Identitet og kulturelt mangfold

Through cooperating with Max-Schmeling-Stadtteilschule we wanted to collaborate to collect best practises for how schools can work to support teachers and school leaders in the work to bridging in...

Through cooperating with Max-Schmeling-Stadtteilschule we wanted to collaborate to collect best practises for how schools can work to support teachers and school leaders in the work to bridging intercultural, intergenerational, and social divide. We wanted to work to prevent exclusion in our schools and societies, and to give education and support to strengthen the affiliation to our communities including European identity and values. Furthermore, we wanted to facilitate an intercultural understanding based on European values. Our goal was to work to develop a common ground for how our schools could cooperate to succeed in dealing with exclusion and future challenges. In our society students will meet a complex world filled with endless opportunities and potential regarding education and future career pathways. Regarding this, the prevention of exclusion is the key to develop sustainable education facilities which encourages international cooperation and development. The needs for bringing valuable knowledge would support teachers and school leaders in their work of preventing exclusion and strengthen our schools and societies with European values and identity.

We used Teams as a platform to communicate and plan our work. We used this platform to share documents and have online meetings, both before and after the mobilities. This way we got to know each other and establish an understanding and plan for the cooperation. We had the first mobility at Max-Scmelling-Stadtteilshule in Germany and the second mobility at Elverum ungdomsskole in Norway. In both mobilities we had days of job shadowing, visiting different schools, participating in lessons with students in the classrooms, and discussions. In Norway we also had a meeting with the local school board and a visit to the nearby upper secondary school. We exchanged knowledge, thoughts, and ideas in the work to bridging intercultural, intergenerational, and social divide. We had many discussions of best practices to prevent exclusions in our schools and societies and we learned about how the two school systems give education support to strengthen the affiliation to communities in our countries.

The concrete outputs of our project were insight in how our schools work to prevent exclusion and how to bridge intercultural, intergenerational, and social divide. We were inspired to reflect on our own practices and made improvements to ensure inclusion and participation for all the students in the classes. At Elverum ungdomsskole we started the school year in the fall 2023 with a new elective subject: International Collaboration. This fall, we had student mobility with 14 students from Max-Schmelling on exchange here at Elverum ungdomsskole. They lived with host students and participated in classes in various collaborative projects initiated by the teachers. In addition, this was an educational cultural exchange. In the spring of 2024, students from Elverum ungdomsskole will go on exchange to Max-Scmelling in Hamburg. As a result of this project, Elverum municipality participated in a pilot project for municipality accreditation, both for primary education and for adult education. Elverum municipality was accredited as an Erasmus+ municipality in the spring of 2023, and 4 out of 8 primary schools and the school for adult education now have ongoing projects under municipality management trough Erasmus+.