The 8th European Key Competence focuses on the creative expression of ideas, experiences and emotions in a wide range of media. But since culture is a fundamental dimension of the human being, its translation in terms of "key" competence is difficult to define, especially when it comes to recognition and validation of skills. This difficulty is accentuated by the considerations and utilitarian logic, often opposing economic plan and sensible and creative plan. Revealed in all social practices and recognized as essential, even existential, by the European Commission, this 8th competence is thus much too often the forgotten one of the political and educational considerations of the national governments. However, in a global context of rising fundamentalism and populism, entry through culture favors the appreciation of a common cultural heritage and the re-appropriation of humanist values, essential to meet the current challenges of a cohesion Europe on the territories. This entry is also a powerful vector of access to key skills development courses, because it encourages and supports the engagement of individuals in a creative process of individual and collective self-training, promoting mobilization and skills development. It is therefore on this context that is fully human, moving, complex, that "Art-connection" is committed, to make visible this thread between individual creativity and societal innovation. The project partners - from four European countries: Italy, Portugal, United Kingdom with France as leader -have the ambition to bring out and enhance the cultural dimension as a human experience, ethical, aesthetic and solidarity to mobilise the creativity of everyone in the service of promoting a creative process of innovation in learning territories. The partners will combine their specific research and pedagogical practices, their expertise in the recognition and valorization of experience gained in various cultural and territorial contexts, to create together an innovative solution for the promotion of inclusive educational models. “Art-connection” aims to produce a European Memorandum to support the creation and access to key skills development pathways based on the informal field of cultural heritage common to humanity. The Memorandum will be supplemented by an e-book to contextualize and illustrate the results of the project. The project will be conducted on a global basis, built on a participatory action-research approach carried out in the four partner countries, with a variety of adult audiences and territories. Intellectual productions will be co-produced in a logic of shared responsibilities. They will be the following: - An inventory of tools and contents aimed at studying, from a literature review, the impact of the cultural dimension, in a systemic consideration, on a creative process that also allows the development of the power to act individuals, contributing to job creation, economic growth and social cohesion. - A methodological framework to define the overall participatory action-research mechanism to be implemented in the four partner countries. - A methodological framework to guarantee the quality of dissemination and sustainability of the project results. - A training course developed for several groups of professionals chosen in the context of participatory action research. - An educational package in the curricula / educational methods / training creation, for educational professionals, to support a wide variety of adult audiences, especially those experiencing social and societal exclusion. The European Memorandum resulting from all the intellectual productions of the project, will give a synthetic and oriented reading. Multiplier events organized in the partner countries, linked to intellectual productions and direct participation in the project of academic experts, will allow to connect with political institutions, researchers and actors in the field of adult vocational training, to a collective reflection, constructive and pragmatic, on the implementation of inclusive educational resources. The challenge of the “Art-Connection” project is to offer explicit teaching aids to encourage public and private organizations, production or training, to mobilize the creativity of each to meet the challenges of innovation, the ability to learn and to be open to differences, in a context of globalization and the intensified crossing of cultures.
The ambition of the four partners of the Art-Connection project - a network and three institutions working in the sectors of lifelong learning, inclusion and social work, but also cultural heritage and higher education and research, located in France, Italy, Portugal and the United Kingdom, has been to develop an innovative approach and content based on the 8th CCE, on cultural sensitivity and expression, in relation to the 22 May 2018 Council Recommendation. The challenge of the project was to promote inclusive pedagogical models to support the shift towards the construction of a new education and training paradigm in learning territories in order to generate economic growth and social cohesion. Objectives: to shed some light on the impact and role of the cultural dimension; to offer a theoretical and methodological framework underpinning the participatory action research approach; to develop educational materials for the professionalization of actors in the field of adult education and training; to provide pedagogical tools to accompany them in this paradigm shift.
A first study on the cultural dimension within the framework of the Eure.K project "Validating the 8 European Key Competences" (Erasmus+ 2015 > 2018) carried out by the CNAM Paris, had highlighted the intrinsic impact of culture and of the 8th EKC - relating to cultural sensitivity and expression - on the development of individual and collective skills promoting inclusion and social cohesion in the territories. Paradoxically, it was noticed that it was also the most neglected and the most difficult to bring out among the 8 EKC. APapp and ILS partners of the Eure.K project were convinced that it was important to start a real work of valorization of the 8th EKC by allowing individuals regardless of their age or values to share experiences, emotions, without linguistic, social, ethnic barriers, with a global strategic aim of re-establishing a virtuous bond between social solidarity and economic progress in order to deal in particular with the rise of fundamentalism.