The “European Cultural Heritage: Resource for Education”, E.C.H.R.E., is a Strategic Partnership for School Education aiming to explore the educational potential of the cultural heritage, in order to use it as teaching and learning resource, in European education and in interdisciplinary science. E.CH.R.E. project addresses a target audience of teachers of any specialty, who can become true vectors for promoting European values and strengthening European identity, through deepening their knowledge about European history and culture as tool for economic development. To this purpose, we provide training activities and good practice exchanges between different actors who act in the cultural and educational world by bringing together experts in European history, archaeology and cultural heritage, sociology and economics, members of civic and teachers associations, school teachers and managers, in order to collaborate to improve the quality of European citizenship education. Eight organizations will collaborate in this partnership 4 Non profit organisations with 4 schools in 4 countries. Non profit organisations are closely engaged with the education mostly composed of teachers supporting ICT integration in education and promoting European values, and schools at different levels with and without European project experiences getting the chance to share and exchanges ideas and methods. Participant teachers will gain a broaden understanding of the evolutionary process of building the European identity, as a result of values accumulation over thousands of years of existence. Their training will begin with the Neolithic civilizations of Old Europe, who were peaceful, equitable and egalitarian (in terms of gender equality), (their amazing art, comprising abstract geometric paintings on pottery and gracious goddesses figurines, being a proof of their great spirituality and creativity.) Their genes have been perpetuated altogether with their values, making a half of our European identity. The study will continue with the Golden Age of Greeks and Romans, when the basis of the path of democracy and the exchange habits have been developed. Further in time, the other values have emerged, forwarding the European people through Renaissance, towards the European Union. Last but not least, the closed relations between Europeans, their hosting attitude and partners sharing the same values are explored, in order to complete the whole picture of our becoming. The long and rich history of European people has not been marred by great conflicts, wars, religious schisms, racism, plague or famine, power hunger. That is why we need to be united and work together to fulfill the European ideal, not to succumb when great crisis arise. We have to be aware that a great ideal cannot be always achieved with ease, but with patience and perseverance, through solidarity and social cohesion. Together, we will succeed, this is the message of the E.C.H.R.E. project, which teachers, ngos and other organisations will pass on, through an innovative way of learning, based on the knowledge and the exploitation of the GREAT European cultural heritage.
- Enabling teachers to strengthen the teaching by addressing cultural diversity in the classroom; - Enabling teachers and students to tackle with cultural differences and promoting progressive behaviours, appropriate for our times and level of development; - Enabling teachers to support the European heritage and values as a strong chance for economic growth, job creation and social cohesion through collaboration between organizations from different countries, as schools, museums and cultural-social associations; - Raising the students’ awareness about the cultural heritage and support its use as educational resource; - Creating open educational resources based on the uses of cultural heritage, ICT integration in education; - Strengthening the teaching profession through new skills acquisition and recognition the importance of the teachers role in society; - Promoting inclusive education and strengthening social cohesion, reminding that all of the European citizens have common values and interests; - Supporting and disseminating the power connection between the European cultural heritage/values and the real possibility to start from the similarities in different cultural backgrounds
he new technologies development and the free movement of workforce in a common market, have been the best premises for EU to develop. However, there have been lots of difficulties lately, one of them has been the migrants crisis, in which we have witnessed the confrontation between different cultures, raising the need of identity issues, for both, EU citizens and migrants. We all have, multiple layers of our identity starting from personal, national or international level. We shape our identity continuously, searching for our roots, and at the same time choosing our values and beliefs. European citizens have plenty to learn about their common identity from the great cultural heritage which exists across the Europe. Some of the teachers have been aware of their European identity and values and some have not. It is a natural part of inner personality, but it is not usually taken from outside point of view and it is not often compared with others. In our project we wanted to enlarge the possibility to think about cultural heritage from different points of view and from the point of view of inclusion. Based on history and cultural heritage find similarities which would support social inclusion.