General presentation / working together / results and impact

Our project Growing up in Europe consists in an extensive study of European youth today: their culture(s) between tradition and globalisation, their interests, habits and behaviours in the face of the adults’ world, fears and hopes concerning the future (environment, war and peace...)

            The programme we planned should last for three years and is articulated as follow:

-         year one (2004-2005) : the youths’ roots and culture (being young in the 1960s –70s)

-         year two (2005-2006) : being young today (cultural aspects)

-         year three (2006-2007) : what future for young people (hopes and fears)?

We have wished to realise this study with partners from various parts of the continent and with (very) different cultures: Uzerche (Limousin-France), Nidderau (Nesse-Germany), Castlepanio (Marche-Italy), Lipno (Western Poland), Yalova (Marmara Sea –Turkey).

        A. How to work together ?

1- Our programme : definition and respect of the schedule

 The programme of the year has been created by all the partners during the preparatory visits  Uzerche and Lipno in 2003-2004. No fundamental modification has been made to this project during the year.

 Programme put into place for this year:

2. Communication :

 Tools used : e-mail (always used during the pupils work sessions and inter-pupils exchanges), sometimes fax-machine, and more exceptionally phone (when urgent administrative work).

Chat sessions took place, most notably between Poland and France (presentation of the school, the city and the region. Groups of 2 pupils), and between France and Turkey (common session aiming to select representatives from the two schools for the project meeting in Italy). It has not been possible yet to enlarge this practise, because it is lengthy to organise with several partners as it is difficult to find common availabilities , and not everyone possesses the right equipment (e.g. video-conferencing). An attempt to chat with several countries should be organised in June in order to finalise the syntheses on the topic studied.

Two elements have slowed down the full use of IT tools :

-         Absence of staff qualified in IT resources, with a good knowledge of their schools’ IT tools and available for the project (most notably in Germany, and to a lesser extent in Italy).

-         The necessity to always use English as a working language (translation delays, availability of staff and pupils speaking English reasonably fluently) every time three partners at least were gathered (bilateral exchanges, joint use of the two national languages possible)

3. Communication between the pupils.

 Pupils’ school work sent to the partners (with their names, and possibly their pictures); the schoolwork was studied by the partners, then was put up on a ‘Comenius’ panel.

Several chat attempts in small groups of pupils.

Exchanges of post mail and/or e-mail between voluntary pupils. E-mail accounts have been opened for the pupils to realize this project, and the pupils were autonomously in charge of the correspondence when it did not strictly relate to the project work project.

Meetings between pupils during the project meetings. Work sessions were also organized, gathering pupils from the different countries.

In any case, exchanges took place in English, even if some pupils have voluntarily learnt some simple expressions in the partners respective languages.

4. Mobility actions :

 Project meeting in Castelplanio (Italy) from the 11th to the 15^th of November 2004 :

-         Agreement on the schedule and work methods: frequency of e-mail communications, use of both English and national language for all school work, encouragement of choices made by pupils...

-         Decision not to merely add up the different schoolwork. Rather attempt to write on each topic a common synthesis.

-         presentation by each school of their work methods and results.

-         Choice, by the pupils’ representative gathered in plenary assembly of the year’s topics of study.

 Project meeting in Uzerche from the  8th to the 13th of May 2005 :

-         Work on a common web site: structure, content, updating procedures…

-         exposition of the work made by each partner throughout the year.

-         Work sessions in pupils/teachers groups on the three topics of study in order to prepare the synthesis.

 These meetings allowed us to learn more from one another as well as ensuring the evolution of the project and solving all the petty material difficulties that can hardly be dealt with when apart and it also enables us to deepen personal relations between those in charge of the project which is vital. Many partners have even been surprised with the fact that we managed to work efficiently very quickly -as soon as we first met – in a good atmosphere, casually, as if we had all been teachers from the same school.

5. Work management between the partners.

 Every decision dealing with the evolution of the project have been taken in common, mainly during the Project Meetings. Pupils took part in the negotiations whenever possible.

Every time we had to share information we tried to involve as many partners as possible. The coordinating school endorsed a mere relaying role when it was necessary or relevant; it also gathered resources (most notably administrative resources), intervening as such only to gather data or remind deadlines.

Each partner has been in charge of managing an aspect of the project:

-         France launched the web site, which is administrated both by France and Sweden.

-         Poland was in charge of the musical them, and made a common music CD and a synthesis on this topic.

-         Turkey was in charge of the ‘major events’ theme.

-         Italy was in charge of ‘fashion’.

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B. Results and  project’s impact

  1. Achievements

Turkey made a panel that gathered each pupils/teachers group’s presentation, the school, and the various coursework done throughout the year. Poland made one presenting each topic of study. Italy gathered all their researches on CD-Rom. France and Germany made posters.

The web site www.grandir-en-europe.net is being created, and will gather the presentation of the project and of the schools, together with the workload achieved during the three years.

2.Distribution.

The whole work will be given to all the participating pupils on a CD-Rom.

Course work made by the pupils, as well as the books that were bought or offered by the partners for the project will be kept by the school (library), and every pupil will be allowed to access them.

The pupils’ families have been associated to the project, most notably through information meetings.

The relevant academic authorities have been regularly informed of the evolution of the project.

Local elected bodies have been involved, most notably during the project meetings (gifts were given between city hall representatives). They regularly receive the results of our work.

Local media in each country have advertised the existence, aims and evolution of the project.

A White Book of European Youth was created and gathered the three years’ workload ; the aim is to publish it, which is still being discussed.

The website -which is currently only available in English but should eventually be available in all the other languages – is, in a way, our ID card. The address has been given, in each country, to the pupils, staff, parents, local representatives, and academic authorities. 

3. Assessment

·               Assessment of the pupils according to each school and academic system methods. However, it always dealt with the papers, methods and behaviour of the pupils.

·       Half-way and final self-assessment, according to each country’s methods. However a comparison of the project’s results and impact on the pupils in each school will be made in September .

·             Assessment of the evolution of the programme made by the teaching staff : because of a lack of time we have not been able to address the idea of a common book in which we would keep a written trace of each partners steps, work methods, and problems addressed. This tool is however high on the second year agenda (it will probably be accessible on the web site, under ‘teachers’ corner’) Without this tool, each partner has assessed their methods; difficulties have been addressed throughout the year, through discussions between partners but they have not always been written down. The main problems were:

-         The way the questionnaire given to the pupils’ families had to be made (number of questions, format, how to make a synthesis…)

-         The way the pupils’ representatives for the Project Meetings had to be chosen (election, teachers’ choice, criteria…)

-         The way to work efficiently on a fairly demanding project with many pupils (a class or several, groups of pupils rotating on several themes…)

·            Assessment of the aims defined at the beginning of the year

4. Project impact.

As far as the pupils were concerned, the objectives set at the start of the project were widely reached: open-mindedness; discovery of the others’ culture, struggle against xenophobia, communication and use/discovery of the languages, taste in exchanges, autonomy and higher responsibilities… Yet, there are issues between those who got very enthusiastically involved and those who, although they were interested in the project, were more passive. However, globally all the pupils in the schools (most notably those where the Project Meetings were held) were actors in this European discovery. Meeting with each other and keeping in touch have apparently created strong friendship links between some pupils from various countries.

On the teachers’ side, exchanges have been extremely enriching:

-         exchanges and common thoughts on what being a teacher involves, the working conditions and the way the different academic systems works in each country.

-         Working in common on the project was easy and natural.

-         Cultural and personal exchanges.

-         Exchanges in teaching methods, in general and at the disciplinary level (most notably between English teachers) and exchanges of text books (history, maths, languages…) 

Teachers who were not involved in the project have often participated to these exchanges, or have been informed of the evolution of the project.

Heads of schools have also participated to the exchanges and/or have had the opportunity to gather their thoughts on their own jobs and working conditions.

What we have heard on our project from the pupils’ families from the various countries involved sounded quite positive. The parents were at least interested, even often extremely involved (exchanges, reception of pupils…) They very much appreciated being actively involved in a project that dealt with their children.

Finally, we hope our work and our meetings have contributed to European integration and open-mindedness of the local authorities under whose authority our schools work.

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