Modern European society is rich, diverse and multicultural, and as with every citizen our students should be prepared to function well within it. This project aims to not only enhance our student’s societal knowledge, but specifically to provide them with the tools necessary to succeed both within their own and other cultures.Through a conscious recognition of an individual’s tendency towards an ethnocentric viewpoint this project challenges existing prejudices and biases, by attempting to reveal alternative insider perspectives relevant for understanding different cultures and ethnicities.Such an undertaking is vitally important for contemporary Europeans, especially in the face of the current refugee crisis. As a result of this migration, it is essential that a new generation of Europeans be adequately equipped to effectively handle the complex situations that ensue when diverse and previously separate cultures begin to exist in close proximity with one-another.Consequently, real first-hand encounters and intellectual openness, combined with the necessary sensitivity, is essential in order to enable individuals to appropriately analyse, understand, and offer practically-orientated direction for such complex situations. Only in this way can each culture contribute positively for the benefit of all, operating in an atmosphere of mutual respect and awareness of each’s unique gifts, that when combined can elevate the whole of society to greater heights and success than ever before. Through the ‘Intercultural Friendship’ project we aim to introduce our students to individuals from varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds, in order to understand the ‘insider’s view’ and thus broaden their cultural perspectives. We aim to demonstrate and encourage our students to utilise the full potential of modern technology and interpersonal communication. In such a way our students will more greatly appreciate and learn to overcome potential language and social barriers, whilst reflecting upon their cultures’ past present and future. Our five project partners come from Southern, Central and Northern Europe. Not only do all participating schools have students from different ethnic backgrounds, but also have intercultural experience from previous projects. The project methodology centres on dialogical learning: through dialogue with others students obtain knowledge and insight into themselves and ‘the other’. It is also important that students acquire social competence and improve their capacity to work in a team.On an international level, dialogical learning creates and opens new “spaces” for mutual understanding in which former or well-known stereotypes are questioned and rectified.The long-term benefits of this project are an increased sensitivity to other cultures and ethnicities within one’s own society, and as a result a continued positive engagement with the cultures and ethnicities of the wider world. Consequently a new appreciation for and sensitivity towards the suffering and needs of displaced individuals from other cultures will be readily practiced.
As Europe is facing many challenges related to integrating immigrants and facing the current refugee crisis, we felt the need to offer our students a chance to explore the different facets of cultural diversity in the modern day Europe. We found our partners on eTwinning and noticed we share similar goals. That is how the project partners from Germany, Holland, Turkey and Italy were found. The aim of the project was to cooperate with other schools to create innovations and to exchange good practices. In terms of exploring the key concepts of the project, our students were encouraged to share their views and create such trust and enthusiasm that made it possible to give space for innovative thinking and creative solutions. The approach in the workshops and everything we did was dialogical, which means that we discussed the topics with the students and encouraged them to find their own view and voice. Through these meetings and discussions, we believe that the students were able to share, contrast, change and modify their ideas with the others. We believe that such interaction helped the students to have positive engagement with other cultures. They reported that they had gained societal knowledge and insight into the central themes. They told us that talking about multiculturalism, European identity and common European values, breaking down prejudices, not to mention having a view about immigration, integration and the current refugee crisis, is more natural now, and that they have grown more sensitivity towards the displaced people. We had three LTTA meetings where the students worked on the themes with us teachers and sometimes with lecturers or visitors. After each meeting we asked the teachers and the students to fill in a feedback form, which gave us more specific information about their learning results. Most students reported that they had learned a lot about the topics. They had found the interaction with other teenagers of their age a very useful way to brainstorm, to compare their views and to discuss and discover new ways to approach the topics. We believe that these genuine encounters helped them to gain more emotional competence and intercultural sensitivity. Intercultural competence was a sub-theme that was brought up in each meeting, and we believe that the dialogical approach helped the students to understand each other's views and background better. In the workshops we offered them arts, making presentations, opened the floor for discussion and encouraged them to form their own opinions about the challenging themes of the project. We watched them learn and widen their perspectives by sharing their views and we saw fruitful conversations where we believe true tolerance and mutual understanding took place and where the feeling of strangeness or otherness were broken down. The first transnational meeting took place in Holland, C1 was held in Italy, C2 in Germany, and C3 was held in Finland. The final transnational meeting was held in Turkey. We followed the objectives described in the application carefully, which required a lot of planning, preparation and cooperation between the partners. We had a good pedagogical understanding on how to organise the meetings and we decided to have workshops, where the students could work on different aspects of the same theme or where they could apply different methods, such as arts, when producing their videos, articles, PP presentations and artworks on the project website. According to the dialogical approach, we teachers encouraged genuine discussion and created a learning environment that made sharing ideas and views possible to build mutual respect. We complemented our program with expert lectures and encounters with immigrants and refugees. We taught the key vocabulary and concepts to the students in English, so that it was easier to talk about complex topics with the others. In this way they improved their competence in English. We also taught them IT skills, because some of the students were not so familiar with using PCs or tablets or producing digital presentations, and they needed more counseling how to use different software. We also recorded short videos. The benefits and impact of the project to our schools and students are measured by their products and their feedback. They reported that they had learned more about immigration and refugees in Europe and are now better prepared to build a truly integrated, tolerant and multicultural community and world. We believe this has a positive long-term effect on our students, their families and our schools, who have experienced cultural diversity in their encounters with other project partners with diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. We presented the project in our morning assemblies at school and articles were published in a local newspaper. We also set up an exhibition and printed a magazine to give an overview of the project to local schools. This way we have ensured there is a local effect a