The project "Let's cultivate peace through universal brotherhood" founds its origin in a common will of inclusion and struggle against school failure and dropout, by implementing pedagogical innovating strategies. It aims at providing more attractive education in line with students’ needs and expectations concerning their future school success. Our common will is to fight school failure and dropout by implementing innovative teaching strategies. All six partner- institutions are located either in small or peripheral towns or in unpriviledged neighborhoods and their students come from rather low social-economic backgrounds. Most of the schools significantly lack means and the students’ families are often unable to cope with the their children's school failures or to provide them with incentives for successful studies. The six schools face the same needs and struggle for similar problems. The need to work together came from the common problem: the schools have low achievement results and students inclusion problems. Four out of the 5 schools were former ERASMUS partners and one is currently engaged wth us on two Etwinning projetcs. By focusing on Citizenship and Peace , two fundamental concepts, we can strongly motivate our students with learning difficulties in otherwise conventional education/formal education. One of the main aims of this project is to create modern, committed and professional staff in our schools. We also wish to provide new opportunities for all teachers who are committed to work in interdisciplinary projects. At a time when the world is shaken by terrorism and horror, and nationalist fallback, thus jeopardazing the European unity, the project aims at mobilizing the educational communities of the six institutions on a lasting culture of peace based on learning of citizenship and values that we share. It is through " peace actions” that we will share our common European values, such as brotherhood, tolerance, openness , rejection of discrimination and that we will develop basic and transversal skills, aiming at a significant improvement in language skills and education in the target institutions. We have planned short-term joint staff trainings for project teachers and intramural in-service teacher trainings on recognition of students learning styles and intelligences. The project is innovative as we focus on the connection between formal and non-formal education. This partnership relies both on the "project teams" composed of staff and teachers, and students of the project which make up about 20 to 50% of total students. These teams will have the responsibility to involve the school as much as possible, by disseminating ideas, innovations, best practices and results to educational staff and other students. A closer look will be brought to dropout students and / or absentee and all staff will be trained on the new methods proposed by the project. This collaboration is based on the use of innovative ICT tools and TwinSpace as virtual mobility, and should enable the involvement of all actors in both interactive and constructive approaches. These tools will help working well with peace and citizenship, while improving the practice of mother tongue as well as the foreign languages. All educational activities of the project are based on the four main domains: Democracy, Memory against oblivion, Let's Walk For Peace and for a Participatory citizenship. These domains are the core of the project and seek to give meaning to the teaching provided to students. To achieve the goals and objectives of the project, we will make optimal use of the expertise of each partner, developing trainings that will impact both adults and children. A sound division of labor between the partners is also designed to optimize the implementation of the project. As for mobility activities, they aim at training partners on innovative methods and allowing the exchange of extensive practices, by educating them through a culture of peace for active citizenship at European level and fight all cultural/social/ religious barriers that prevent them from thinking, learning and working beyond their national borders.. This project will enable us to implement new ideas and solutions through the creation of different dissemination activities to enable the diffusion of results emphasizing on a scale of impact beyond the institutions, to other schools in the regions, or neighboring schools and communities and bring positive and long-lasting effects on our schools. Trainings and seminars are thus provided to form regional educational staff, while aiming at impacting the educational and official authorities of each partner institutions. We thus wish to perpetuate these actions, trainings and tools,to measure the impact of the current project, up to several years after its end. The web collaborative platforms and implementation results can be available, in Open Educational Resources, to help ensure the continuity of the project
This project was part of a continuity that was intended to be twofold. It was the result of the extension of an E-twinning project “Let’s Act for Peace”, initiated with the Italian partner, one year earlier. It also expressed a desire to strengthen ties with the European partners of the previous Erasmus project "Share our values in the effort"As a result of this project, other Erasmus projects may be foreseen with some partners and/or the establishment of twinning between some institutions. The objectives were to improve the learning of a foreign language, to fight against school dropout and absenteeism, to provide students with clear and concrete European perspectives in the field of the culture of peace by creating a humanitarian dynamics, The total number of participants in the project amounts to about 3000 people, namely the students and teams involved in the project in the foreground, but also all pupils of schools and the educational community of these schools. We can add parents who have been involved throughout the project, as well as various partners and associations at the local level. The supervisory authorities were also involved in the project, albeit indirectly. As a result, all the objectives set out in the project submission package have been achieved. In addition, we were able to add two important axes to the project because they give an international dynamic to our project: the KAKI TREE project and the International Day of Living Together in Peace. We have seen a marked improvement in the level of English among our students, especially since they have understood the importance of mastering this language, which, from a simple academic subject, has become a real communication tool. The dropouts found motivation to reconcile with the school environment, because thanks to the project, they were able to express their talents and highlight their skills, far from any purely academic performance. Without fear of being judged, they were able to express their know-how in various artistic fields and, above all, they were able to be strong of proposals. They thus reconnected with a school system, in a space without value judgement about their academic difficulties; these students who have regained some self-confidence and self -esteem have been asking for other projects. The need to establish a culture of peace, through dialogue and living together, has gradually appeared to the pupils as a self-evidence. They realized that some of their attitudes could create a negative atmosphere in the classroom. They understood the effects of exclusion and rejection, through activities such as storyboards and role-playing. They also became aware of the importance of creating lasting peace between countries by opening up to other European countries. The issue of the culture of peace was thus able to take on its full meaning. In addition, they realized that peace is not only synonymous with the absence of conflict, but that it is a way of life that is part of continuity. In this regard, theywere able to attend workshops linking peace and ecology and sustainable development. The visit of the European Parliament to Strasbourg has given birth to or strengthened this European identity that until then seemed distant and inaccessible to them. The establishment of the Peace Schools Network (with the application), the Kaki Tree project and the celebration of the International Day of Living Together have given the project a permanent status. Indeed, for the Kaki Tree Project a ceremony must take place every year for 10 years. This will be an opportunity to recall the origin of the project and to revive the memory of the Erasmus project. The activities carried out during these two years are visible on the Twinspace of the project, but also on the Facebook page and on the website of the project. A Twitter account was also created to give visibility to the project on specific actions. Among these actions, we can mention the participation in workshops for peace in Greece, especially through associations that promote peace through ecology and sustainable development. The students also took part in the March for Peace, which takes place every two years in Italy, and which brings together students from the Italian network of peace schools as well as civil society actors. Our students, in international groups, first drafted in English, then in their respective languages, a Chart of Universal Brotherhood, that they have offered to a German Deputy upon their visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as part of the mobility to Germany