Over the last decade a rise of nationalism can be noted within European societies. HERCULE - an acronym that stands for 'HERitage and CULture in Europe' - is a project that aims to create a better understanding of the benefits of multiculturalism and cooperation on a European level. It is our goal to make students more aware of the specifics of their own national identity and cultural heritage, and at the same time learn about other European cultures so that they will be able to appreciate both their own culture and other cultures more. A special focus within this project is dedicated to migration. How can immigrants contribute to local cultures? How can local cultures and its traditions and customs be transferred to immigrants? Cultures are not static, and therefore participants will need to understand how cultures develop, change and adapt over time, in order to keep their relevance in a globalising and integrating world. Our objectives are to (1) create a better understanding of and knowledge about the learner's local and national culture, their cultural heritage and their daily life and habits; (2) create knowledge about the way immigrants are adapted in local/national culture and the difficulties immigrants experience in doing so; (3) create insight in the complexity of adapting culture to a changing society, and creating awareness of the necessity to actively contribute to and participate in cultural heritage; (4) make students learn about other European cultures, understand what makes them unique, and create a sense of value to both other cultures as well as one's own culture; and (5) learn to cooperate with learners/teachers of other schools in other countries on a joint project in a non-native language (English). To reach the objectives, HERCULE will require participating learners to fulfill a number of assignments. 25 learners aged 15-16 of every partner school will be selected to visit another school, hence 150 students will be involved in the actual exchange programme. At every school, during the week that the exchange students are hosted, other learners of the school, as well as members of staff, will participate in the cultural and educational activities. Thus HERCULE will reach many more students and members of staff within the six partner schools. The project consists of various assignments for the participating learners. The first assignment for aspiring learners will be to answer a questionnaire about cultural heritage and knowledge. The results of this questionnaire, that will be repeated at the end of the project, will give data that show the revenues/results of the project. The results will then be used by the teachers to evaluate the different assignments, and how each of them have contributed to the objectives of the project. This insight will be used to modify the education system and tools used in how citizenship education is organised now, as well as adaptations to future exchange programmes and cultural heritage awareness. This will create long term benefits for our schools, as well as other schools that look into HERCULE through the eTwinning and Erasmus+ websites. Further assigments are designed to prepare both visiting another country as well as hosting visitors from other countries and other cultures. These assigments are designed to make use of eTwinning, and stimulate cooperation between students of all participating schools in mixed groups. These assignments will teach students about their own culture and its heritage, the culture of other countries, the process of integration of migrants into its own society and other societies. And of course it will teach them how to cooperate with students of another background of other schools in a joint effort through usage of modern technology in eTwinning. After these preparatory assignments are fulfilled, the exchanges will start. During each exchange the local learners will prepare activities that aim to actively involve both local learners that are not involved in one of the exchanges as well as the visiting learners to participate, hence better understanding the cultural heritage of the hosts. Examples are wood-crafting in Germany, traditional song in Lithuania, celebrating King's Day in the Netherlands et cetera. Special classes designed to create better knowledge and understanding of the local culture will be prepared by local teachers. The conceptual idea students have on how migrants could learn and appreciate the local culture are first debated with teachers of the school, and implemented during the exchange on the visiting learners and teachers. Through a questionnaire each visit is evaluated in order to improve following exchanges within HERCULE. After the final exchange, all results that derive from the questionnaires and lessons learned by the involved teachers, will lead to a final evaluation of HERCULE, the possible improvements for future exchanges and education in citizenship and in cultural heritage.
The main goal of HERCULE was to make students more aware of the specifics of their own national identity and cultural heritage, and at the same time learn about other European cultures so that they will be able to appreciate both their own culture and other cultures more. A special focus within this project is dedicated to migration. How can immigrants contribute to local cultures? How can local cultures and its traditions and customs be transferred to immigrants? Cultures are not static, and therefore participants will need to understand how cultures develop, change and adapt over time, in order to keep their relevance in a globalising and integrating world. Our objectives were to (1) create a better understanding of and knowledge about the learner's local and national culture, their cultural heritage and their daily life and habits; (2) create knowledge about the way immigrants are adapted in local/national culture and the difficulties immigrants experience in doing so; (3) create insight in the complexity of adapting culture to a changing society, and creating awareness of the necessity to actively contribute to and participate in cultural heritage; (4) make students learn about other European cultures, understand what makes them unique, and create a sense of value to both other cultures as well as one's own culture; and (5) learn to cooperate with learners/teachers of other schools in other countries on a joint project in a non-native language (English). To reach the objectives, HERCULE required participating learners to fulfill a number of assignments. 25 learners aged 14-16 of every partner school were selected to visit another school. After the Swedish partner cancelled participation in december 2021, a total of 130 students were involved in the actual exchange programme. At every school, during the LLTA, other learners of the school, as well as members of staff, participated in the cultural and educational activities. Thus HERCULE reached many more students and members of staff within the partner schools. The first assignment for aspiring students was to answer a questionnaire about cultural heritage and knowledge. The results of this questionnaire, that was repeated at the end of the project, gave data that show the revenues/results of the project. In preparation of participating in a LTTA, each national group prepared a presentation in English about the local/national culture, thus creating a better awareness of their own culture. This presentation was held live during the LTTAs, where the culture of the hosting school was centre point. Through classes, group assignments, presentations, excursions, museum visits, food, workshops and debates, the students not only got to understand the culture of the host school and the other participating schools, they also got to understand the complexity of the topic of migration. Various migrants showed how they built their life in that particular city and which struggles they had overcome to learn the local culture. During the LTTAs, local participants took an active role organising the LTTA, either by setting up the program (Amsterdam), giving classes (Vilnius), holding presentations (Genoa and Germany) or being tour guide (Genoa, Spain, Germany). Especially the last proofed valuable both for local and visiting students. During each LTTA teachers evaluated the program in order to improve following LTTAs within HERCULE. After the LTTAs, results from the student questionnaires and lessons learned by the involved teachers, lead to a final evaluation of HERCULE, showing which project elements were successful and which were not. After the restart of the project late 2021, given the tight timeframe left to finish the project, it was decided to alter the assignments and no longer use eTwinning in preparation of the LLTA's. The new assignments still taught students about their own culture and its heritage and the process of integration of migrants into its own society. Learning about other cultures, other countries' process of integration of migrants and cooperations with students of another background and other schools was implemented during the LLTA's. Main conclusion of our project is that participants succesfully learned the variety of cultural heritage, both of their own as well as other European cultures, secondly that they succesfully learned to understand the complexity of migration, third they improved their level of English and fourth: 96% would like to participate in an Erasmus+ program in the future! The teachers learned that to make the topic of (a foreign) cultural heritage accessible, starting with food, arts, music and sports is best, followed by social sciences such as history and geography. Learning cultural heritage through literature and language is the hardest. Three future projects/exchanges, involving all partners one way or the other, have already started up or will start no later than 2023. A great result after a wonderful joint project.