Our Europe: a common past, a shared future

CONTEXT/BACKGROUND In a period when populist and extremist political tendencies are gaining ground and the Brexit is underway, people, mostly the young ones, too often lack the right knowledge and awareness about the history and shared values of our European Union, so strongly wanted after defeating totalitarisms. The title itself, "Our Europe", underlines such desire to create awareness and sense of belonging to Europe not only from a political point of view but as active citizens on the move, capable of appreciating the shared heritage and create business on it. OBJECTIVES As declined by the DECISION 2017/864 OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL of 17 May 2017, our specific objectives have been: - "raise awareness on the importance of Europe's cultural heritage through education and lifelong learning" - “encourage regional and local development strategies that tap into the potential of cultural heritage, including through the promotion of sustainable tourism” We aimed at reinforcing a deeper knowledge and relationship with the cultural heritage left us by our ancestors as a crucial starting point not only to enhance intercultural dialogue but also to exploit its direct and indirect economic potential. The transversal goal of our project has always consisted in fostering our students and teachers' skills and abilities to cope with and improve the society around them through a sustainable approach. We indeed engaged our students in activities pushing them to become future citizens capable of giving their personal "contribution to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion" (Erasmus+ Guide). NUMBER/PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS The international dimension of the project always always represents an added value: colleagues from different parts of Europe have worked cooperatively to reinfoce the young human capital that is supposed to play a critical role in the future european economic social and political performance. Most involved teachers already had experience in previous Erasmus Plus, so each of them has brought their expertise for the final success; the Spanish teachers, who were at their first experience, were tutored by the expert ones, in a climate of international and mutual exchange of good practices. Travelling teachers/students were less in number due to the Covid pandemic, but the overall number of involved people was much higher because even non-travelling students and teachers were involved in curricular and extracurricular activities, as a preparatory phase to each mobility and associated outcomes. ACTIVITIES/METHODOLOGY Our methodological approach privileged blended learning and cooperative activities, in order to stimulate students to mind-map, plan and learn by doing. Students took actively part to the creaiton of a set of 9 ACTIVITIES, to be carried out in the months before as preparatory phase, during and after each mobility: 1. “You tell me, I tell you” 2. “Let's map our heritage” 3. “Tourism routes as vehicles for sustainable growth" 4. "My Erasmus travel experience” 5. “Cultural Tourism” 6. “Sustainable tourism” 7. “Gastronomic tracks” 8. "Our shared peace" 9. “Creative Europe" The final activities were carried out digitally, but their expected goal was reached as well. All activities have become OER's, and the following products were created: • A WEBSITE • A PROMOTIONAL SPOT • A multilingual PENDRIVE for all participants • Dedicated BROCHURES for each mobility RESULTS/IMPACT The project has furnished a starting point to motivate students to go deeper through the theme of cultural heritage and sustainable development. In a society where individuals are expected to be adaptive but also innovative, creative, self-directed and self-motivated, the O.E. project has gone beyond the basic reproduction of accumulated knowledge: all cooperative activities involved a mobilisation of cognitive and practical skills, creative abilities and other psychosocial resources such as attitudes, motivation and values, which students found out and exploited thanks to a learn by doing learning environment. At the centre of our planned activities there was indeed the promotion of our students' ability to appreciate teh cultural heritage and see it as a tool to exploit fro a sustainable/economic point of view. LONGER TERM BENEFITS All the project results have become part of each school curriculum, to be exploited as OERs by all school staff (the official website will remain active after the project end). If the short term impact will be measured while developing the project, while the long term impact will be monitored, under the supervision of the coordinating school, for 3 years after finishing activities. The potential long term benefits will be: - deeper understanding of the European heritage and values - higher number of students taking up higher school careers linked to heritage and tourism (around 70% of the students going to university took up studies linked to languages and tourism) - a change of mindset of all involved participants in the project, resulting in more collaborations between the school system and public/private stakeholders - school internationalization and desire to take part to future Erasmus+ - higher school visibility at a local and national level