The context of this project grounds on the participants' recognition of a basis of common needs and objectives, which are embedded in the choice of specific priorities and topics, focusing on innovation to promote integration & inclusion through the implementation of experimental teaching/learning practices and strictly connected to a number of urgent educational and social issues born from the progressively increasing waves of migration which have lately reached most European countries. The title of the project itself - MIRRORS: Making Integration a Reflective Responsible Opportunity for a Rightful Society - highlights the partners' will to work together to make integration & inclusion something more than a temporary, urgency-related series of activities; in fact integration & inclusion are considered the essential bricks in order to build new multicultural communities, really respectful of everyone's rights. Sidney J.Harris' quote "The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows" seemed to be the most proper and challenging motto for our project's objectives; in fact, students are firstly invited to look at themselves in the mirror in search of their own cultural and personal identity, and are then progressively guided to open themselves to the richness of diversity, looking into and through windows to different cultures, and looking for building new, creative ways of communicating, sharing, learning & growing together. Five partner schools participate in the project: three lower secondary schools from Germany, Italy and Greece and two primary schools from Poland and Cyprus. The youngest and the oldest students from these schools respectively form the intersection with whom the project will be carried out, even though all students in the five schools will be encouraged to participate in various ways. In all of the five schools inclusion of students with special educational needs is very high on the agenda, followed - the importance depending on geographical and political determinants - by the integration of students with migrant and/or refugee background.The project partners came together to exchange experiences and best practices in these two fields and find innovative ways to push forward with the necessary processes; they soon agreed that visual and performing arts would make available non-verbal "languages" to students who experience severe linguistic limitations when it comes to expressing experiences and emotions. and of course when it comes to learning. To varying degrees creative drama, Forum Theatre, expressionist dance and video/film as well as sports were identified as being practiced in our schools to promote inclusion and integration, and were consequently chosen as the main methodological pillars of the project. Each of the five schools specialises in one of the aforementioned sectors and takes charge of providing training in one of the fields to teachers involved in the implementation of the project during Transnational Project Meetings and of providing lesson plans to be carried out in the partner schools in preparation of one of the three Learning/Teaching/Training activities (LTTAs). These LTTAs will allow students to present to each other their work results, work collaboratively on new tasks and at the same time gather first hand experience of cultural and social features of the partner countries and apply and expand their newly acquired social, emotional and intercultural skills. The desired and expected results of the project are engaging and supportive learning environments in which ALL students, including SEN or migrant/refugee students will be better equipped with cognitive as well as social, emotional and intercultural skills acknowledging the EU founding values such as pluralism, tolerance, non-discrimination, solidarity, justice and equality. A number of physical deliverables will also be produced, such as the Project logo, regular Newsletters (in English, and in all the different languages involved - possibly those of migrant students included), regular journals/logbooks/videos reporting about ongoing activities, creation of a final film titled "Turning Mirrors into Windows" and of a number of Tableaux Vivants, e-book to disseminate the project's objectives and outcomes among stakeholders, learning units/ lesson plans for all the topics to be worked on and be made available to interested professionals. Most of the activities proposed will be maintained after the end of the EU funding, especially because they might be fruitfully transferred to different project-based learning/teaching contexts and incorporated into schools curricula. All partners are convinced that intercultural competences are a prerequisite for successful integration efforts and that the acquisition of non-verbal means of communication substantially contributes to inclusion efforts, accordingly we hope to anchor our approach in our school contexts most and foremost.
The project grounded on the partners’ recognition of the need to promote integration and inclusion of all their students, especially migrant and SEN students - more at risk of early school leaving. The choice of priorities/topics was strictly connected to the conviction that inclusion and integration are the actual foundation of a future multicultural and equal society and not only a set of emergency procedures. The partner schools followed different approaches which were shared, evaluated and eventually integrated. Documentation of ongoing activities and related lesson plans were always available on Twinspace. Three low secondary schools from Germany, Italy and Greece and two primary schools from Poland and Cyprus participated in the project and many students presenting a migrant or SEN background were involved. New practices were implemented to promote language learning, basic skills empowering, intercultural competence in order to improve social inclusion/integration; each school was responsible for planning specific activities, providing training and lesson plans. First activities: focused on the concept of culture and its main features. Students shared information about their own country, city, school etc. on Twinspace. Second set of activities: aimed at enabling students to communicate using other means than verbal language: facial expression, body language, drama, masks, dance, music, painting were experienced and results shared during the Cyprus LTTA and further deepened in workshops. Next activities: focused on sport as a chance to integrate/include young people with different abilities and backgrounds - as well as embedding a set of fundamental values (respect, engagement, team building, resilience). Various kinds of sports activities were carried out in the schools, as well as meetings with athletes with some kind of physical disability who had excelled in their sports discipline. During MIRRORS Olympic Games in Poland, mixed teams of students from the partner countries were engaged in games and sports competitions. Last set of activities: aimed at reflecting on migration, considered from a historical, international, national and local point of view and not just as a contemporary emergency. Results were shared during the LTTA in Italy, where the students were also involved in a number of workshops based on art, drama, body percussion. The activities continued until the end of the school year. Results/impact attained: Creation of motivating/supportive learning environments that included all students and empowered their cognitive, social, emotional and intercultural skills; Improvement of the students’ digital skills (ICT/Web used to communicate, work, learn); Promotion of the students’ intra-cultural and intercultural awareness/knowledge; Practical experience of the EU founding values (pluralism, tolerance, non-discrimination, solidarity, justice and equality) and of Erasmus+ Projects' impact on school good practices; Sharing of teaching/learning units/lessons and evaluation grids/rubrics that were planned/implemented in the partner schools; Physical deliverables: Project Logo, Twinspace, Newsletters, Erasmus+ Corners, regular journals/logbooks/videos about ongoing activities, descriptive PPT/videos presenting the students’ activities/results; teaching/learning plans and evaluation grids/rubrics. Longer-term benefits: Good practices are now becoming part of the partner schools’ curriculum, repository and daily activities, improving the educational and learning spectrum; Increased integration of ICT tools/web apps within educational, teaching-learning practice; Overall improved competences of teachers involved in the project (communicative competence in English, team working, collaboration, exchange of information on the different school systems/ regulation and of different teaching experiences /expertise); Improved competence in preparing, implementing, assessing EU Projects; Contacts among students and teachers live on after the project end, giving them lifelong occasions to belong to a wider, more inclusive world. Schools will keep on promoting similar experiences in the future.