The project "Nations and Nationalism in a Comparative European Study" takes its clue from the current challenge Europe is facing due to the increasing attractiveness of parties with national agendas. The project involves schools from five countries which, in addition to similarities, also have significant differences in the subject: Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Hungary. Five schools will participate in the project: four high schools and one vocational school. A total of 100-150 students and more than ten teachers will be directly involved. Other staff of the schools, as well as parents and diverse educational partners will also be involved in the project. In addition to continuous project work, during which the schools are in contact via eTwinning, four short-term exchanges of students and a joint teacher seminar are intended to guarantee the success of the project. On the one hand, these short-term exchanges are aimed at a common content-related examination of the subject area; on the other hand, they - as well as the teacher seminar - focus on the acquisition of media skills, because the aim of the project is to ensure that the students present the results of their work to each other and - at the least - to the various school publics with the help of explanatory videos the students will create. In addition to the content and media dimension, the linguistic dimension also plays an important role, since the students have to express their findings and communicate in a foreign language, as English will be their common project language. Students should, on the one hand, develop an awareness of the similarities and differences of their respective national stories in a European context by studying different concepts of 'nation' and different forms of nationalism. On the other hand, they should reflect the significance of these concepts for the history of Europe in the past, present and future. The range of concepts discussed is broad: from the concept of a Europe of mother countries (de Gaulle; AfD) to the construction of a European nation (Ulrike Guérot). Many key qualifications of students are promoted. Overall, the project takes a propaedeutic approach. The students deal with various historical and social-scientific theoretical approaches to nationalism, reflect them critically and develop analytical guiding questions (reflection and question competence). For this purpose, a common reader is developed in advance. By applying different types of research learning, they use these approaches and check their respective plausibility on the basis of historical material (archive work, examination of historical research literature, exploration of national places of remembrance). Thus different methodological competences of the pupils are promoted. They continue to present and compare their results to each other with the help of explanatory videos. Together, they then develop additional explanatory videos that aim to look at nations and nationalisms from a European perspective. In the long term, we will make the learning products created by the students permanently available to all students of the participating schools via the respective learning platforms and thus also make them available for educational use in classrooms. In addition to the media competence of the students, this work also promotes their orientation competence. With this project work and the associated learning products, we do not only expect an increased understanding of the importance of nation, nationalism and nation-state in European history – as a long-term benefit –, but above all a reflection on the challenge posed by nationalist agendas for the political idea of a united Europe as a peace project. In addition, the project, with its exchanges and trips, aims to promote the mobility of students with regard to their future studies or professional life.
The starting point for the project "Nations and Nationalism in European Comparison" was the current challenge facing Europe due to the increasing attractiveness of parties with national agendas in the states of the European Union. The students dealt with the current manifestations of national consciousness and nationalism and with the historical genesis of the respective nation states. The five countries involved were specifically chosen to highlight significant differences (s. typology by Schieder): Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and Hungary. This selection also proved successful in the course of the project, as it promoted controversy and thus discussion. Due to the pandemic, there were organisational changes. 1. more pupils were included in the project than originally planned due to the extension. 2. During the shut-down, we realised during the online events that we had set the theoretical standard too high. That's why we decided to do without the planned reader. 3. the planned teacher training was cancelled in order to carry out another mobility with the pupils instead. This promoted the motivation of the pupils and the feeling of togetherness, but the change did not have a positive effect on the coordination and training of the teachers with regard to the production of teaching videos and the curriculum envisaged. The short-term exchanges that were carried out achieved the desired content-related examination of the subject area as well as the acquisition of media skills, since the pupils presented the results of their work to each other and at least to the various school publics in the form of explanatory videos. Oral and written communication in English, the common project language, was promoted. By dealing with different conceptions of nation and forms of nationalism, the pupils developed an awareness of the similarities and differences of their respective national histories in the European context. In Stockholm, we dealt with the genesis of individual nation-state formations, followed by an intensive examination of national symbols in Budapest. In Rome, we focused on the significance of sport for the internal cohesion and of nations and for the competition between different nation states. In Villers-Cotterêts, cultural expressions of national feeling were the focus of the joint activities (music, theatre, food). In addition to the cognitive examination of this topic, there was also a practical "visualisation". At the final evening, the participating groups cooked for the other groups and presented a selection of national dishes. The final mobility focused in particular on the First World War, which had emerged in our discussions since the meeting in Budapest as an important explanatory factor for differences between the participating nations. The visit to Hartmannsweilerkopf was a moving conclusion that once again - also emotionally - inculcated the importance of the peacemaking function of the European political process. The pupils presented and compared the results they had worked out in the individual schools in the form of presentations, sometimes also in explanatory videos. Together, they then developed explanatory videos that focused on nations and nationalisms in a comparitive way, in each case along the thematic lines of the individual short-term mobilities. A first presentation of these explanatory videos formed the conclusion of the respective short-term mobilities in order to show the students the results of the working week. A documentation group documented the work process and the course of the mobility. This was mostly done by the Swedish and Hungarian pupils, as there is a special focus on media education in their schools. The explanatory videos were also intended to present the results of the short-term mobilities to the pupils of the participating schools who could not take part in the short-term mobilities. This and also the long-term provision of the learning products created via the respective learning platforms of the individual schools did not always function in an optimal way. In our opinion, the fact that we had good reasons for not training the teachers - contrary to what had been planned - had a negative impact here. The work on the project promoted not only the pupils' media competence but also their orientation competence. We achieved not only a greater understanding among the pupils of the significance of nation, nationalism and nation-state in European history, but above all a reflection on the challenge that nationalist agendas pose for the political idea of a united Europe as a peace project. The current polycrisis, especially the Russian aggression against Ukraine, prompted two of the participating schools (Müllheim and Stockholm) to explore the topic of war and peace in a follow-up project.