The project "Clichés et préjugés : œuvrons pour vivre ensemble de manière respectueuse et tolérante" was initiated because all of the partners believe that a lot of misunderstandings, discriminations or even sufferings are caused by prejudices against nations, groups of populations - depending on culture, race, religion or age. Prejudices often find their start in clichés which lead to mistaken opinions about others. These opinions may be quite harmless but they can also be offensive and dangerous. We want our students to be aware of these dangers and critically study all kind of information provided in the various print or online media. This is the main objective of our project, an objective which brings with it the revision of certain attitudes and the loss of unfounded prejudices. We want to reach our goals by identifying clichés and prejudices the partners have about the other partner countries. In our meetings it will be easy to get rid of these prejudices as students live in families and have a chance to get insight into comeletely normal routine in the host country. They will learn that young people have the same interests, anxieties, demands all over Europe independent of the country they live in and the social surroundings. Of course, each of the four planned meetings puts special focus on one or several special topics, like homophobia, cybermobbing, discrimination against people with a migrational background or against certain denominational groups. The project partners are from Austria, France, Bulgaria and Italy. The Austrian school, the applicant institution, is the Bundes- und Bundesrealgymnasium Wieselburg, a school located in Lower Austria in a rural area which puts special focus on talented pupils and languages. The French partner is the Lycée polyvalent Claude Nougaro in Caussade near Toulouse in France. This school offers vocational education next to general education. The Bulgarian Partner, the ’Peyo Yavorov’’ foreign language high School, is situated in the town of Silistra, Bulgaria. This is a town situated on the river Danube close to the border to Romania. The school is a rather small school which puts focus on language skills as to improve employability and chances for their graduates. The Italian partner, the Istituto Superiore E. Mattei in Fiorenzuola d’Arda in the North-West of Italy is a school for upper secondary education which offers five different branches also in the field of vocational education. All schools will work with a team of two to four teachers who are the main contact persons and a team of 20 to 30 students. Nevertheless, especially during the meetings in each country other pupils and staff will also be involved in the activities. Activities will be carried out before the meetings, results will then be presented and compared at the meetings and evaluated by all participants. Activities will include questionnaires on the topics, research in literature and newspapers as well as in on-line media. Part of the work, like the analysis of selected items of literature, will take part in classes as there are teachers of foreign languages or the mother tongue involved in all teams. Quesionnaires will be produced in classes but students will be expected to carry out some of their work in their spare time as they have to interview people or also members of their families. With some of the topics photo exhibitions will be organised. All activities will be documented and up-loaded on eTwinning which will also be used as a means of communications. Students are also supposed to discuss the ongoing work in video conferences and share material. We intend to use Twinspace and run a blog there. Dissemination of our meetings and other public activities will also be made via local media. Important for our work is also the presentation of the project at various school events. As far as methodology is concerned we use various methods in our work. On the one hand, we want guided research in lessons, monitoring of the production of questionnaires, leaflets, brochures etc. On the other hand, we want pupils to work independently, interview people, interpret material. Teachers are expected to offer guidance whenever requested and monitor the progress. We also want to promote the intercultural and social skills of our pupils. For this the meetings are of great importance as the pupils have personal contact and stay in a host family in another country. Improved language skills are a side product of all these activities and are also of great importance to the involved teachers. Language skills in English and in French are aimed at. The desired impact of the project is the decrease of prejudices and a motivation for international activities in the long run. We want to continue our relations and aim at more activities andfollow-up projects. International skills are important for all schools involved. Through participation in such projects we want to gain more students.
The serious illness of project initiator Margit Laimer, to which she finally succumbed in May 2021, presented us as a coordination school with a great emotional and organisational challenge. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the COVID 19 pandemic made it practically impossible to plan meetings in presence from March 2020 onwards. We wanted to continue the project in any case and therefore decided to replace the planned, still outstanding mobilities with virtual meetings. The solidarity of the project partners and the special (also digital) commitment of Krasimira Petrova were a great help in this. The project goals set at the beginning continued to be a tangible concern for the students: raising awareness of all forms of discrimination against entire population groups as well as individuals and the exchange of strategies and initiatives tested in practice to counteract the former. The young people dealt with the terms "cliché" and "prejudice" in general and with the situation in their own country and their immediate (school) environment in particular. The focus was on socially disadvantaged population groups, the phenomena of homophobia and cyberbullying and the encounter between "old and young". The students conducted their research using the internet and oral and written interviews and also worked with examples from literature, film and music. The continuation of the project was documented and presented in social networks, local media and at events and initiatives within and outside the respective school community. We are convinced that the work on the project has increased the awareness of the topic among all participants. The students were made aware of clichés and prejudices as a breeding ground for discrimination and exclusion. They have been exposed to strategies and initiatives that counteract this cycle. At the same time, they were made aware of the responsibility that the state, society and ultimately each of us bears for our fellow citizens. It is hoped that they will internalise and pass on this ideal of respectful coexistence.