Promoting Education And Co-Existence Through EU Studies

Promoting Education And Co-Existence Through EU Studies

The PEACE project aimed to take students from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and give them the opportunity to develop and deliver a curriculum that focuses on education for democracy and human rights, in middle schools in Israel’s Negev region. Concluding two years of a variety of activities, PEACE is indeed an innovative project, which successfully involved hundreds of middle school pupils, university students and professors, as well as Israeli Ministry of Education officials, teachers, social coordinators and school principals.First of all, PEACE involved developing teaching materials about the EU, as well as developing content and tools for teachers to continue the project’s influence in the future. Tailor-designed activities on the EU and central international human rights days were produced, to expand the knowledge of both Israeli students and teachers and to make more teaching materials available on these subjects. For this particular end, we established a website where all the project’s products are available, and a printed version of our lesson plans will be available soon.While PEACE was planned to take place in an Arab-Jewish elementary school, some difficulties urged us to alter our initial plan, and led PEACE to be implemented in a standard middle school. This unexpected change carried many important achievements. The composition of pupils within the school was extremely diverse and demanded the development of a variety of unique activities, that would suit different classes, at various levels. The transfer also opened the door for PEACE to offer a variety of trainings for the teachers themselves. Working directly with the Ministry of Education yielded an exceptional opportunity to inform teachers from all around the Negev area, from secular, religious and Arab schools, about the EU, the UN, and the provision of education for the promotion of human rights, and provide them with materials to continue our mission, highlighting EU values of coexistence and mutual cooperation.PEACE’s mutual learning dynamic enabled an innovative approach to teaching. By training students of European studies, politics and government and education, to develop and teach an EU and human rights curriculum to school pupils, the project positively benefited both groups, as well as the teachers and the school itself. Looking back and listening to feedback from all involved parties, not only did all stakeholders benefit from the project and appreciate it and the opportunity to be part of PEACE, many of our partners have already reached out asking to continue the project and remain part of this newly built community. When examining PEACE from the perspective of the University students, it is clear that they gained a lot from the project. They acquired knowledge and skills needed to teach EU and human rights subjects while learning at an in-depth level the values and important historical lessons the subject has to teach them. These skills are aimed at promoting active citizenship in partner countries of the EU and providing the students with a higher understanding of processes and relevant political challenges faced by the leaders of today. In addition, they had a unique opportunity to practice as teachers, from planning the lessons through delivering the materials in class. The school pupils benefitted from the project as well, given the variety of knowledge they were exposed to, and the unique activities our students planned and carried out with them. Given the wide impact of PEACE, the entire Negev area gained tremendously this project, due to the teacher trainings we offered, the exchange of ideas within these meetings, the variety of teaching materials that we produced and circulated, and the ongoing eye-opening discussion that we had with our partners, regarding the significance of education for the most basic EU values – for democracy, cooperation, and respect for human rights.

Coordinator:
BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV, Israel