The theme of this project , " Democracy and Social Innovation " , a very actual one , expresses our aim to form and develop key-competences specific to the XXI st century, centred on “Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences and civic competence” and studying the evolution of democracy in Europe , communication in foreign languages, cultural expression , and multiculturalism . This project represents a great opportunity for our high school, for our students and teachers involved ,whose aim is to promote the authentic cultural and democratic values in order to change their attitude towards the society. The outcomes this project is intended to produce are the empowerment of young people and their ability to participate actively in society, to encourage them to participate in democratic life of their country and in Europe. The partners involved have diverse historical backgrounds and different evolutions in obtaining the status of the democratic society. On one hand, Romania and Poland are both post-communist societies in which some old mentalities still survive and on the other hand, Norway has one of the longest traditions in democracy. Thus, we intended to initiate a project which debates various aspects of education, aimed at enhancing the skills and competences of young people as well as their active citizenship. Every citizen is responsible for the society he / she lives in and has to struggle for improving it and making it better. Our objectives are learning to live together in respect to each other’s diversity, despite all the differences (religious, sexual, political, cultural, ethnic and of language) and enhancing the quality and relevance of the learning offer in education, by developing new and innovative approaches and supporting the dissemination of good practices. The project meets the needs of the target groups ,needs represented by the necessity of developing the entrepreneurship spirit among the students, acquiring practical skills according to the requirements of the actual labour market. There will be two transnational project meetings in two years and three mobilities. The dissemination will be made during the school years in which the project takes place ,according to the dissemination plan. The number of direct participants is 46(20 teachers and 26 students) but all the teachers and students from the partner schools will take part.The indirect beneficiars will be aprox. 6000, businessmen, local representatives, NGOs, etc.. Expected results: a better understanding of the educational aspect of the students, accomplished through European educational programmes, enriching the offer of extracurricular education, examples of good practices, changing experiences between teachers and students from different educational systems, the motivation of the students and teachers to participate in similar international projects and competitions, learning about new methods of teaching . The final outputs will offer useful ideas and examples of good practices for other teachers and students interested in such projects. This work will enlarge the scientific field of didactical and pedagogical research . The activities are conceived and developed to sustain and develop abilities and key-competences specific to the XXI st century, which are found in the school curricula such as linguistic and communication skills, social involvment through understanding the concept of entrepreneurship , providing the students practical abilities of adapting themselves to a real and diverse economical environment. The students will also acquire civic competences which will allow them to become active citizens in the society. The intercultural education offers an opportunity of a re-evaluation of the relations between school, education and the significant values extending in informal activities, preparing the students for the real life in a multicultural and modern society.
The theme of this project , " Democracy and Social Innovation " , a very actual one , expresses our aim to form and develop key-competences specific to the XXI st century, centred on “Interpersonal, intercultural and social competences and civic competence” and studying the evolution of democracy in Europe , communication in foreign languages, cultural expression , and multiculturalism . This project represented a great opportunity for the participating schools, for the students and teachers involved. Its aim was to promote the authentic cultural and democratic values in order to change the students' attitude towards the society. The outcomes this project produced are the empowerment of young people and their ability to participate actively in society, to encourage them to participate in democratic life of their country and in Europe. The project aimed at developing basic and transversal skills using innovative methods, promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people, promoting empowerment, participation and active citizenship of young people. Special attention has been focused on the following aspects: -students and teachers were offered alternative educational materials that improve the quality of learning offer in the fields of History, Entrepreneurship, Social Education and English language. - participants had the opportunity to practice innovative techniques and learn about good practices in companies, cultural institutions and local authorities. -students learned how to cooperate in order to promote democratic values in various communities and how to promote active citizenship. -participants established a common dialogue and exchanging best practices. -coordinator and partners multipled the effects and disseminated the outcomes of the project. The participants believe that comparison of different approaches, real life situations and examples of good practice during the students exchanges allows to introduce modern and effective solutions in the particular communities. The partners involved have diverse historical backgrounds and different evolutions in obtaining the status of the democratic society. On one hand, Romania and Poland are both post-communist societies in which some old mentalities still survive and on the other hand, Norway has one of the longest traditions in democracy. Thus, we initiated a project which debated various aspects of education, aimed at enhancing the skills and competences of young people as well as their active citizenship. Every citizen is responsible for the society he / she lives in and has to struggle for improving it and making it better. The project met the needs of the target groups ,needs represented by the necessity of developing the entrepreneurship spirit among the students, acquiring practical skills according to the requirements of the actual labour market. There were a transnational project meeting,a multiplier event and three mobilities during the project. The dissemination was made during the school years in which the project took place ,according to the dissemination plan. The number of direct participants were 100(20 teachers and 80 students) but all the teachers and students from the partner schoolsl took part.The indirect beneficiars are aprox. 6000, businessmen, local representatives, NGOs, etc.. The activities were conceived and developed to sustain and develop abilities and key-competences specific to the XXI st century, which are found in the school curricula such as linguistic and communication skills, social involvment through understanding the concept of entrepreneurship , providing the students practical abilities of adapting themselves to a real and diverse economical environment. The Project is innovative because it meant to stimulate the students into seeing the symmetry and coherence between two basic criteria for development in society, the ability to act as a democratic citizen and the ability to exploit and benefit from the instruments in society that can get you self-supported, and even create jobs and opportunities for others. The innovation lies also in the reflection on the history and the past and learning about the human development and fight for democracy, combined with mobilizing ideas and creativity, and that this creativity often emerges in different groups with different backgrounds and bases. We have reflected this in our intellectual outputs through combining theory and practice, letting the students evaluate and influence the workshops where they tried out their creativity, and put their experiences on film. We have also mirrored the discussions of the teachers in an academic approximation, which has become the book “Democratic education - from theory to practice”.