The project “Sustainable cities: past and present” has been conceived as a means to deal with a problem affecting the coordinating school: the greater part of our pupils come from a disadvantaged background. Therefore, a great deal of our students lack motivation and miss classes regularly, which results often in early school dropout. This negative aspect is, partly, due to the scarce family involvement in their children’s education. Apart from this, as families are not wealthy they can´t afford to send their children abroad so that they get to know other cultures and their heritage, other languages or other lifestyles which help them understand our own better and develop a civic identity. In short, to discover new ideas and different lifestyles and ways of thinking, something essential for social inclusion and for equality in all aspects of our society, helping them, thus, become more open-minded and tolerant citizens. Therefore, we set the following objectives as essential for our students: 1 Raising awareness of the importance of the European cultural heritage, knowing the evolution with the passing of time of the city of Cáceres and those of the partners involved, accepting and valuing favourably the cultural differences. 2 Fighting the lack of motivation and early school dropout, providing the students of all socioeconomic and academic backgrounds with a rich model of inclusive bilingual education, by means of the use of ICT, active and innovative teaching methods (mainly Learning Based on Projects) and with the curricular integration of several subjects included in the Syllabus in the same project, specifically: History and Geography, Biology and Geology, Spanish Language, Foreign Languages, Maths, Technology, Music and Religion. This multidisciplinay approach contributes to develop a collaborative culture among the teachers of different subjects, to agree on objectives, contents and activities altogether, which may not be usual in the teaching practice. Our strategic association is made up of five participant partners, which have been chosen by means of eTwinning, with similar problems. They all give us the opportunity to know and analyse some cities with great cultural heritage such as Cáceres (Spain), Amaliadas (Greece), Qualiano (Italy), Rouffach (France) in contrast with Kolobrzeg (Poland), which was devastated and burned during War World II, and therefore can be called a “new” city. This characteristic provides an added value to our project, as it gives the opportunity to find out whether this city and its citizens have experimented cultural and social developments very different from those of the other cities involved. The objective of this Association is that our students know the social and educational value of our European cultural heritage, by means of a study of the sustainability of different aspects related to our heritage throughout history, namely: means of communication, evolution and expression of religion, adaptation of the human being to the surrounding habitat, migratory movements of the human being and the relationship of music with the cultural heritage of our cities. In this sense, we understand that music, in any of its manifestations, is inherent to the human being since its origin. Special attention will be always paid to the fundamental role of women in the development of the European civilization, and social inclusion and equity will be the cross-curricular topic dealt with in all activities. When designing our project, we have planned activities, both formal and informal, which motivate our students and help them not only get involved, but actually become the real protagonists. The students aimed to take part in the activities are mostly those in 3rd and 4th year Compulsory Second Education. By carrying out the activities, we make sure that our students acquire an overall view of the social and cultural value of our heritage, an improvement of their digital competence, learn to value their peers with respect and tolerance and improve their linguistic competence. The tangible result intended is an open digital book, which includes the didactic units, and all the material created in the project, the same as a decrease in the number of dropouts in our schools, and, in the long run, a reinforcement of cooperation nets among the partners.
The project "Sustainable cities: past and present" arose as a need to respond to the problems detected in the coordinating center, based on the fact that most of our students come from a disadvantaged socioeconomic context of our city and its immediate surroundings. The center had with quite a lot of unmotivated and absenteeism students and, therefore, with a high rate of early school leaving.This negative factor was directly related to the little involvement that families have in the education of their children, who also due to their scarce economic resources could not sending them abroad to learn other languages, the cultural heritage of other cities, as well as other ways of life that would help them understand their own and develop a more supportive civic entity and critical and open thinking.In short, it has allowed them to discover new ideas and ways of living and thinking, so essential for social inclusion and equality from all areas of our society, helping them to become tolerant and respectful European citizens. The following objectives have been achieved: 1.- Awareness of the importance of European cultural heritage, knowing the evolution over time of the city of Cáceres and the cities of each of the participating partners, accepting and positively valuing cultural differences. 2.- Combat the lack of motivation and early school dropout, providing students of all socioeconomic and academic levels, an enriched model of bilingual, inclusive education, through the use of ICT, active and innovative methodologies (Project-Based Learning fundamentally) and with the curricular integration of several subjects of the curriculum in the same project, specifically: Geography and History, Biology and Geology, Spanish Language, Foreign Languages, Mathematics, Technology, Music and Religion. This multidisciplinary approach has contributed to developing a collaborative culture between teachers from different areas, to agree on objectives, contents and activities together with the rest of the teachers involved; which is not usual in teaching practice. Our Strategic Association has been made up of five participating partners selected through eTwinning with a similar problem, which gave us the opportunity to know and analyze cities with great cultural heritage such as Cáceres (Spain), Amaliadas (Greece), Qualiano (Italy) , Rouffach (France) in front of Kolobrzeg (Poland) that was devastated and burned in the Second World War (1945), therefore we can say that it is a relatively new city. This characteristic provided added value to the project since it provides the opportunity to find out if this city and its people have experienced a cultural and social development that is very different from that of the rest of the cities involved. The purpose of this Association was for our students to know the social and educational value of our European cultural heritage, through the study of the evolution of sustainability of various aspects related to our heritage over time, such as: the forms of communication, evolution and expression of meaning and religious fact, adaptation of man to the habitat that surrounds him, migratory movements of man and the relationship of Music with the cultural heritage of our localities. In this sense, I understood that music, in any of its manifestations, is inherent to man from the very beginning of it. And always paying special attention to the fundamental role of women in the development of European civilization, and keeping social inclusion and equity in mind as a cross-cutting theme in all the activities carried out. We have carried out activities that were motivating to the students at all times, both formal and informal, that helped them to get involved in its construction, making them the true protagonists of the project. Students in the 3rd and 4th years of Compulsory Secondary Education mainly participated in all the activities, although all the students at the center have taken advantage of the results obtained through the development of the project. By carrying out the activities of the project, we have ensured that our students acquired a global vision of the social and cultural value of our heritage, improved their digital competence, learned to value their peers with respect and tolerance, improved their digital competence and their linguistic competence. The tangible result that we have achieved is a digital platform where all the material that has emerged from the project is collected, in the same way as a medium-term benefit the reduction of school dropouts in the centers and in the long term we have achieved a reinforcement of cooperation networks between participating centers. https://sites.google.com/view/sustainable-cities-past-and-pr/development-of-the-project_result-of-material-products/italy?authuser=0