As Theodore Roosevelt said ''The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future'' This quote perfectly underlines one of our main aims. This project is a research into the past of each of the participant countries, through their history, culture, language and traditions. The main objective is to find out the links between the different cultures that make up the European Union, compare them and draw conclusions about the differences and similarities that enrich and unite us. The basic purpose of the project is to train individuals, integrated to the cultural identity of our age at all, approaching with respect and understanding to different cultures, owing and recognizing cultural richness and diversity, seeing culture as area for creating not demanding resources, and believing in the necessity of creating economic and social sustainability. This project will addressing the following topics: 1.Intercultural dialogue 2.Linguistic diversity 3.Common Cultural heritage 4.Globalization and disappearing cultural identities 1.In a general sense, the objective of intercultural dialogue is to learn to live together peacefully and constructively in a multicultural world and to develop a sense of community and belonging. Intercultural dialogue can also be a tool for the prevention and resolution of conflicts by enhancing the respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law. 2.Many of the world's languages and cultures are in danger of disappearing in the coming decades for a variety of political, economic and social reasons. For those concerned by this phenomenon, the challenge is to slow it down or stop it by promoting respect for linguistic and cultural rights, peaceful co-existence in multicultural societies and the preservation of our biocultural heritage. 3.Culture can give people a connection to certain social values, beliefs, religions and customs . It allows them to identify with others of similar mindsets and backgrounds. Cultural heritage can provide an automatic sense of unity and belonging within a group and allows us to better understand previous generations and the history of where we come from. 4. Learning about identity and cultural diversity can help young people live and work together in diverse communities, both in their country and the wider world. It can also help them develop their identity and sense of belonging which are fundamental to personal well-being and the achievements of a flourishing and cohesive society. More specifically, the following goals have been outlined: -To arise awareness for the Safeguarding of common Cultural Heritage in EU countries and to strengthen their institutional capacities so that they can develop activities to safeguard their heritage with the participation of the communities and groups concerned.(UNESCO Convention) -To preparing a pedagogical base including reflections and proposals of active methods invaluable to improve the Lisbon Key Competences such as: learning to learn, interpersonal, intercultural and social competences, civic competence, cultural expression and communication in the mother tongue. -To identify similarities and differences between different cultural traditions and perceptions; -To bridge the divide between those who perceive diversity as a threat and those who view it as an enrichment; -To share visions of the world, to understand and learn from those that do not see the world with the same perspective we do; The expected results: -Our project will provide the students with the chance to get acquainted with local history in relation to local topography, local culture, way of life and heritage in the scope of the European heritage and values. -The students acquire new skills they can use beyond the project in their private and professional life. The project methodolgy is based on the concept of interdisciplinary teaching as a means to enhance the quality of education. We aim at approaching key issues from the perspective of different subjects, cultures and languages, thus providing a more comprehensive understanding of civic issues in a European context. To assess the impact and to ensure the proper development of the project, both formative types of evaluation as well as summative ones are used. Our 7 partners represent contrasting social and economic backgrounds, and a diverse collection of communities from across Europe. By working together to deliver our aims about cultural diversity we will be successful in showing our students, parents, staff and others. The main target group of this action is students that are the owners of future.Anyone who is interested to work for better understanding of different cultures are the potential users of the project and will also benefit from the training materials. We know,Cultural diversity unities individuals, societies and people, enabling them to share the heritage of the past, the experience of the present and the promise of the future.
Based on Theodore Roosevelt sentence ''The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future'' we have planned and implemented our project. Our main objective was to find out the links between different cultures that make up the European Union, compare them and draw conclusions about the differences and similarities that enrich and unite us. And satisfactorily during our visits to our partner countries our students and we as techers have learned a lot about their history, culture, language and traditions. Another focus of our project was “migration“: We have worked alot and made a lot of researches on migration to Europe in general and specifically the reasons and results of migration in each single partner country in this project. We have made a lot of interviews on different topics, we have visited refugee camps, we have made posters, we have made video films about their expectetions, their lives now and their future plans. Another main topic was laguages: We have made researches about the disappearing languages, what can be done tohelp them survive, the importance of mother langiage, also for the refugees and migrants, we have talked about the importance of bilingualism and multilingualism in our globalised world. The basic purpose of the project was to train individuals and to help them to integrate into the cultural identity of our age, to approach everyone with respect and understanding of different cultures, to recognize cultural richness and diversity, to see culture as an area for creating not demanding resources, and to believe in the necessity of creating economic and social sustainability. Based on these purposes we have addressed the following topics in this project: 1.Intercultural dialogue: for example: our workshops on "Being different being unique", cooking workshops, painting t-shirts 2.Linguistic diversity: for example: our dictionary of words of friendship in 5 languages: Turkish, Italian, German, Spanish, Macedonian 3.Common Cultural heritage: for example: our visit to places like Blue Mosque in Istanbul, which was a church, then a mosque and now a museum about two religions 4.Globalization and disappearing cultural identities: for example: our survey about disappearing languages We have contibuted to intercultural dialogue between five partner countries in our project. Our students who took part in this project, their parents, their families and many other people and institutions who somehow came in contact with this project have experienced the lives of people from another culture and have most probably improved a sense of understanding, a sense of belonging, and a sense of being a community as a whole, especially being a European community, where we have no more checks on the borders. 1. With the help of our workshops for example theatre workshop in Germany about role plays, interviews we did in Italy with the refugees, videofilms we did with our migrant neighbours, and researches on the Internet our students have gained a tool for the prevention and resolution of probable conflicts they may have in the future. They have also learned the respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law for example as a result of making a power-point presentation onthe rights of refugees in Europoean countries. 2. With the help of a survey, and researches and powerpoint presentations on one´s own knowledge of languages our students have improved a sensibility towards their own multilinguality and towards disappearing languages. They have improved respect for linguistic and cultural rights, peaceful co-existence in multicultural societies and the preservation of our biocultural heritage. 3.After learning more about our parner countries´ social values, beliefs, religions and traditional customs and history our students and we as teachers as well have gained the ability to identify with others from similar and different mindsets and backgrounds. This project has provided an automatic sense of unity and belonging within a group and allowed us to understand previous generations better and the history where we come from and thereby to understand the mindset of the new generation who have their roots in the old civilisations. 4. As a result of our various and multifaceted activities our students have learned about identity and cultural diversity and we suppose that these skills will help them live and work together in diverse communities, both in their country and the whole world. This ablility will also help them develop their identity and sense of belonging which are fundamental to their personal well-being and the achievements of a flourishing and cohesive society, where there is no preudices, no discrimination and no wars. 5. We rose awareness for the safeguarding of common cultural heritage in EU countries and to strengthened the student´s understanding of the importance of the past of nations and countries on their lives today and in the f