EUHARMONIC ERASMUS+ TEACHER'S HANDBOOK ON CULTURAL HERITAGE
WHAT YOU WILL FIND HERE
The European Heritage in the politically and culturally changing world as means to fight
radicalization (Acronym EUHARmonic) is the Erasmus+ 2018-1-EL01-KA229-047833_1
project which resulted from a successful TCA held in Germany in October 2017, in which the
need for it occurred. The partnership which ran from September 2018-February 2021
composes of 5 Primary Schools:
- Primary School of Skopelos, Lesvos, Greece (Coordinator)
- Szkola Podstawowa Nr 1 im. Tadeusza Kosciuszki w Mierzecicach, Poland (Partner)
- Primary School Daliou 2,Cyprus (Partner)
- Escola Básica de Apúlia, Portugal (Partner)
- Osnovna skola Jurja Sizgorica, Croatia (Partner)
Most of the participating institutions are located on the borders of Europe, experiencing the
immigration crisis, phenomena of xenophobia and radical views that have challenged us to find
means to redefine our sense of belonging and develop open-mindedness along with social skills.
Thus, the project explored several aspects of the European Heritage, the Historical, the
Industrial, the Social, the Political, the Natural and the Digital tangible and intangible heritage,
in the contemporary world, which has changed drastically, and how these shared cultural assets
can be used in education as means to fight radical views and to strengthen the social cohesion
and resilience of societies.
OVERVIEW
In recent years, the issue of cultural heritage is very high in the priorities of the countries of the
European Union. In the discussions for the definition of policies for the development of culture
but also for the reduction of phenomena such as radicalization, extremism, xenophobia and
exclusion in education, the issue of cultural heritage dominates. These efforts essentially reflect
the decisions on the one hand of Council of Europe and the Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)1
to member States on the “European Cultural Heritage Strategy for the 21st century” and on
the other hand the European Heritage Alliance Manifesto of Europa Nostra named“Cultural
Heritage: a powerful catalyst for the future of Europe”(2020). Cultural heritage, according to
the above organizations, targets promoting diversity and dialogue through access to heritage to
foster a sense of identity, collective memory and mutual understanding within and between
communities.
The Lesson Planning Handbook for Teachers
AGE RANGE
Our target groups were primarily more than 200 upper-elementary students of the partner
schools, but the rest of the school students were also actively involved in the activities, as they
were integrated in the school curriculum and there were project walls, Open days, exhibitions,
blog entries, presentations and workshops in which they participated. Students with fewer
opportunities and SEN were prioritized in the mobility actions. Parents-teachers' associations,
policy makers such as school counselors, were also involved to achieve maximum dissemination
and long-term impact by changing attitudes and school policies.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Through experiential learning techniques, blended learning and peer learning, which is the most
appropriate methodology for the upper-elementary students that were targeted, in terms of
comprehension and consolidation, we achieved our aim to promote cultural literacy, to raise
awareness on the importance of preservation of the cultural heritage and active participation in
social affairs with tolerance and resilience. The activities scheduled were numerous and short to
keep the primary students motivated and engaged at all times, performed in transnational
groups especially to carry the project through its preparation, implementation, consolidation,
evaluation, dissemination stages to keep the intercultural communication flow and to foster
intercultural approaches to heritage. The activities that were carried out during the mobilities
featured the European Cultural Heritage but in the context of social inclusion, cultural
understanding, in order to strengthen our identity as European citizens, to build resilience, to
promote intercultural dialogue and change attitudes.
The final-products of this collaboration have been designed to have long-term orientation
purposes. Thus, what you have in your hands is a coursebook with the accumulated lesson
plans and sub-products (links to digital material used and produced, dvd, scrapbooks, photos,
etc), through which the project evolved. We hope it will serve as a handbook of good practices
for teachers at local, regional, transnational level.
It contains the six aspects of the European Heritage that the transnational school teams
explored, the Historical, the Industrial, the Social, the Political, the Natural and the Digital
tangible and intangible heritage.
This handbook consists of six different parts, one of each aspect of European Heritage. Totally,
there are 31 lesson plans from the five partners of the project EUHARmonic : Cyprus, Poland,
Croatia, Portugal and Greece. These lesson plans adopt interdisciplinary approaches, develop
collaborative learning strategies and particularly, put into practice academic and social
interactions and provide opportunities for students to learn how to collaborate in pairs, teams,
or as an entire class.
The first part of the learning scenarios deal with the Historic Heritage of Europe. The six lesson
plans explore the interrelation of the local history with the European cultural heritage and how a
cultural route can be formed with the contribution and interaction of various civilizations.
Through the study of Cyprus’ cities and historical heritage, the activities help students to have
better understanding of people, encourage positive thinking and open-mindedness, enable them
to attack phenomena of stereotype and look for points of connection that have brought
Europeans together to create common heritage.
The second part of the book is related to the Industrial Heritage of Europe and its connection to
legends and myths. In this section, the lesson plans develop learning about Culture through
traditional stories aiming to raise students’ awareness on the sustainability of culture through
storytelling. The characters in these stories travel, meet people or animals, have adventures,
guard the hardworking people, but most significantly provide the European values and give to
students a great possibility to discover new cultures, habits and life-styles. In consequence,
they build respect for human rights as dignity and freedom.
The third part of the Handbook examines the Social Heritage of Europe. The lesson plans
constitute a guide to how Cultural Heritage can be a Job generator. Having in mind the quote
from Winston Churchill “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to be”,
the students should have the skills to know the past and work for the future. Therefore, by
developing problem solving environments for the students, teachers help them to “think out of
the box”, to be creative, to be flexible and develop advanced communication skills for their
future challenges.The fourth part of the Handbook researches the Natural Heritage of Europe. This set of lesson
plans looks into the environmental threats that our planet has to face and provides plenty of
experiential learning ideas on how to protect and preserve our European and global natural
heritage. It facilitates the students to learn what sustainable development means, to
contemplate and debate on issues like the pollution of water, air and land as well as how
devastating a war can be for the environment. They focus on the EU policies and strategies on
those matters for environmental protection and sustainable development as well as the role of
the EU in the establishment of peace and what this means for the environment. The lesson plans
in this section aim at raising the students’ awareness in order to lead more sustainable lives.
The fifth part of the Handbook explores the Political Cultural Heritage of Europe. The lesson
plans in this section aim at raising the students’ awareness on what it means to be active
European citizens and how the political background of the formation of the EU has determined
their present and will shape their future. At the same time, there are activities that strengthen
their identity as European Citizens with rights and obligations. Through several techniques the
students learn how to debate and have conversations based on arguments, to respect their
fellow speaker, to dismiss unreliable sources of information and to promote a constructive
dialogue.
The last part of the Handbook is the Digital Heritage. The learning scenarios in this section aim
at pointing out that the best way for cultural sustainability is digitization and that cultural
heritage cannot only be preserved for the sake of tourism. It is a valuable source of information
and can be used for educational purposes and community development. As a result the
activities promote knowledge about culture and exploring the digital repositories of the
European Cultural Heritage. Students experience a variety of learning modes, intercultural
competence and use virtual collaboration spaces.
Teachers who are interested to teach by adopting Cultural Heritage practices will find interest in
this handbook. All activities help teachers and students explore the common European Heritage
and its innovative educational value, within the framework of the politically and culturally changing world.
The Lesson plans were used by Greek regional schools during a MOOC held by the Greek Ministry of education ( mooc.edu.gr «ΜΑΘΑΙΝΟΥΜΕ ΨΗΦΙΑΚΑ, ΔΙΔΑΣΚΟΥΜΕ ΨΗΦΙΑΚΑ» 03/2021)
and were digitally published with the tool Learning Designer as follows :
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