The European initiative of 2018 as the year dedicated to "European Cultural Heritage" highlighted the importance of promoting European richness in its cultural and strengthen the awareness of sharing a common heritage. Promotion of such shared patrimony started in 1987 when the Council of Europe officialised the Cultural Routes Program so as to show, by means of a journey through time and space, how the diversity and cultural richness of European Countries contributes to the creation of an inestimable shared cultural heritage, which also holds in it the meaning of important values such as those of human rights, cultural democracy, diversity and identity, exchanges and mutual enrichment beyond borders and centuries. It is necessary to prompt the new generation of students towards their European roots by promoting shared initiatives in synergy with other schools. "Criss Crossing Cultures" are intersecting culture systems that find in diversity their main strength. Unfortunately, according to the European Youth Study, commissioned by the TUI Foundation in May 2017, 76% of students (chosen among 7 EU Countries) consider EU as a merely economic alliance, only 30% sees it as an alliance of Countries with common cultural values whilst just for 18% of them EU has a common cultural base. Sadly 1 student out of 5 thinks that his/her own Country should leave the European Union. From such considerations, through specific Learning Teaching and Training Activities, the partnership promotes the transnational mobility of 92 participants (84 students between 14 and 15 years of age and 8 teachers) from Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, who will participate in intercultural exchanges aimed at looking further into 4 of the 32 European Cultural Routes officially recognized: the Route of the Legado Andalusi; the Phoenicians Route; the Transromanica Route; the Routes of the Olive trees. Among the project main purposes: - development of audio-oral language skills and digital skills in learners for their better work placement in the future; - improvement of pupils’ engagement within the school community in order to counteract early school leaving and failure; - deeper awareness in young people of their sense of European cultural identity as well as the social and economic importance of European Cultural Heritage; - greater internationalization of the educational approaches adopted by each partner school; - empowerment of school staff management skills for the promotion of future European projects. In order to achieve such purposes, the project foresees the implementation of innovative teaching methodologies: brainstorming, debates, project works, group tasks and peer education. The main long term expected impacts will be: - 80% of participants will improve the language level; - reduction of 10% in cases of school failures and early school leaving in each partner school; - at least 3 other project proposals for future collaborations in the framework of Erasmus + Program between one or more partner schools and other schools coming from their own networks; - 90% of participants will increase their level of cultural awareness and sense of belonging to the European Community.
The realization of the project has revolved around its fundamental theme of cultural heritage given 2018 was declared the year of the "European Cultural Heritage", an initiative that highlighted the importance of promoting European wealth in its cultural aspects as the main tool to strengthen the participants' awareness of being endowed, in diversity, with a "shared Heritage". A shared heritage whose promotion begins as early as 1987, the year in which the Council of Europe launches the Cultural Routes Programme with the intent to demonstrate, through a journey through time and space, how the diversity and cultural richness of European countries contributes to an inestimable shared cultural heritage: human beings' universal values, cultural democracy, diversity and identity, exchanges and mutual enrichment beyond borders and centuries. The focus of the project was to stimulate curiosity in the minds of European natives, a greatest challenge to be faced by accepting the opportunities offered by the European governance, but above all by creating shared initiatives in synergy with different actors, such as the Europan Schools. "Criss Crossing Cultures" represented cultural systems that intersect adnd interact, finding in the social, historical and cultural diversity of the various countries involved the main strength and convergence for the new generations. The project promoted, through the organization of " Learning Teaching and Training Activities ", the transnational mobility of 94 participants (66 students aged between 14 and 16 plus 28 teachers) from Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, who worked in the framework of an important intercultural exchange through the study of the following European Cultural Routes: the Legado Andalusi (Spain); the Phoenicians' Route (Greece); the Transromanic Route (Portugal); the Itineraries of the Olive Tree (Italy) taking into account that the "European Youth Study", commissioned by the TUI Foundation in May 2017 on the basis of a survey conducted in seven EU countries, had offered information on how the younger generations perceive the European dimension: 76% of interviewers considered the EU a purely economic alliance, only 30% of them considered it an alliance of countries with common cultural values and again only 18% of young Europeans attributed common cultural roots to the EU while 1 out of 5 thought that their Country should have left the EU. Consequently, we worked towards the achievement of the following objectives: - building a 'European cultural identity' in young people; - promotion of the concept of Europeanness; - learning of the social and economic importance of the cultural heritage of the European countries; - development in learners of audio-oral language skills and highly digital skills to be used also after the achievement of the diploma; - improving the engagement of pupils within the school community in order to counteract premature dropout and failure; - internationalization in the teaching approach adopted by the teachers; - refinement of management skills in the context of community programmes by the school staff involved. In order to achieve the mentioned objectives, the project envisaged the implementation of innovative and participatory teaching methodologies. Brainstorming, debates, project works, group tasks, peer education were teaching practices used both in each single school and during transnational mobility as main strategies to ensure the achievement of the following long-term impacts: - achievement of 90% in the number of participants who manifested a greater level of cultural awareness and sense of belonging to the European Community. - 80% improvement in the language level of the participants; - 10% reduction of failures and cases of dropout in each partner school referring to the classes of the participants; - future proposals for collaboration in projects related to the Erasmus + Programme as candidates among the schools of the partnership; The activities carried out included on-line meetings, aimed to the open the sharing of information and procedures; use of communication methods such as Skype, e-mail and Whatsapp groups. Use of digital tools for the creation of a site and a blog, videos, interviews, ppt, conferences, dissemination via Facebook and Youtube.