Recent developments in Europe have indicated that communication between people from a different origin is becoming more complex. Our children are the members of multicultural society and their abilities and experiences to cope there are not yet sufficient. According to this concern, the main priority of the project "Welcome to my Family" is to enhance cultural awareness and develop social, civic, intercultural competencies among our students, teachers, parents, school and local communities. All participants in this project (Estonia, Turkey, Romania and Italy) have a very different background. Moreover, the diversity in every school itself is one of the main characteristics. Cultural variety is a valuable asset and focusing on wedding traditions is a clever way to introduce the diversity of cultures of participating countries in more interesting and hands-on way. Our students will have wonderful opportunity to learn about different fields of each other`s wedding: clothing, food, customs, religion, music and dance, etc. and through that, they will learn to understand and respect the culture of another origin than their own. All partners have agreed to establish a partnership to: - promote active citizenship, intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and solidarity through increased learning mobilities, international collaboration; - develop, implement and evaluate new approaches to address social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity; - Conduct the activities to create unity, sense of belonging and inclusion in our diverse school communities, through that, in our local and regional communities and also on the international level (between project partners). Provide (through inclusive education) opportunities to learn about and accept individual differences; to be, to do and to live together; - use project-based learning and teaching in the process of getting to know our wedding traditions for exposing students to a wide variety of 21st-century skills; - increase reading literacy and critical thinking skills among our students through specifically designed lesson-cycles about wedding tradition and family values; - improve the understanding of cultural variety as an asset for breaking the ethnic, religious and gender stereotypes, discrimination, and exclusion; - encourage teachers to use learner-centred approaches in teaching cultural issues, reading, introducing wedding and family traditions: personalization and differentiation - to meet learners´ needs and reduce disparities. Our aim is to promote child-centred learning and teaching methods, like personalization and differentiation, which are moving further away from rote learning and emphasizes hands-on, experience-based, active, cooperative and project-based learning. We will create, share and use innovative teaching methods to reach our goals. Our project uses inter-disciplinary approaches, and its aim is to show students that the knowledge from different subjects is used in their lives inseparably. During the project we will work in project-based learning (PBL) groups to create wedding costumes, "Wedding Clothing Magazine," we plan wedding meals and create a menu for an international wedding party, also a "Wedding Cookery Book." We will organize "Song and Dance Festival," dance workshops with local folk groups, handicraft workshop with grannies, "Wedding Games Night." We will publish e-book "Eternal Love" and make our handmade books with wedding traditions. Our children can get closer to their families while they make a documentary "When my Grandfather married my Grandmother." The teachers will cooperate to develop innovative teaching approach to increase reading literacy and critical thinking skills among our students. We will create two lesson cycles: "Critical reading/comprehensive reading" and "Teaching our Values through Literature and Movies." We hope to enrich the everyday work for teachers and learners with this new viewpoint. All these activities are designed to teach our students that variety of cultures and traditions is a treasure. That we are more alike than we are different. Including all our students, regardless of their origin, religion, gender or values - learning about each other, from each other, embracing our differences and similarities, is the key how to move towards integrated society, to become more culturally aware and inter-culturally competent. It will be an important part of our education system. Therefore is important to work together on an international level and create the environment and baggage of skills (social, civic, intercultural competencies and reading literacy) that students can use to cope in multilingual and multicultural society.
“Welcome to my Family” is an innovative inter-cultural project that involved participants from Estonia, Turkey, Romania and Italy. The project idea is based on the understanding that the more diverse the society gets the more complex the relationships between different cultures will get. All schools in this project had faced the problems of cultural misunderstanding, stereotypical attitudes, exclusion based on culture, religion or nationality before this project. Therefore, knowing and understanding that cultural differences are an asset rather than an obstacle, and showing how culture influences intercultural communication was a crucial lesson for our children to teach. We chose the cultural phenomena – the wedding – to teach the aforementioned values in cross-curricular and learner-centred way to reach the goals of our primary priorities: 1.acquisition of skills and competencies (reading literacy, critical thinking, ethical reasoning and independent, impartial judgment) 2. social inclusion, cultural awareness and developing intercultural, social and civic competencies among our communities. According to main priorities, we set the project objectives: 1. promoting intercultural dialogue, social inclusion, equity, respect, care and concern for others and solidarity through increased learning mobilities, international collaboration; 2. developing, implementing and evaluating new approaches to address social, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity; 3. activities to create unity, sense of belonging and inclusion; 4. using project-based learning (PBL) and teaching to know our wedding traditions for exposing students to a variety of 21st-century skills; 5. increasing reading literacy and critical thinking skills through specifically designed lessons about wedding tradition and family values; 6. exposing diverse learners to teaching strategies; 7. encouraging participation in after lessons activities, cultural events, research; 8. creating a base for communication skills improvement; 9. improving the understanding of cultural variety as an asset for breaking the ethnic, religious and gender stereotypes, discrimination and exclusion by introducing the wedding and family traditions; 10. encouraging use of learner-centred approaches: personalization and differentiation; 11.including families into the learning process; 12.improving teachers’ competencies, increasing their knowledge in intercultural dialogue; 13.develop digital skills and language competence by using innovative tools for cooperation This project built valuable cultural learning and teaching resource for learners to develop understandings of the interrelated nature of cultural differences and communication. The resource contains activity books for cooking, handicraft, games, myths, wedding customs, comprehensive reading handbook and a book for teaching values through literature and movies. The methodology for creating this resource, was circular project-based learning module (from research to creation and publishing) where the students and teachers implemented and participated in non-formal education activities: project-based learning group works during lessons; variety of topical workshops on music and dance, cooking, games and handicraft; international lessons; public performances; presentations; collaborative item creating sessions; parent-teacher-student events; competitions; exhibitions; staged weddings in every mobility; filming the documentaries. All that to promote learner-centred approaches, innovative ways to address learners' needs. Outcomes: Wedding Fashion Magazine Wedding Game Brochures Wedding Cookery Books Comprehensive Reading Handbook Values Matter the Most (lesson activity book) Song and Dance Festival Project Diary Books of Myths and Legends All in all, over 110 students and teachers from 4 countries participated in LTTAs (funded 100, exceeding participants were not funded by EU). The selection was made according to projects' goals. Concentrating on wedding traditions gave students an opportunity to get close to our own and partner countries’ oldest layer of cultural heritage. The participants with deep motivation will share the projects' results after its completion. During the project, students improved their collaborative, problem solving, communication, literacy, ICT and language skills. PBL work helped them to become creative, self-led learners, develop different items and experience international communication and collaboration. They learned about other cultures, their way of life. We managed to create a base for respect, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence. Other languages, religions, traditions became part of students' everyday life. Learning in the classroom where there are no restrictions, created a feeling of success and belonging. The project activities brought together different generations and lived up the school life. Many activities are now "organic" part of our school life.