Since the 1st of September 2018 until the 30st of August 2021 (one year extension due to the pandemic time we are experiencing) I have participated in an Erasmus+ project, KA2. I will not insist on the effective conduct of the project but on its benefits. In accordance with the objectives of the project, the activities performed had the aim of acknowledgment of an idea belonging to a modern society of a grater cohesion and without marginalization, where Europe’s citizens would actively take part to the democratic life.
Using the central idea as a starting point, the diminish of the phenomenon of discrimination within the educational environment, where it would immediately impact the social environment and the integration into working life; the above-mentioned objectives became the outcome of our activities during the mobilities. Although, due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we were unable to physically involve pupils in our July 2021 activities, and everything that was accomplished during this project meeting, including the final results were disseminated with them, together with our other colleagues and the parents, through the final activities.
The activities proposed to the foreign partners were planned so as to be correlated with the objectives of the project and to be able to be successfully disseminated to the school and local communities of the partner institutions. These aimed at: highlighting the multiple forms of discrimination identified during the project in correlation with what exists in partner countries, comparisons of different situations discovered through this collaboration. We examined and analysed gender representation in the media and society, ingrained cultural stereotypes in the companies involved identifying hate speeches in the media and social networks and countering them with anti-hate speeches. We invited representatives of local associations who presented real situations and solutions to combat discrimination. We made presentation materials in Power Point and video recordings with the impact of the project on the participating students. We created online communication groups between teachers and students from partner countries. We considered emphasizing our national identity, traditional family, customs, resources and cultural objectives to understand the Romanian way of thinking and our openness to the new, towards a world where discrimination is if not eradicated, at least diminished. Our activities have successfully led to the achievement of the goals and have paved the way for a social and school ideal to which we must all strive.
In establishing the activities carried out at the meeting in Romania, we also took into account their correlation with the other activities in which students and teachers from our high school participated during the four mobilities carried out in Germany, Spain, Italy and Latvia representing a continuation of them and a culmination of what happened during the project assessing the impact on those directly and indirectly involved and its results after its completion in the medium and long term.
The activities proposed are supported by documents explaining their conduct, photographs and minutes and were carried out with the consent of the high school management and compliance with the rules imposed by the Coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to achieving the proposed objectives, this Erasmus + project was an excellent opportunity for both teachers and students to meet and make friends with teachers and students from other European countries, to share experiences and examples of good practice, to share analyse the way other European citizens think, visit cities in other countries and discover their culture, history and civilization, traditions and customs, to practice and enrich their knowledge of English but also the skills of coordinating work groups and organising activities, to realize that we can successfully face any challenge.
In conclusion, participating in an Erasmus+ project represented a huge volume of work but it was an extraordinary experience in all the aspects mentioned above.