Meet The Ancestors: Where did I come from?A European project from six countries examining prejudice and racism through an interactive learning platform.This project asks children from the ages of 5 to 11 to look into their family history and discover who their relatives are. It then builds on this to ask questions about the difference between nationality and citizenship. It asks children to reflect on their family history and think what next? Where would they like to go in the world given a chance and why they would like to go there? All their discoveries and opinions are captured in video, spoken word and text and placed on an interactive map of the world. This initial child led discovery then acts as the start of a deep investigation into genetic ancestry, the movement of peoples through time and the idiocy of prejudice and racism.This next step starts with the return of genetic testing information on those children who volunteer. Plotted on the map it will reveal the ancestral movement of people in the partner schools. This will lead to the question, why did our ancestors move? Teachers can then open the world of natural disasters, wars and trade as the reasons their ancestors moved, no different to the crisis of our modern times.Many would argue that prejudice and racism are the root cause of many of the problems that inherit the world today. The refugee crisis spreading across Europe is bringing tension and fear to all. This project is aimed at showing that far from being a modern plague, the movement of people across our world has been with throughout human history. Our nations, our citizenship and family stories are the skin over a deeper history, a shared history, a history that tells us no matter what we see with our eyes we are one human race.
Context/background of the project; This project was born out of the current instability within the political climate of Europe. Brexit, the refugee crisis and the rise of 'right wing' hate crimes. We believed teachers of young children needed guidance to ensure their teaching opens the door to address and celebrate differences between communities and individuals. Futhermore that the conclusion of such teaching should build community and harmony. Having seen the success of DNA testing in addressing football violence, it was seen as a useful tool to illustrate how children can understand they have more in common than they realise. The success that children saw themselves as 'World Citizens' was remarkable. Objectives; Inclusive Education Training and Youth. This objective was met by all partners as no child was prevented from taking part in the project. As the activities took place, children were challenged to celebrate differences and recognise similarities. An example being when children saw their family trees and heard their family stories. Open and innovative education, training and youth work, embedded in the digital era The production of the website https://goo.gl/YBXNmN evidences all the work that took place. The power of the website enthused the children as it became the way of sharing what had been achived. Strengthening the profile of the teaching professions It is important to understand that although many of the activities were proposed at the start of the project, the push towards understanding how they could open the minds of children was central to empowering the teaching profession. The project illustrates that teachers can make a difference, an example of this was the Croatian Team who proved to older children that criticism of others is easy, and praising others more demanding through adapting the suggested personal social activity. This activity involved children finding positive statements about each other but by contrasting this with negative statements the Croatia team moved their children's learning further. Number and profile of participating organisations; There were five schools who were the original partners in the project. Three primary schools and two schools taking children from primary to secondary ages. One of these, the Polish school was a school that catered for children with a wide range of disabilities. As the project developed, school organising bodies such as local inspectorates, councils and school support services took part bringing their expertise to the project. Description of undertaken main activities; Results and impact attained; The impact of the project was such that Google selected the project to be a case study for its educational programme. The project also led the reaccreditation of the British Council International Award for the coordinating school and E-twinning Awards for some partners. The greatest impact was upon the children, not only did the children enjoy and learn from the project, there was evidence of a reduction in racist incidents in the coordinating school, only two instances in an academic year, the lowest number in many years. Throughout the project tasks were completed to time and the partners recognised the benefits of learning from each other. Lessons were produced and shared, new teaching techniques introduced by partners which have in turn lead to new realisations regarding the future of teaching using online applications. If relevant, longer-term benefits. The project is being reviewed by Essex County Council and if successful will be carried out in a school where there is a need to integrate a diverse community of travellers (Romany - Irish Traveller), migrants from East London and the local community.