The project “Joining Hands for a Better Future” focuses on the topic of migration. We believe that dealing with this topic is crucial in order to help our students acquire intercultural sensibility and avoid biased behaviour against the foreigner based on suspect, fear, lack of knowledge. We would like our students to be open-minded and well informed, to reject conformism, racism and xenophobia and manage diversity. The project will develop according to the following stages: a) research into our past condition of poor migrants who used to settle in foreign countries to make a decent living; b) study of the present situation characterized by the massive arrival of flows of migrants for economic reasons and of refugees; c) proposals of inclusive education. We think that young people need to know their own history of emigrants, the reasons why a lot of people had to move to a foreign country and the difficulties they had to face there. Getting to know their past will help the youth develop a different attitude towards those who left their native places to look for better living conditions. The next step is to get in touch with young migrants who study in our school and/or live in our areas and explore what makes them different from us. Finally,by bringing together all the reflections and research the participants will be able to make their own proposals. The objectives of the project are: • To promote social inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding; • To achieve high intercultural competences; • To improve language competences; • To develop digital skills. The secondary schools involved in this project are IIS “da Vinci” from Italy, the coordinating school; Lycée Blaise Pascal from France; Agrupamento de Escolas João de Araújo Correia from Portugal; Liceo Caracense from Spain. They have different experiences but they share the same commitment to combating geographical, social and educational inequalities and encouraging young people to think critically. The participants will be selected using well-defined criteria and will include students with fewer opportunities related to disability, cultural differences and economic obstacles. The project teams will support these participants by monitoring all the activities and by using the methodology of cooperative learning. The number of the students, from 16 to 18 years of age, who will participate in the learning/teaching/training activities is 19 per country, the number of teachers will be 6 per country. Most activities the students are going to do are meant to raise awareness, learn to learn, create the proper working atmosphere and provide them with the necessary tools to accept diversity. The activities will consist of research, interviews, dialogues, meetings, the organization of events on International Migrants Day and World Book Day, glogs, digital diaries, articles, exhibitions, the project blog and the drawing of a calendar. The students will also take part in learning/teaching/training activities in the four partner countries. The final outcome will be a handbook of reflections on migration and proposals of inclusive education. The expected impact on the students is that they will acquire the necessary skills and competences to: • work in groups and support each other; • accept and manage diversity;• reject stereotypes and prejudice; • create a school environment where everybody may feel accepted on their own terms; • communicate in a foreign language fluently; • integrate ICT tools in their learning activities. More in general, the expected impact is the following: • increased dialogue and cooperation among all the education stakeholders; • teachers’ increased ability to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds;• enhanced media literacy; • intercultural dialogue through all forms of learning. The dissemination of the results will be conducted in diverse ways: Information and outcomes will be uploaded on the partners’ school websites in a dedicated section, on the Erasmus+ platform, Facebook, eTwinning. The results will be disseminated through school publications, school magazines, school notice boards, brochures,the project blog, local newspaper articles, contests organized at local/international levels, in staff meetings, parent–teacher meetings, Open Days and meetings with the local educational authorities and/or school governing bodies. All tangible results will be disseminated with the Erasmus+ and project logos and thus credit for the funding will be given. The longer term effects will be: - students’ awareness of diversity and the value of inclusion; - schools’ organization of local events promoting the ideas of the project and disseminating their views of vulnerability and migration;- the setting up of an international network of schools.
The project “Joining Hands for a Better Future” focused on the topic of migration. We started this partnership because we all believed that dealing with this topic was crucial in order to help our students acquire intercultural sensibility and avoid biased behaviour against the foreigner based on suspect, fear, lack of knowledge. We think that after taking part in the project our students are more open-minded and well informed and can reject conformism, racism and xenophobia and manage diversity. The project developed according to the following stages: a) research into the past, into the flows of migration in 19th and 20th centuries; b) study of the present situation characterized by the massive arrival of flows of migrants for economic and political reasons; c) proposals of inclusive education. When we discussed and wrote the project, we started from the idea that young people needed to know their own history of emigrants, the reasons why a lot of people had to move to a foreign country and the difficulties they had to face there. Getting to know the past would help the youth develop a different attitude towards contemporary migrants who leave their native places to look for better living conditions. The next step was to get in touch with young refugees and asylum seekers who study in our schools and/or live in reception centres and understand what makes them different from us. Finally, by bringing together all the reflections and research the participants were able to make their own proposals. The objectives of the project were: • To promote social inclusion, tolerance and mutual understanding; • To achieve high intercultural competences; • To improve language competences; • To develop digital skills. The secondary schools involved in this project are IIS “L. da Vinci -Nitti”, the coordinating school; Lycée Blaise Pascal from France; Agrupamento de Escolas João de Araújo Correia from Portugal; Liceo Caracense from Spain. They have different experiences but share the same commitment to combating geographical, social and educational inequalities and encouraging young people to think critically. The participants were selected using the criteria of school merit, good competence in the English language, active contribution to extracurricular school activities. Students with fewer opportunities were included, a disabled boy took part in all the activies and in the LTTA in France, and many participants were from family backgrounds characterized by cultural differences and economic obstacles. The project teams supported these participants by using the methodology of cooperative learning, by holding workshops and exposing them to a wide variety of cultural inputs. The number of the students, from 16 to 18 years of age, who participated in the learning/teaching/training activities is at least 19 per country, the number of teachers 6 per country but all the partners managed to involve more participants. Most activities that were done in the course of the project were meant to raise awareness, learn to learn, create the proper working atmosphere and provide the students with the necessary tools to accept diversity. The activities consisted of research, interviews, workshops, meetings, exhibitions, reading out loud events on International Migrants Day and World Book Day, besides the learning/teaching/training activities in the four partner schools. The outputs are Prezi presentations, digital diaries, timelines, press articles, interviews to migrants, the project blog, videos, a calendar and a handbook of reflections on migration and proposals of inclusive education. The impact is the participants’ enhanced ability to think critically and exercise judgement; their greater motivation for learning and a higher sense of initiative; the increased dialogue and cooperation among education stakeholders; the teachers’ increased ability to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds. The longer-term benefits concern the positive response of students and their parents when they see the school commitment to providing quality experiences. The students show a sense of belonging and pride while their parents have already expressed satisfaction for the actions taken. Furthermore, this successful project helps to make our network of European schools bigger with teachers who will keep co-operating and comparing their approaches and methodologies.