work is to develop project materials that are likely to help schools to create a welcoming culture and achieve an open approach to the different cultures for the students. This is to ensure that imbalances will be reduced so that the new citizens (students, children of refugees) in their new home have real opportunities to assert themselves on the labor market. In addition, the active citizenship should be promoted to everybody so that they can face their new home with a positive feeling (acceptance and understanding). The project results will be implemented in schools and continuously optimized. The products are available for all schools with similar problems after finishing.
The term "Europe" or "European Union" has a contemplative image. If you think about it, compounds like the financial crisis, sovereign debts, Brussels bureaucracy and - more recently - the movement of refugees from Africa and Asia will come to your mind. Not to forget also the intra-European labor market movements. Europe is a difficult issue for Europeans. What is still missing despite open borders and the approach of states which once were enemies is a common, positive occupied sense of identity. What does "home" mean in this context? Goal: With the help of the project the understanding of “home” should be defined from the perspective of different project participants. Similarities and differences between the various cultures within Europe should be worked out in order to develop a better understanding of each other and for each other. Partners: Seven partners schools from Luxembourg, Romania, Norway, Turkey, Czech Republic, Austria and Germany will participate.The Romanian school can provide important background knowledge about Romanian emigrants for the planned project. The same applies to the partner school in Opava / Czech Republic. The Turkish school of Karsiyaka / Izmir is important because it can represent both sides. The side of the emigrants (eg. Austria and Germany) and the side of the refugees who arrive from Syria and must find "home” in Turkey. The European opposite pole is represented by the partner schools from Lister / Norway, Vienna / Austria, Ettelbruck / Luxembourg and Bielefeld / Germany. These schools (and countries) must provide a welcoming culture, so that the immigrant citizens can feel at home in the country to which they emigrate, enjoy learning in the new school, work and live, and are motivated to learn the foreign language. The countries have to provide an educational process that promotes skills and contributes to create conditions to get a real chance on the training- and labor market for the immigrants. The partner school in Ettelbruck / Luxembourg has experiences in dealing with refugee classes for several years and can provide these experiences to the other schools. Activities: During the project different meetings were held up. The main activity of the project´s work was a “future workshop” with the title "How can school be a place of home?". Refugees from different war areas (Iraq, Afghanistan) participated in that workshop - they were given a certificate for further reference. In addition, a "stereotype shock" was realized. Students tackled the problem of sterotypes and prejudices and documented their results in several short-clips. Choosen teaching units were implemented in the context of the "European day" at Rudolf-Rempel-Berufskolleg. During the last meeting of the project, a student conference was carried out. The students of all participating partner school tackled the following question again "How can school be a pace of "Heimat"?". The very impressiv dicussion was held up in English and therefore the participation was also confirmed. The purpose of this work was to develop project material (teaching units, workshops, Culture book, "Heimat book", video clips etc.) that are likely to help schools to create a welcoming culture and achieve an open approach to the different cultures for the students. This was to ensure that imbalances will be reduced so that new citizens (students, children of refugees) will have real chances to assert themselves on the labor market in the new home country. In addition, the active citizenship should be promoted to everybody so that they can face their new home with a positive feeling (acceptance and understanding). The project results were implemented in schools and continuously optimized. The products are available for all schools with similar problems after finishing.