For most of our students it is difficult to identify Europe because of its incompleteness and its hesitancy. Its borders are blurred and its limits are moving ; the history of its construction is chaotic. This leads to a loss of image but above all to a doubt about the value of European integration, which is seen more and more as artificial and ineffective, since we have lost sight of what lies at the origin of its creation. This thought has brought us to reflect on European identity with our students, but also to consider that Europeans have a weak awareness of being a supranational entity whose marks and values are partly shared. We will understand them through the places of memory, « significant units of a material or an ideal kind, which the will of man or the working of time has turned into a representative symbol of any community”. (Pierre Nora) If the project’s aim is to lead our students to grasp the idea of a common memory to build the European identity upon, in order to reach our goal we will follow a path of increasing complexity which will lead the students to think about places of memory starting from their individual condition to gradually broaden their identity horizon through several steps, from the local/regional one to the national and finally the European one. This path is divided into 4 didactic units corresponding to four steps in a systematic process of knowledge building. The first step, « From memory to places of memory », wants to define what a place of memory is and the functions of memory in the construction of individual identity. The second, « memory places shared by a community », wants to make the transition from the domestic dimension to a broader local and regional one, to encourage teenagers to get out of themselves and discover places of memory that belong to the community and that represent its identity, so that teenagers will become aware of being members of that community. The third one, « Places of memory that have a history », intends to make the transition from a limited territorial setting to the State, which is beyond what is particular and also tries to have a unifying function; it aims at the understanding of the values and symbols associated to national places of memory, of the political and ideological dimension of the places of memory ; finally, it aims at the understanding that our national history is embodied in us in a shared memory coming from the combined action of communities and power. The last step, « Towards European Places of Memory? » intends to lead students to become aware of the existence of places which, beyond national borders, embody values that are shared by a broader community, corresponding to the European reality. Each didactic unit includes activities and phases of mobility abroad, which should result in products and concrete outputs (mind maps about personal places of memory; boxes of personal places of memory; trees of personal and shared places of memory; maps of national places of memory; videos on visited places of memory ; identity cards of national places of memory and finally journals of memory itineraries, case studies about border towns). The best ones will be included in an ebook which will complete our project. All these activities will allow us to implement an active teaching attitude characterized by an interdisciplinary and learner-oriented approach, focused on students’ needs and interests. It is a pragmatic approach which, by putting experience at the centre of the learning process, will lead the participants in the project to think and act in the world where they live. This is because our project has the ambitious goal to help preserve the collective memory, to help transmit the heritage, in particular by moving forward with education and formation for everybody in the field of cultural and memory heritage. Therefore our partnership includes five high secondary schools and is associated with and two primary schools, two Faculties of Science of Education (Bordeaux and Udine) as well as with Centres for Historical Research, Archives, cultural Associations. As regards the key theme of our project, leading to border towns and regions, the partner institutions are in key places. Udine, Aquileia, Koper and Narva are located on one side or the other of the disputed and moving borders during the Wars in the XX century in Europe. Seville was located at the border between Islam and Christianity, between the Ancient ad the New World, Bordeaux, Agen and Astaffort are in Aquitaine, a land of immigration and of reception, a disputed territory during the Hundred Years’ War. These are all places of confrontation and exchanges which have become the emblems of the issues of a Europe that has to turn its differences into its richness… and into its future.
For most of our students, it is difficult to identify Europe because of its incompleteness and vagueness. Its borders are blurred and its boundaries shift; the history of its construction is non-linear. This leads to a loss of image, but above all to a doubt about the value of European integration, which is increasingly seen as artificial and ineffective, since we have lost sight of what lies at the origin of its creation. This thought led us to reflect on European identity with our students, but also to consider that Europeans have a weak awareness of being a supranational entity whose signs and values are partly shared. We understood them through the places of memory, "significant units of a material or ideal kind, which the will of man or the work of time have transformed into a representative symbol of each community" (Pierre Nora). If the aim of the project was to lead our students to grasp the idea of a common memory on which to build a European identity, preserving collective memory and conveying a sense of care for historical and cultural heritage, to achieve this we followed a path of increasing complexity that led the students to reflect on the places of memory starting from their individual condition in order to progressively broaden their identity horizon through different passages, from the local/regional to the national and finally to the European. This path was divided into 4 teaching units corresponding to 4 stages of a systematic knowledge-building process. The first stage, 'From memory to the places of memory', sought to define what a place of memory is and the functions of memory in the construction of individual identity. The second, "Places of memory shared by a community", aimed to move from the domestic to the broader local and regional dimension, to encourage adolescents to go outside themselves and discover the places of memory that belong to the community and represent its identity, so as to become aware of being members of that community. The third, "Places of memory that have a history", aimed to move from a restricted territorial scope to the state; it aimed at understanding the values and symbols associated with national places of memory, their political and ideological dimensions. The last phase, "Towards European Places of Memory?", was intended to make students aware of the existence of places that, beyond national borders, embody values shared by a wider community, corresponding to the European reality. Each didactic unit included activities and mobility phases abroad, which were translated into concrete products and outputs (maps and videos of personal, local and national memory places; family trees; presentations; videos and leaflets on the memory places visited; identity cards of memory places; newspaper facsimiles on key dates of national memory; case studies on border towns, memory boxes etc.). The best ones, shared at the beginning of each mobility, were included in the official website summarizing our project (https://memeurope.wixsite.com/erasmusplus). All these activities enabled us to implement active teaching characterized by an interdisciplinary and learner-oriented approach, focused on the students' needs and interests. It is a pragmatic approach that, by putting experience at the center of the learning process, has led project participants to think and act in the world in which they live. Our partnership included five upper secondary schools located in key locations. Udine, Koper and Narva are located on either side of contested and moving borders during the 20th century wars in Europe. Seville lies on the border between Islam and Christianity, between the Old World and the New, Bordeaux and Agen are in Aquitaine, a land of immigration and reception, a contested territory during the Hundred Years' War. They are all places of confrontation and exchange that have become emblematic of the problems of a Europe that must transform its differences into wealth (the image of the mosaic, which characterized the last mobility of the route, that of Udine, proved effective). The difficulties caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have obliged us - while keeping faith with the contents, objectives, overall budget and the educational pathway stated above - to radically change the succession and duration of the planned mobilities, as can be seen in detail in the section "Learning, Teaching and Training Activities". Of the 7 planned mobilities, 6 were realized, and the order was also changed from the original plan (e.g. the C1 mobility in the Plan does not correspond to the C1 actually carried out in Slovenia).