The project “Developing tolerance and mutual understanding” involves 5 schools from 5 European countries: Romania, Italy, Hungary, Turkey and Portugal. According to the SWOT analysis done by each partner in their institution, the partners indentified a series of common needs that lead to the decision to implement a project about tolerance. Violence, aggression, intolerance, racism, ethnic discrimination are tendencies that can be observed in the behavior of the students from all the partner countries. The World Values Survey shows that Romania, Turkey and Italy are the least racially tolerant countries, while Hungary and Portugal seem to be the most tolerant countries. This result along with the diverse educational and cultural background of the partners will facilitate the implementation of a successful project. The project objectives are: -to develop civic competences and increase self-esteem of 68 students from 5 EU countries -to facilitate understanding the concepts “tolerance” and “mutual understanding” at a personal level and in the European context -to equip participants with practical examples for acting as civic-minded citizens -to raise awareness about diversity and cultural identities promoting social cohesion -to boost the feeling of belonging to the EU community In accordance with the Article 2 of the Treaty on the European Union, we envisage that this international cooperation will prepare our students for living in a multicultural society being aware of the EU values, appreciating diversity. Students will interiorize tolerance and mutual understanding as active civic attitudes. For reaching the overall aim of broadening the civic mindedness emphasizing the importance of tolerance and mutual understanding impact in daily life, we decided to use an innovative approach. To reach the project objectives an innovative approach will be used. Combining the advantages of using ICT in education with the Five Factor Model theory will tackle the 5 personality dimensions: -openness to experience: students will be encouraged to express their emotions and ideas using Art. They will create together the movie “Tolerance through my eyes”, scenarios for the Forum theater, digital photos, will prepare artistic moments for the Festival of tolerance and mutual understanding. -extraversion: team building activities, sports competitions and board games are going to stimulate students’ assertiveness, sociability and personality. -agreeableness: working in international teams and creating products together will develop students’ cooperation skills. The tangible products they will create together are flashcards about the topic, the dictionary of the project, handmade bookmarks and thematic puzzles. -neuroticism: students will experience (un)pleasant emotions, anger, depression, anxiety and vulnerability during the Forum theater/ theater activity. They will become aware of how intolerance is perceived by others, develop empathy and they will see how important is to be an active citizen. The use of ICT during the activities, supported by internal cognitive aspects of learning will lead to innovative outcomes results tackling learning abilities. The activities are designed to develop the tolerance, mutual understanding, intercultural competences, social and civic spirit. The international cooperation will broaden the cross-cultural knowledge and understanding about the countries, cultures and values strengthening the feeling of belonging to a united Europe. A number of 16 students (aged between 14 and 19 years old) will attend the transnational meetings. Students will be selected before the mobilities, using transparent criteria decided by each project partner taken into consideration: English skills, ICT skills, motivation and involvement in the school-based activities. A number of 10 teachers will be directly involved in the project mobilities, but teams will be formed at the school level to facilitate a better implementation of the project. Approximately 2700 students and 120 teachers/adults will indirectly be involved in the project. Other participants who will enjoy the benefits offered by this Erasmus+ project are the administrative staff, students’ families, pedagogical staff, educational advisors, policy makers and representatives of the local authorities. The tangible products of the project are an audio dictionary, photography exhibition, calendar of the project, common movie, e-book, flashcards, thematic puzzles, handmade bookmarks, project webpages, project logo, flyers, DVD of the project, brochure. The intangible results are the development of life skills, key competences, cultural horizon, inter cultural understanding, team working skills and knowledge about the topic. All the project results will be made available on the project website. The dissemination plan will help to reach a large audience and make an impact at local, regional, national and international levels.
The partnership involved initial 5 institutions from 5 European countries and it was the result of a common work based on the SWOT analysis of the partners’ needs. The distribution of tasks was a common agreement based on the experience and willingness of the partners to share their knowledge/ experience and to get actively involved in new things. After Italian partner dropped off the project partners decided to have 2 Transnational Meeting (Romania - October 2017 and in June 2019) and 3 Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils (Portugal-February 2018, Hungary-April 2018,Turkey-October 2018). ^2 students and 34 teachers participated directly at the mobilities. The activities carried out have offered the opportunity to students to: •create new innovative products: creating flashcards and thematic puzzles •develop their inter and intra personal skills: creating handmade bookmarks, attending lessons, presenting the products, participating to workshops, being part of the play during the Forum Theater activity •develop their ICT skills: using the project webpages (common site - http://understanding.ro, Facebook group -https://www.facebook.com/groups/1450645268303998/), creating the photo album of the project, presentations (topic “My country, my city, my school”), the logo of the project, digital photos, the calendar of the project, common movie (“Tolerance through my eyes”), the e-book (with the scenarios from the Forum Theater activity) •activate their civic duty of getting to know the lifestyle of other European communities •participate at sports competitions: playing board games, participating at outdoor and indoor activities Our project was designed to involve more students than teachers, thus these four activities have provided maximum benefit to the students. The teachers involved in the project have offered guidance and help whenever necessary; they have boost students’ confidence to trust themselves more and to dare to present their own ideas to the peers. In order to better implement the project, the partners agreed to divide the tasks at a national level, too, by sharing the responsibilities. Therefore, each partner was responsible to set up a project team for the implementation, dissemination, monitoring-evaluation and budget control of the project. These teams have as a main role to ensure the project develops in optimal conditions and are formed by coordinators, legal representatives, language teachers, IT teachers and accountants. In order to ensure the success of the project, each partner holds the responsibility to set up project clubs that organize activities for the students directly involved in the project, but also for anyone interested to join it. The project activities carried out at a national and international level aimed to encourage the school community to be more tolerant and understanding.