We wanted to: -learn about other cultures in Europe, including minorities and thereby strengthen our own cultural identity in a European context. -strengthen our sense of cultural heritage and to understand how one's cultural background affects them as a learner, as a teacher and in an international context. -find ways to bridge cultural gaps when cooperating over cultural borders and avoid misunderstandings and exclusion of individuals. -use this awareness to see how it affects participation and outcome in the learning process in school, and more specifically during international cooperation -develop methods/best practices for overcoming obstacles caused by cultural background in school, mainly during international cooperation like Erasmus+, by creating lesson plans and tips for Erasmus+ cooperation. -find simple ways to, as neutrally as possible measure the improvement of cross-cultural understanding in Erasmus+ mobilities and cross-cultural competence. -create models and exercises for other schools to measure improved skills in students and thereby recognise the results within the curriculum. -to improve self-confidence in the students by increasing their knowledge of their own cultural identity and sense of community
Most of the participating schools in this project are involved in an extensive amount of international cooperation activity, and Spain is starting to build up their international work. During Erasmus+ mobilities there is a limited amount of time to make the students step out of their comfort zone to work together over cultural barriers. We wanted to improve their ability to cross cultural bridges and have ready models, have a bank with activities that would accelerate the process of cooperation between cultures in future projects, that we could use in future online activities and physical mobilities. In today's Europe, and globally, it is more important than ever to be able to work efficiently and peacefully between countries/cultures/minorities without misunderstandings or conflicts. We wanted to improve the cultural competence of our students and teachers. The global climate is becoming tougher and our schools need to actively work to keep our students open-minded and culturally competent, as this will be one of the most sought-after skills in tomorrow's workforce. Meanwhile many of our students suffer from anxiety and lack of confidence. We needed to address these problems and build pride in the identity of the students.