In the EU, those with the lowest awareness of the EU and common citizenship is the 15-24 age group (Eurobarometer, 2019). The most effective way to address this is EDUCATION, in a way that engages these digital natives. Despite the acknowledged value of education, there are vast differences across Europe in terms of citizenship education, (Eurydice, 2020). Furthermore, there is little innovation in terms of meeting young people citizenship awareness needs and education beyond the classroom - this group are mobile literate with smartphone adoption nearing 100%. Also, the EU attaches importance to young people's learning and adoption of their own culture and the common culture of Europe and developing cultural awareness to carry them to the future, as well as acquiring contemporary skills and knowledge to be the architects of their own lives. However, in the citizenship education of EU member countries, the development of European awareness and European common culture elements are not included. This situation raises the urgent need to expand the framework of citizenship education provided in EU member countries to include EU citizenship education. This project will meet the EU citizenship education needs of ALL students of the project partner schools aged 14-18 - written materials with 4 important elements of purpose, content, learning and teaching processes and evaluation form the "EU CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAM". By implementing a JOINT EDUCATION PROGRAMME with the schools in NWBLB with young students, we aim to provide consistent EU citizenship education and tools to adopt EU values, raise awareness of European common culture and to maintain a European identity. In order to achieve the EU's goal of creating an integrated Europe, it is important that EU citizenship competencies, EU values and European common cultural awareness are provided for young European individuals in an holistic way. As such, NWBLB will ensure that students will be supported in school, using a teacher-parent triangle, provide in-school/out-of-school activities, communication, cooperation, interaction with their European peers and share cultural responsibility and ownership together. To achieve this the following Intellectual Outputs are planned: * European Youth and Culture Clubs (IO1) These will be established in partner schools; Clubs, management units, contents and activities, working schedule, etc. will be developed and agreed. With the transnational project activity, it will be prepared by students of partner schools using peer-mediated teaching and brainstorming methods and collaborative teaching and co-creation. Clubs will raise awareness of the students regarding the European common cultural elements through active/interactive experiences. The creativity of students who plan, prepare, organize and participate in club activities will improve. Students will gain awareness of civic participation and cooperate with NGOs and other institutions in club activities. * Mobile Application (IO2) A mobile application will be created (iOS & Android compatible) and delivered to the user free of charge via Apple Store and Google Play Store. Users will be able to access all kinds of cultural content, information and knowlegde about Europe using the mobile app and mobile technology. The mobile app will enable young European users to communicate and interact with each other. The contents of the mobile application will be created by the young students using the peer-mediated teaching methods, brainstorming methods, collaborative teaching methods and co-creation in the transnational project activity. The mobile APP, which will be a common product for European youth, will reach many European young users and contribute to the formation of European common culture awareness among young people. * EU Citizenship Training Module/TOOLKIT (IO3) A Joint Education Program for EU Citizenship will be developed and implemented in partner schools by NWBLB to systematically gain EU citizenship competencies among European young people simultaneously. Cooperative education programs will be created by the course teachers of partner schools in cooperation through transnational project activities. EU citizenship education programs will be piloted for 8 months in partner schools with feedback through assessment and evaluation activities by UU (P1). The pilot will involve: -Sociology, Psychology and Philosophy classes learning Social Citizenship -Mathematics & Derivative courses learning Economic Citizenship -Informatics &Technology lessons delivering Digital Citizenship -History & Democracy lessons delivering Democratic Citizenship -Language, Literature, Painting, Music & Physical Education lessons delivering Cultural Citizenship The TOOLKIT will contain all outputs and required resources and methodologies, and will be freely available as part of NWBLB's legacy Overall NWBLB will enhance European citizenship among young people innovatively and digitally.
The key objective from this project was to positively impact upon young peoples' understanding of citizenship and raise the profile of this in formal education settings. We wanted to achieve a number of outputs through this project: 1. An EU CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION PROGRAMME (IO3) informed by a needs analysis and country profiles on civil, digital, democratic, cultural and environmental citizenship. This would be a consistent offering across schools to include resources for delivery, content for each topic area of citizenship for weekly delivery using different types of learning approaches from written to video and digital. 2. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (EU CONTEXT) OF TEACHERS through the development of citizenship education and participating in LTTAs with a sharing of practices and learning. 3. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE through LTTAs and mobilities. 4. MOBILE APPLICATION ON EU CITIZENSHIP (IO2) including Erasmus+ Mobility, cultural events, EU countries' including cuisines, music and history 4. EUROPEAN YOUTH AND CULTURE CLUBS (IO1) created and introduced in 4 partner schools where young people participate in developing the clubs and then sharing ways to help each other better understand each others cultures.
Citizenship education is included in the education system in some countries but content, duration and quality varies by nation. There is a lack of consistency. National disparities in citizenship education are already recognised by the OECD International Student Assessment Program (PISA). There is also a lack of citizenship awareness among young people in Europe around knowledge and rights, according to the EC Eurobarometer and ISCTE-IUL. Evidence suggests that current citizenship education offerings are not enough. A clear gap exists. Education and schools are important vehicles to address this. A lack of material to support citizenship education is preventing its widespread use in education. Not only are young peoples' citizenship awareness lacking but this is also limited among teachers' and their professional knowledge. NWBLB sought to expand the scope of citizenship education within the EU framework and eliminate differences between countries by: * Developing European teachers and young peoples knowledge on EU citizenship by develop education materials * Integrating EU citizenship into school activities and learning * Developing a mobile platform to engage young people in citizenship awareness digitally