Project Summary

PROJECT SUMMARY

The European school systems were originally created for relatively homogenous societies. In recent years, many European countries have changed into the multicultural societies due to globalization and immigration. Thus, European schools have faced challenges in a relatively short time. The schools should find new ways to foster social cohesion of students and develop students' civic engagement and participation based on European democratic values. For the future, students should be equipped with the right knowledge, skills and attitudes. There is a strong need to develop students' participation and citizenship education in a way which provides the background knowledge necessary to maintain a civilized society.

Participation in associational activities can facilitate students' social cohesion, participation at schools and in local communities and it promotes active citizenship. However, from the perspectives of schools, the cooperation with associations and external experts has often been short-lived by nature and the pedagogical benefits have remained limited. In this project, to promote students' active participation and citizenship, we will develop associational activities (with NGOs, decision makers and local expertise) of the schools. Simultaneously, we will improve multicultural preparation of teachers - we will give experiences for teachers to work with multicultural student groups. As a project result, we will introduce teaching methods which support integration of local expertise into teaching in a pedagogically effective way. The students will, in turn, learn civics (responsibilities, duties and rights) and principles of democracy (decision making systems) and they gain real experiences on working with different organizations through school activities. This is apt to strengthen their experience of participation, social cohesion and the creation of European identity among students.

METHODOLOGY

In practice, totally six European schools will organize international workshops for both teachers and students. Each workshop has a topic related to civic skills and citizenship. In these workshops, teachers will exchange good practices among the schools in terms of participation and active citizenship and they learn to plan and organize pedagogical activities with associations finding new ways to work with them. The students will participate in these workshops.

Pre-planned and concrete pedagogical activities, organized in concert with associations, NGOs and decision makers offer students genuine experiences of participation. The students gain real experiences on working with different organizations through school activities. This is apt to strengthen their experience of participation, social cohesion and European identity among students. The workshops provide also opportunities to increase students' school motivation and prevent social exclusion.

Between the international meetings, the schools work on developmental tasks of the project – they develop schools' associational activities developing the methods of students' participation and civics.

Students produce presentations, performances and write stories about citizenship and participation.

Teachers work on a research, which compares students' participation and the teaching of civics among European schools.

RESULTS

The project creates a pathway for motivating and supporting students' participation in school, local community and society. Simultaneously, teachers learn to cooperate with associations and external experts and learn to integrate those activities into teaching. The international context provides unique opportunities to exchange good practices and develop new ways of cooperating with experts outside school. New teaching methods, especially student-centered and activating methods will be put into use.

We will publish two publications (e-books). Teachers will do a small research about participation and civic skills - how these have been taken into consideration in national core/local curricula and in practice in different European countries. The first e-book includes the research and also detailed descriptions of the pedagogical activities with associations and decision makers in the project. Thus, the readers will get new ideas and examples how to develop teaching in cooperation with external experts and decision makers. In addition, we will share the produced learning material in national and European public networks/platforms, such as eTwinning.

Another e-book will include students' stories and illustrations about participation, citizenship and their experiences on the associational activities. The stories will be published both in native languages and in English. This part of the project will develop students' basic skills such as literacy and language as well as it educates students to be active citizens. It also raises awareness of each one's responsibilities, duties and rights in Europe.