Summary of the Intercultural School Partner Project between the Wolfgang-Borchert-Gymnasium in Halstenbek / Germany and the School Centre IES Politécnico in Vigo / Spain Topic: Artistic Creation in the two European Ports of Hamburg and Vigo in ComparisonWe would like to enrich our for already 6 years existing student exchange program with Spain so that students of grades 9-11 could work together at a joint and meaningful project. The core of the project is the manifold documentation of art in the ports of Hamburg and Vigo with regard to intercultural differences. One goal of the project is the cooperative production of an artistic work within the intercultural team. This is about an interdisciplinary project which integrates different departments of our schools. The differing competences that come along with the students of the two different countries should be deployed and therefore encourage and support the students of both nationalities. The students from Vigo are more experienced with artistic matters whereas the students from Halstenbek are more trained in the area of documentation. This ist how students can profit from this intercultural exchange to increase at the same time their competences in languages, interculturality and methodology. Further, the art that exists in both ports will be listed and compared between the two cities. There will be questionaries to ask the ports' public for their desires regarding arts in the ports which will be evaluated and compared between the two cities. After each journey there will be a small exhibition about the results that we will have gathered and produced with our own artistic designs so far. This shall be repeated each year to finally present a huge comparing analysis about the development of arts in the ports in both cities over the period of the three years. The students will inevitably grow in intercultural matters. To direct and document this, we want to place parallel work orders regarding intercultural challenges in both countries by establishing online exchange forums that students are able to comment on each other. Further, students must provide a portfolio which documents their status of intercultural growth. This will be evaluated by teachers to be published as guidelines for future exchanges (follow-up). We plan exhibitions about all the results regarding the artistic development of the two ports in the civil hall of Halstenbek with the presence of the mayor. The students open the exhibition by providing speeches that must also include their personal intercultural development. Further students guide interested companies through the exhibition, or companies can borrow the exhibition, also under the aspect of making contacts for their further future intercultural business development. We also plan an exhibition at the Instituto Cervantes in Hamburg with the invitation of the Spanish Consul. There will also be exhibitions in the I.E.S Politécnico and at Citroen (one of Vigo's biggest employer) and at the Club Naval of Vigo.All the results will be published in a blog with photos and statistics. This blog will provide a section for public comments for our international readership and will also be linked to both websites of the participating schools. There will also be a final exhibition at the IES Politécnico. The institutes of port development and marketing of both cities will be involved. Further cooperation, e.g. visiting of those institutes for a verbal exchange, are planned as well as the publication of our results.We want to generate Europasses according to the students’ individual project participation. Also, students will receive a document of participation and an entry in their school’s certificates regarding their performed achievements. The students learn with this project to confront problems and to develop strategies to solve them. The intercultural capacity for action and empathy will be demanded and supported. The students learn to treat each other in a tolerant and respectful way and to react flexibly, to reflect their own way of thinking and acting and to deal with conflicts in a creative and considerate way. The intercultural contentions and the insight that people think, act, communicate and work according to their cultures are key qualifications that are necessary to be incorportated in the European labour market.
We changed our already existing student exchange program with Spain into a project so that students of grades 10-11 could work together at a joint and meaningful project. The core of the project was the manifold documentation of art in the ports of Hamburg and Vigo with regard to intercultural differences. One goal of the project was the cooperative production of an artistic work within the intercultural team. This is about an interdisciplinary project which integrates different departments of our schools. The differing competences that came along with the students of the two different countries were deployed and therefore encouraged and supported the students of both nationalities. The students from Vigo are more experienced with artistic matters whereas the students from Halstenbek are more trained in the area of documentation. This was how students could profit from this intercultural exchange to increase at the same time their competences in languages, interculturality and methodology. Further, the art that exists in both ports was listed and compared between the two cities. There were questionnaires to ask the ports' public for their desires regarding arts in the ports which were evaluated and compared between the two cities. After each journey we had a small exhibition about the results that we had gathered and produced with our own artistic designs so far. This was repeated each year to finally present a big comparing analysis about the period of the three years. The students grew in intercultural matters. To direct and document this, we placed parallel work orders regarding intercultural challenges in both countries which we communicated about (also online). Further, students provided a portfolio which documents their status of intercultural growth. They were evaluated by teachers. Results will be published as guidelines for future exchanges. We had exhibitions about all the results regarding the artistic development of the two ports in the presence of the General Consul of Spain and the representor of the public of Halstenbek. The mayor of Vigo was at the students disposal for any questions they had. The students gave account of their intercultural experiences. Interested companies had the chance to visit the exhibition during a job fair, also under the aspect of making contacts for their future intercultural job development. Especially intercultural results were published in a blog with photos and reports. This blog also provides a section for public comments for our international readership and is also linked to both websites of the participating schools. A variety of cultural and business establishments were integrated into our project activities. The students received entries in their Europasses (Mobility). With this project, the students have learned to cope with problems and to develop strategies to solve them. The intercultural capacity for action and empathy was demanded and supported. The students learned to treat each other in a tolerant and respectful way and to react flexibly, to reflect their own way of thinking and acting and to deal with conflicts in a creative and considerate way. The intercultural contentions and the insight that people think, act, communicate and work according to their cultures are key qualifications that are necessary to be incorporated in the European labour market.