Search for European Projects

Our School Museum and Heritage Sites: A Link to Our Community
Start date: Sep 1, 2014, End date: Aug 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The Second Kaimakli Primary School has a small museum at its premises. It is one of the few of its kind in Cyprus and contains about a hundred and fifty objects that were either made or used in the Kaimakli area until roughly sixty years ago. Before the present project and during the past ten years the museum has virtually been out of use as an educational or social tool. At the same time the school has never been involved in any international projects and therefore European or international issues have not been adequately incorporated into the school's work. In order to tackle these issues, the present Erasmus program was undertaken. The school staff went through training in a number of areas such as teaching approaches and concepts related to museums and cultural heritage; design and implementation of European projects; ways to approach local and European cultures and citizenship. These, to a great extent, were acquired through participation into the SMILE and Sharing Landscapes program of teacher training. The rest of the project consisted of the implementation and transfer of those skills and competencies to the local educational and social framework and the dissemination of program results and acquired skills to the local and educational community. The main aims of this project were to achieve a novel kind of link between the school and the community through the use of the school museum and local heritage sites and to explore the concept of local and European identities in the present-day world. More specific objectives were to use the school museum and local heritage sites as educational tools; to introduce the school into international projects and develop the school's international educational dimension; to investigate our own cultures and identities and those of other groups through museums and sites; and to incorporate the various identities and cultures of the school's students in the educational process. There were two main participants in this project: Elderburry AB which trained school staff into the new educational approaches and concepts of the project and the school which implemented the tools and approaches and explored the relevant concepts within the local educational and community environment. Activities were addressed to the stuff, to the students and to the community. Activities aimed for the staff included stuff training, museum and site visits, museum and site workshops, presentations and discussions. Activities addressed to the students ranged from work with objects and workshops at museums and sites (including the school museum), to research with printed and electronic means and live informants, presentations by specialists, and extensive work with art and digital media. Activities for the wider public took the form of workshops for other schools (assisted by the staff), presentations, a museum art intervention at the Ethnological Museum, Nicosia and the production of a book. Through interviews and field studies, we have explored and understood historic and social aspects of the surrounding neighborhood,and incorporated them in the school's curricula and activities. Having completed the two year program, the school museum has now been revived and established as a meaningful educational hub for other school classes to visit; local heritage sites have been made accessible and usable as educational tools for present and future school staff; the locality, Europe and what it means to be a present-day European has been explored, object work and heritage study has been undertaken; and, most importantly, children coming from areas other than Kaimakli have been made to feel proud and confident of their own identities and cultures. As potential longer term benefits from this project we are confident that the school has acquired a solid background on international contacts and competency for international projects; that the staff, our students and the wider community have become aware of the fluid constellations of identities present both within the community and at European level; and that school staff has become confident about using museums and sites in their future professional life. We have also created educational material for future educators and the public interested in the educational use of museums and sites as well as the Kaimakli area.
Up2Europe Ads

Coordinator

Details

1 Partners Participants