The Cultura Universalis project intends to develop and practice a collection of creative culture-based activities workshops and an interactive online game to enhance intercultural competence and prosocialness through art in children aged 7-14. Globalization has brought a wide range of cultures in closer contact than ever before while Europe itself is a context of great cultural diversity. Yet, evidence shows that there is a widespread lack of intercultural competence (IC) and prosocialness both in national educational curricula and the general population, as well. This is emphatically confirmed by the general social tense on immigration and social inclusion issues. Since research confirms that IC and prosocialness are to be developed early onwards our main target group is pupils 7-14 years old, so as to provide them with skills and cultural incentives which are not easy to develop otherwise. In this context, arts and culture serve as multipliers in achieving our objectives and as a means for ensuring children’s attentiveness. Approximately 250 students and 100 teachers will be involved directly in the development and testing of the outputs, while the results of the project will be disseminated to more than 9800 persons through multiplier events (200), social media (800) and further dissemination activities (8800). Activities supported from the grant for Project Management and Implementation are the day to day management, dissemination and exploitation, the systematic quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation, the creation and maintenance of website, the creation of project visual identity, Leaflets, News items, a project management pack and a sustainability plan. The Cultura Universalis project foresees the development of 3 Intellectual Outputs. IO1 – a Training Programme for Intercultural competence enhancement through art targeted to pupils, including also a webinar for teachers on the training methodology and implementation. The content of the training will be based on various forms of arts. IO2 – an interactive game, aiming at testing the knowledge acquired during the Training programme and furthermore teaching/testing attitudes, beliefs and enhancing students’ prosocial skills towards their peers with diverse characteristics, origin and religious background. IO3 - a digital handbook for children and a digital companion for teachers aiming at providing them with guidance before gaming, assisting them during gaming, and also including additional creative activities for intercultural competence improvement. The progress, quality and achievement of project activities will be monitored in accordance with the Management Plan, Dissemination Plan, Quality Assurance & Evaluation Plan and Risk Management Plan by the Coordinator in close cooperation with all partners, while quality of the intellectual outputs will be managed by each leading organisation, thus CI in the case of IO1, AHE in the case of IO2 and ISON in IO3, with all partners’ collaboration as well. All developed in the project results will be available as Open Educational Resources in the seven languages of the partnership, apart from English. The Consortium is built of partners from a variety of geographical and professional backgrounds to ensure the successful implementation of this multilevel project. Among the main expected results of the project are the exercise and development of intercultural and prosocial competences in children, to increase their knowledge and awareness of Europe’s cultural heritage through informal learning and to actively engage them with various forms of art and the interactive online game. Moreover, facilitators/teachers are expected to develop their skills in participatory education, blended-learning and competence-based teaching methods and tools. Accordingly, the expected impact on children is to increase their knowledge about their own as well as others’ cultural background and their creativity while cultivating their intercultural and prosocial competencies and exercising their digital skills. Teachers, through their involvement, are also expected to increase their intercultural, prosocial and digital skills. More importantly, teachers, relevant stakeholders and the general public are expected to acquire knowledge on participatory, culture-generated, and art-based teaching methods and tools which can be used later on.
Le principal objectif du projet était d'offrir aux élèves âgés de 7 à 14 ans, à leurs enseignants et conseillers scolaires des outils innovants pour accroître la sensibilisation à la diversité culturelle et améliorer leur compétence interculturelle. Nous voulions tester et mettre en œuvre un programme de formation, un jeu et un manuel qui favorisent l'empathie, la compréhension mutuelle et les compétences de communication dans un contexte interculturel. En outre, nous espérions renforcer les relations entre les écoles dans différents pays européens, favoriser le partage des meilleures pratiques et promouvoir des approches d'enseignement novatrices. Nous avons également cherché à engager des réseaux scolaires plus larges pour une diffusion plus vaste et une exploitation des résultats du projet à l'échelle nationale. Un autre objectif était de permettre aux enseignants de jouer un rôle actif dans le développement et la mise en œuvre de ces nouvelles méthodologies d'enseignement, ce qui comprendrait l'assistance aux élèves dans l'utilisation de ces outils. Enfin, nous souhaitions recueillir des retours d'information précieux des élèves et des enseignants pour affiner et améliorer nos produits avant de les diffuser à une plus grande échelle.
Dans le contexte actuel de mondialisation et de mouvements migratoires croissants, le besoin de favoriser l'interculturalité et la compréhension mutuelle entre les différentes cultures n'a jamais été aussi crucial. En tant que consortium, nous avons identifié le besoin urgent d'éduquer la jeune génération à apprécier et comprendre la diversité culturelle, un enjeu clé pour construire des sociétés harmonieuses et inclusives. Notre décision de postuler pour le projet Erasmus+ "Cultura Universalis" a été motivée par la reconnaissance de l'importance de l'éducation interculturelle dans nos écoles. Nous avons constaté un manque d'outils et de ressources pédagogiques appropriés pour enseigner l'interculturalité de manière efficace et engageante. Par ailleurs, nous avons également observé que les enseignants manquaient de formation adéquate pour traiter ces questions avec les élèves. Le projet offre une réponse innovante à ces défis. En développant un programme de formation, un jeu et un manuel pour les enseignants, ainsi qu'un guide pour les élèves, nous ambitionnons de renforcer la compétence interculturelle et les compétences prosociales des élèves âgés de 7 à 14 ans.