Breaking down barriers
en
Breaking down barriers: promoting community integration, and raising awareness of historical patterns of migration in Europe project will focus on the experiences of migrant communities in different countries in the past with the aim to create a model to promote innovative methods of teaching, and to develop strategies to promote integration and diversity.
Breaking down barriers brings different communities and groups together, to foster integration, and build greater understanding between communities. In particular, it will help teachers to develop new ways to address the needs of learners from different cultural backgrounds, including migrant and refugee communities.
Project participants will examine historical patterns of migration in Europe, as a way of helping them to understand, and develop a broader perspective on complex current realities. It will also:
- enable young people from refugee and migrant groups, to reflect on own experiences
- help young people from indigenous communities, to develop empathy, and understand the problems faced by people who are moving to a new home and land
- help to break down barriers between communities, and reduce prejudice
Breaking down barriers supports the professional development of educators, equipping them with competences and skills needed to deliver high quality teaching, and deal with complex classroom realities. It will provide a model for a different way of teaching history in schools, based in the Narrative Inquiry system and on the use of digital storytelling methodology.
Narrative Inquiry places an emphasis on individual life-stories and experiences, as a way of exploring wider trends and developments in history. Digital Storytelling (DST) brings together the tradition of oral and personal narrative with contemporary digital tools.
There will be an initial training period for project partners, which will focus on the Narrative Inquiry system, and on Digital Storytelling. Partners will then work together, to develop schemes of work, adapting and targeting them for different age groups, and different educational contexts. This will enable us to test the Narrative Inquiry system, and a range of teaching strategies. We will develop schemes of work and reaching materials through the project, which will be specifically designed to work in multilingual classrooms, and serve different learning styles and needs
It lasts 2 years and the partnership involves: Midland Actors Theater MAT, UK (direttore del progetto), George Dixon Academy (UK), Kala Phool (UK), Melting Pro (IT), Istituto Comprensivo via Ferraironi (IT), Mehmet Akif Ersoy Ortaokulu (TR), Projeto Scholé (PT), SW Collegium Balticum (PL).
Breaking down barriers is a combination of arts-in-education organisations, with schools at primary and secondary level, plus a University.
It is co-funded by Erasmus plus Programme–- Strategic Partnerships for school education.
Contacts: Laura Bove l.bove@meltingpro.org, Antonia Silvaggi a.silvaggi@meltingpro.org
