The boundary can be a “line abreast” (between cultures, languages and people) or, on the contrary, a border, an open door, aterritory for meetings, a place of peaceful co-habitation and positive “contamination”. We refer not only to physical bordersamong two different countries but also to borders which, within cities, separate areas where different groups live (related tovaried ethnicities, languages, religions and social profiles). In this context the school becomes an ideal environment to promoteintercultural dialogue and active citizenship.The main objective of the project is to support and strengthen the cultural and school cooperation in the border areas, by helpingthem facing the political and social changes. We intend to use the background of cultural cooperation usually existing in theborder areas: a background of mutual language knowledge, mixed ethnic identities, shared history made not only of conflictsbut also of common achievements. Our scope is to create a virtual “meeting square” in the milieu of border lines.The main outputs of the project will be:
- a) a research on the existing situation in the border areas involved, in the scope of multicultural exchanges in social andschool environments; this research will include a compendium of good practices;
- b) a module of in – service teachers’ training and a related handbook (through digital support) entitled “How to design andimplement a multi – cultural approach for teaching / learning pathways in the border areas”. This module will be testedin different ways, throughout 5 workshops, in the countries involved;
- c) didactic modules for pupils, created by the teachers involved in the training;
- d) a International Internet Forum and some exchange networks among university fellows, teachers and students.
The impact envisaged is a stronger capacity of the “schools on borders” to improve their quality and to become “interculturalnests”, an excellent example for all European schools.
With the support of the Lifelong Learning Program of the European Union.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.