In the project "All the same and yet different - human rights and living together in school life", a Danish and a Liechtenstein school as well as an Austrian association with training and integration projects for refugees organize two educational initiatives with direct meeting. The main objective of the project is to provide pupils with knowledge and values about human rights and tolerance through school and experiential education methods, thereby sustainably expanding their social and intercultural skills. In the preparatory phase, the learners get to know each other via a protected chatroom, work together on an eTwinnings website and work on the topic of human rights in a variety of ways. Then the trainees themselves deal with the topic, in the form of project-oriented teaching. Ten nationally mixed groups of students work on a theme each and present their work in English at the first student exchange in the form of a ski camp in Austria and at the second in the form of a summer camp in Denmark. As a result, the learners spend a maximum of time together and experience a healthy and varied lifestyle. Especially in the camps, experiential educational elements are used to bring the group closer and to truly live up to those values in the sense of human rights, which were treated in detail in the preparatory phase. The task of the young people from the Austrian association (they are over 15 years old) is to advise the students as experts on the topic of human rights in the student projects and also to help with the presentation in the camps. Above all, the leaders will provide significant support to the teachers in terms of the content of the project. Numerous learning opportunities for expanding media and foreign language skills, peer-to-peer learning and other modern forms of teaching are opening up - learning opportunities for both pupils and teachers. To assess the impact of the method, online surveys are conducted with both qualitative and quantitative surveys of the learners. The results of the initial and interim surveys will also be used forfurther work on the project. The teachers will also report on the extension of their teaching competences. During the term, the following innovative products are created: the description of the pedagogical concept in text form and a didactic practice folder with material collection in digital form. Both should be provided free of charge, expandable and adaptable to other topics. Shortly before the end of the project, the whole package will be presented in a multiplier event in Liechtenstein, to give educational experts as well as vocational trainers from the surrounding area the opportunity to exchange experiences with us.
With this project, we wanted to contribute to our young people's sustainably strengthening their social and intercultural skills. Their knowledge of human rights should be increased primarily through active debate. Project teaching requires cooperation, solidarity and considerate interaction should be practiced and should be taken for granted as much as possible. The self-confidence in using the English language should be improved and the awareness of having carried out your own projects should increase self-competence in the long term.
We wanted to encourage our young people to actively engage with the subject of human rights. Our students are often affected by discrimination themselves, there is a lack of solidarity and consideration in dealing with each other. They know little about human rights and also about their rights as young people. We were looking for a real opportunity for them to communicate with other young people in English.