Erasmus+ project „Multi-culturally sensitive generation” was created by 6 partner schools from Romania,Italy,Slovenia,Turkey,Latvia and Poland.The main objectives of the project are connected with the phenomenon of stereotypes.This theme is very important and essential for young learners who create their image of the world and later participate in the decision-making processes that are based on their previous knowledge.We will try to prove that all stereotypes or bias are just human tendencies to generalize the information or even their roots are hidden in lack of knowledge. Each partner had to choose the stereotypes that they want to study with students during the 29 months of the project.It is designed to provide 6 short-term learning activities for students in every partner’s school, 3 project meetings in Italy,Turkey and Latvia and one methodological course for teachers in Naples with topic: inclusive education.All these courses, their contents,methods are innovative, interactive and concerned on absorbing a lot of personal experience and knowledge.All partners made their decision about the chosen stereotypes with their schools and all of them tried to discuss the possible themes with the school staff and members of the local society. In the whole project will participate similar number of students and teachers from partners schools that is about 10 students and 6 teachers from every school who will take part at courses abroad. Additionally,the project will involve all school society during the meeting in the institution which organizes the activities. Potential benefit group is approximately 6000 European citizens. The participants from the schools will organize various courses and learning or teaching activities with the focus on six main stereotypes: religious stereotypes, behavior stereotypes, stereotypes about foreign pupils, stereotypes of learning styles, stereotypes towards persons with physical or mental disabilities, and environmental stereotypes (rural-urban,plain-mountain,central district – suburb).What is more, we would like to provide three project meetings for the teams from each country to discuss the progress of the activities, solve any potential problems and to monitor or develop the project tasks. We're first going to implement a video project meeting at which all partners will confirm, share and approve the previous project plan, then there will be the activities that each partner will activate in his/her own organization. We will use numerous diversified methods to ensure the best process of receiving not only the theory but also knowledge that is ready to reuse or give potential long-life results for the beneficent group. This project is intended to empower teachers to work more effectively and eager enough to face stereotypes and discrimination in classrooms.To achieve this we intend to examine the specific needs and challenges faced by certain students, examine where difficulties arise in respect of motivation, cultural differences, language difficulties and progression opportunities.Our methodology for this has the following plan: -We want to listen to the needs,concerns,difficulties encountered in the different contexts and countries; -We will examine strategies currently in place in each institute to support the most relevant forms of stereotyping; -Through our partnership we'll plan to adopt the best practice from each institute and adapt these practices for use in each individual school/college; -We would like to create new approaches/strategies to help disadvantaged students to integrate successfully into their own community; -Examine progression routes open to such students who may feel different because they are considered by the others" different", both progression to higher levels within the schools and also on to higher level institutions.As for the RESULTS they will include both methods and products. The methods refer to innovative processes of cooperation, exchanges of ideas and the experiences including the know-how, the satisfaction, the motivation acquired by each organization, beneficiaries and other stakeholders.The products will include: calendars, the brochure” Religion is not a barrier” , the booklet “My Little Techbook”, the comic books „Us and THEM”, the digital handbook “Let’s turn prejudices off”, the mini touristic guide ”Spend your holiday in my country”,a school guide "Cross The Borders,Transcend Your Limits" , a flyer with the title ” We are not as people say” by all the schools . Finally the website of the project will include all the products of the project and will have a friendly, complex and useful structure. As for the IMPACT on : participants mainly in order to point out the cultural diversity and building the trust or respect of different cultures and traditions;on the participating organizations: getting to know different tools and approaches to deal with stereotypes and discrimination.
The Erasmus+ project “Multi-culturally sensitive generation” was created by 6 partner schools from Romania, Italy, Slovenia, Turkey, Latvia, and Poland. The CONTEXT/BACKGROUND of this project is connected to our contemporary society and its tendency to generalize and to use stereotypes. This theme is very important for young learners who create their image of the world and later participate in the decision-making processes that are based on their previous knowledge. The main project OBJECTIVES were connected to stereotypes: increase the awareness of prejudice towards different cultures and countries; develop tolerance, openness and respect for other nationalities and cultures; give the opportunity for the students, teachers, parents and community to know each other; develop intercultural, social and communication skills for teachers and students; improve teachers’ skills in inclusive education; improve foreign language competence for all the participants. The project engaged a similar number of PARTICIPANTS (students and teachers) from each partner schools: 10 students and 6 teachers engaged in short-term exchanges. Additionally, the project involved all the local school society during various local level activities. The total beneficiary group consists of approximately 6000 European citizens. The MAIN PROJECT ACTIVITIES were focused on different types of stereotypes. Each partner chose a particular type of stereotypes and local level activities focused on these particular stereotypes: religious stereotypes, behavior stereotypes, stereotypes about foreign pupils, learning styles stereotypes, stereotypes towards persons with physical or mental disabilities, and environmental stereotypes. During the project 6 short-term learning activities for students were organized in each partner school and 3 project meetings (Italy, Turkey, Slovenia) were carried out in order to discuss the progress of the activities, solve any potential problems and to monitor or develop the project tasks. Also, one methodological course for teachers was organized in Naples on the topic of inclusive education. All these courses, their contents, and methods were innovative, interactive and focused on the exchange of personal experience and good practices. Although the initial period of project implementation (29 months) was reduced to 24 months, all the original projects activities and products were realized as planned and within the allocated budget. The project methodology had the following plan: - identifying the needs, concerns, and difficulties encountered in different contexts and countries; - examining strategies currently in place in each institution to support abolishing the most relevant forms of stereotyping; - adopting the best practice from each institution and adapting these practices for them to be used in each school/college; - creating new approaches/strategies to help disadvantaged students to successfully integrate into their own community; - examining possible progression routes for students who may feel different because they are considered by the others “differentˮ (both to higher levels within the school, but also on to higher level institutions). As for the RESULTS, they include both methods and products. The methods refer to innovative processes of cooperation, exchanges of ideas and the experiences including the know-how, the satisfaction, the motivation acquired by each organization, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders. The products include: calendars, a brochure “Religion is not a barrier”, a booklet “My Little Techbook”, a comic book “Us and THEM”, a digital handbook “Let’s turn prejudices off”, a mini-touristic guide “Spend your holiday in my country”, a school guide “Cross The Borders, Transcend Your Limitsˮ, a flyer “We are not as people say”, etc. Also, we created a project website that includes all project products and has a friendly, complex and useful structure. The project had a great IMPACT on: the participants (by pointing out the cultural diversity and building the trust or respect of different cultures and traditions); on the participating organizations (by getting to know different tools and approaches to deal with stereotypes and discrimination). As LONG-TERM PROJECT BENEFITS, we can mention: improving the participants’ language skills and general key skills, in order to be able to communicate with other people; changing the participants’ mentalities by abolishing the stereotypical thinking and increasing their self-confidence; creating an European educational climate which broadens students’ perspective on their careers; developing skills for teachers that will enable them to provide a better inclusive education in a multi-culturally context and later passing these skills to students; improving the school climate for each partner institution thanks to youth exchanges, thus augmenting the degree of motivation towards the education process for both students and teachers.