PROJECT SUMMARY Our project is based on the thought, that we have to tear down prejudices, when we want to build an European Union, that is modulated to a shared identity. That identity is - among other things - related to a humanistic tradition. This particular tradition revolves around the idea of cultural diversity instead of demarcation of purely national interests. The credo of the humanistic tradition, to never feel superior above any other nation, is therefore addressed to all nations. Our assumption is, that overcoming prejudices will help to develop a suspension of judgments about each other. Our main aim is to focus on cultural diversity, which can be found in and between the schools of the participating countries: Turkey, Lithuania, Romania, Greece and the Netherlands. We believe, that we can learn from each other, once we have learned something about the very different customs and traditions. During our two year project, we wish, that our pupils will be able to embed cultural differences in a specific ethnohistorical context. The main aim of our school-to-school exchange is to create openness and tolerance between the partners, as an example of good practice in Europe. First of all, we will introduce topics, that embody the countries' diversity. The symbolic meaning of traditional Romanian folk dancing is one example; another example is the embedding of designs on Turkish carpets in their specific cultural context. Why can we find the cultural heritage of the Dutch in the paintings of their great masters, like Rembrandt? Why is the ancient ritual of baking bread so important for Lithuania's inhabitants? And why are Homer's writings an example of Greece's humanistic tradition? If we can trigger the curiosity of our pupils about the answers to those questions, we will reach a state beyond prejudice, in which we can share our cultural heritage. After having learned about the differences, we see it as the next step to name the communalities between the participating partners. What do we recognize in each other's culture and how does that bind us? In the exchanges, we hope to learn appreciation of cultural diversity and its expressions in literature, crafts and all forms of art. During every meeting, our pupils will choose two shared values, that they find indispensable in shaping a European future together. A total of 115 pupils and 50 teachers of the countries mentioned above have the opportunity to share their traditions in an attempt, to realize more social inclusion in their own schools, but especially to draw attention to the need in Europe for more tolerance instead of fear for unknown cultures. The last project week is planned in Brussels, where our pupils - in a symbolic gesture - will offer a declaration to members of the European Council, in which they describe their top ten of shared values. Methodologically, our learning experience hinges on the idea, that once we have understood unique traditions, we are able of showing tolerance. On the didactic level, the teachers involved will take care of a project-based embedding in a particular ethnohistorical context. Before and after all six project meetings, spread over two years (December 2018-December 2020), we are able to monitor every learning step by: - stimulating eTwinning and producing YouTube movies in the preparatory phase (before the beginning of the project); - holding online questionnaires about the pupils' thoughts about each other's cultures to ensure a clear view of the pursued goals; - writing special newsletters after every meeting (in English and in the national language of the participants) on a special google blog, that we will also start in the preparatory phase. - by giving the participants e- booklets with pictures and stories about the learning activities; - formulating two shared values based on the experiences with each other after every meeting. This will result in 10 shared values at the end of the project; - we will offer 10 shared values in Brussels to members of the European Council, in which we plead for tolerance for and openness to other cultures; - our didactic materials will be bundled and published on the School Education Gateway (meant for this purpose). The results and the impact, envisaged with this project, is social inclusion within our schools for different cultural backgrounds (for instance gypsies in Romania and refugees in Turkey and Greece); hereby creating more awareness about the embedding of particular cultural expressions in diverse traditions. Most of all, we want to emphasize, that the fear for each other's cultures is a threat for shared democratic values. We firmly believe, that we must uphold the idea of a shared identity in the EU, to guarantee a living environment, in which the stability of the Union will not solely depend on political agreements, but on mutual understanding of manifold participants.
Our project on the importance of shared values has in every way delivered what our schools were aiming at: learning from each other's cultures. One of the most important goals of our project was to create more tolerance to possible cultural differences. The topic of intercultural learning came back in the lessons, in the preparation phase, during the exchanges and also afterwards (via evaluation forms). The didactic focus of our project was on general human needs, such as food, music and dance, traditional handicrafts, and of course the art and culture of the participating countries in general. In our approach, i.e. in our workshops, we sticked to our learning by doing methods that we agreed upon in the beginning. Cooking together, making music, dancing together, weaving, making pottery, and all the other aspects of intercultural learning were main component of the exchanges and basis for more awareness about cultural differences and possible similarities. Creating more understanding for each other’s cultures was one of the aims of our exchanges. Direct results of our meetings were the moments of reflection on the importance of shared values. We did that in several ways. Pre-corona our students filled in an evaluation form in which they expressed their appreciation for certain values they encountered in another culture. But during the time our schools closed due to corona and any further physical exchanges seemed impossible, we decided to prepare some interim activities in which our students could exchange virtually. However, our perspective had also changed: during the virtual exchanges, personal values that were directly linked to the wellbeing of the participants came to the fore. We explicitly asked about the values that helped participants through a long period of social isolation during corona. The six core values that we discovered during our corona-related online mobility seemed to say more about the connectedness of our participants than the two shared values that each physical exchange yielded. Therefore, we changed our strategy, knowing that corona would be accompanying our project permanently, also in the following school year. At that time not knowing about the duration of the pandemic and possibilities to travel again, we tried to focus on the six core values that were the most important during harsh times. We adjusted our future program and decided to build a ‘wall of wishes’ for Europe, a symbolic and artsy translation of the six core values. In the following school year (’21,’22) the situation allowed to plan a meeting on Crete, which would be the last meeting in a partner’s country. On Crete we asked pupils in a workshop about shared values to formulate wishes for future Europe based upon the six core values we already found. These wishes were shared in our schools and were part of what we call a manifesto for shared values, that we handed over to representatives of the EACEA in Brussels. The Technasium of the Dalton Lyceum designed and created a glass representation of our Project’s logo, containing the six wishes for Europe. 1. Family: Never forget where you come from; 2. Friendship: let friendship help to overcome national differences; 3. Faith: Have faith in yourself and in others; 4. Hope: We hope for a future where gender, color or sexual orientation simply do not matter anymore; 5. Courage: Don’t fear to be different; 6. Freedom: We support freedom of speech, gesture, press and expression. Because it was impossible to visit the EU Parliament in December of 2021, we decided to organize a conference after the project duration, in which local politicians will also participate. The conference will be conducted by the internationalization classes of the Dalton Lyceum and will take place at the end of March 2022. All participating schools have committed to contribute to this conference. Next to that, we have asked four schools from other European countries that we already knew from previous projects, to participate in this final and concluding event. We see facilitating a discussion about the importance of common values not only as a means but also as an objective of our project. On the longer term our schools will benefit from the knowledge gained about each other's culture, dealing with cultural differences, but especially from the benefits of intercultural learning. All participants learnt that we sometimes need another perspective to broaden our own. And that cultural differences are not about right or wrong, because they often can be explained by a country’s historical genesis and also someone’s personal history – like during corona, when the effects of social isolation became tangible for everyone. Our five schools plan a new project in the upcoming year about environment and sustainability. Entirely in the set-up of the current and the future project, we want to make the existing friendship between our schools sustainable.