The reasons for the project “Salt-work in progress – young Cicerones” stand on the need that each community perceives to recover its own identity by studying and knowing its own historical, cultural, naturalistic and landscape heritage. Our school is located in Margherita di Savoia in Puglia in the South of Italy, in a land with good tourist capabilities due to a large coast with iron sand, a large number of beach resorts and the largest saltwork in Europe, which are the source for tourist, fauna and thermal wealth. Through the direct knowledge of their land and the awareness of its peculiarities and changes, together with the study of its roots and local traditions, first of all we intend to encourage our students to improve their feeling of belonging to their origin community. The project goals are also to educate to the sustainable development applying behaviours which take care of energy savings and appreciate culture and environment heritage, encouraging safeguard behaviours towards landscape in order to transform young learners in informed citizens. This path is a real experience of active European citizenship and encourages youngers to feel directly involved in social, cultural and economic life of their community, becoming examples for other European youngers in a peer educational exchange. With this project we intend to improve base and soft skills, such as communication, critical thinking, creativity, motivation, entrepreneurship, problem-solving, cooperative learning and learning by learning. As well it will involve all school levels of our institution and its staff, its students and families, local institutional bodies at a different levels. Our institution will deal with the project coordination, sharing activity planning and implementation with all partners. A contacting person will be appointed and he/she will coordinate activities locally, he/she will manage correspondence and info exchange, checking that all tasks will be performed as per activity program undersigned by partners. Each partner will inform regularly its own staff and the participating students and they will assure that outcomes and results will be disseminated locally in order to maximize their impact on the whole education community and on the district, in order to get a feedback also at a European level. Besides each partner will have the liability to manage its own budget and will arrange appropriate meeting and exchange between students, preparing a complete program to assure the success of the experience. The project will involve about 80 people between staff and students, with three mobile students in Italy, Slovenia and Portugal. Besides two international meetings will be planned, one in Greece (starting meeting) and one in Romania (final meeting). In order to get an optimum organisation, the Institution expects to undersign an agreement between the partner schools. It which will define duties and rights of each part, as well the schedule of meetings and mobility. Particularly, the mobility participants will be the students of the middle school, with their accompanying teachers. Students’ families will be engaged in the welcome phase of the foreign students involved in the mobility. The younger students who do not take part directly to mobility, could help actively by creating a project in eTwinning platform supporting their peers of the middle school in the guide and hospitality activities of their European peers. The expected activities will involve all students, included those with less social, economic and cultural opportunities at various levels. They will deal with research activities and training about environment, historical and artistic treasures of their land, creation of posters, brochures, information leaflets, also in foreign language, steward services, hospitality and tourist guide, photo recording, videos and production of multimedia presentations, also in foreign language, documentation of the different activities on eTwinning platform. We expect that the project advantages will be remarkable in the long term and will contribute to the curricula updating of the partner schools. We think that the transnational activities can give value and promote multilingualism and the knowledge of foreign cultures, as well they can contribute to adopt intercultural perspectives in the knowledges and skills for a plural cohabitation and the formation of a European citizenship. From the point of view of point of view, the project refers to some of the ONU Agenda 2030’s goals for the sustainable development, based on the sustainable management of natural resources and on the inclusive learnings and learnings of quality.
The reasons for the project “Salt-work in progress – young Cicerones” stood on the need that each community perceives to recover its own identity by studying and knowing its own historical, cultural, naturalistic, and landscape heritage which is often taken for granted mainly by young people. The coordinator school which is located in a land with the largest saltworks in Europe, which is a valuable source for tourists, fauna, flora, and thermal wealth, decided to catch the interest of other European schools (Romania, Slovenia, Greece, and Portugal) established in a similar environment in order to develop a project of analysis, compare and exchange of info related to saltworks and saltpans. Rooted in the project “Apprendisti Ciceroni” by FAI (the National Trust for Italy) for School, the school coordinator and the other schools supported students in the direct knowledge of their district and the awareness of its peculiarities and changes, its roots and local traditions, in order to encourage pupils to improve their feeling of belonging to their origin community, and also educate them to the deep knowledge and value appreciation of the cultural and environmental heritage of their saltpans by comparing them with the similar ecosystems located in other latitudes in order to have aware young citizens. This path was associated with a real experience of active European citizenship which encouraged youngers to feel directly involved in the social, cultural, and economic life of their community, becoming tourist young guides for other European youngers in a peer educational exchange. With this project, we intended to improve base and soft skills, such as communication, critical thinking, creativity, motivation, entrepreneurship, problem-solving, cooperative learning, and learning by learning. As well it involved all levels of concerned schools (from the kindergarten to the middle lower school), and so their staff, students and families, local institutional bodies at different levels. There were 3 steps of analysis and exchange of info about saltpans: 1. Fauna in the saltpans; 2. Flora in the saltpans; 3. Saltpans and human activities. A contacting person was appointed and coordinated activities locally, managed correspondence and info exchange, checking that all tasks were performed as per activity program undersigned by partners. Each partner informed regularly its own staff and the participating students and disseminated assured outcomes and results at the school level, but also local communities by meeting libraries, tourist info point,s or administrative entities. Each partner organized mobilities with students preparing a complete program to assure the success of the experience. The project involved directly 80 participants (staff and students), who engaged in three mobilities in Italy, Slovenia, and Portugal with students and two mobilities only for staff, one in Greece (first meeting) and one in Romania (final meeting) necessary to plan before and summarize later the tasks and the results of the whole project, allowing the participating schools to acquire higher competencies for other European projects. For each mobility, the host school selected 5 young cicerones who lead their peers and the accompanying teachers. Due to the covid, the families of host students couldn’t accommodate their home foreign students participating in mobility (as per the project), but they spent time with them in an active way. Even if younger students (those with fewer social, economic, and cultural opportunities included) didn’t participate directly in mobility, they gave direct contributions to the implementation of the project and supported their schoolmates by leading and welcoming their European peers. They prepared posters, brochures, leaflets, also in foreign languages, steward services, hospitality and tourist guides, photo recording, videos and production of multimedia presentations, and documentation of the different activities on Twinspace platform, in eTwinning. The students directly involved in physical mobility as young cicerones showed a deep knowledge of their district, but also a higher awareness of their competencies to face difficulties, improve self-esteem and their English level, and a new way of personal and professional development. Through the project, they acquired a higher awareness of the necessity to protect their heritage in a future eco-friendly perspective which we would like to develop and implement in a future project. At the end, these transnational activities allowed us to give value and promote multilingualism and the knowledge of foreign cultures for peaceful European cohabitation with no stereotypes and bias.