The Grundtvig Award 2005 goes to the project ‘Raccontare l´Europe´ (Narrating on Europe), co-ordinated by the UPTER, Universita Popolare di Roma with partners from Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Secondly, we are giving a special award to a project submitted by the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME), Beit Jala, PNA.
The project is titled ‘Learning each other´s historical narrative: Palestinians and Israelis´
3rd GRUNDTVIG AWARD 2005
Active Citizenship for a Democratic Society
Making an invisible Europe visible
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has decided to declare the year 2005 the "European Year of Citizenship through Education"
The European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA) called for projects in "Active Citizenship in a Democratic Society" for this year´s Grundtvig-Award.
The deadline for submissions was 10th October .
We have received twenty-four tenders form fourteen countries, among which we received twenty-one from eleven countries of Europe. Two countries, Romania and Spain submitted four tenders each. From outside Europe there were three countries worth mentioning: Israel, India and the US.
The selection and assessment was done by a panel consisting of the following people:
- Arne Carlsen, Denmark
- Isabel Garcia-Longoria Serrano, Spain
- Roma Juozaitiene, Lithuania
- Jumbo Klerq, The Netherlands
- Monika Oels, Germany
- Janos Sz. Tóth, Hungary
The Grundtvig Award 2005 goes to the project ‘Raccontare l´Europe
´ (Narrating Europe), co-ordinated by UPTER, Universita Popolare di Roma with partners from Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The project brings together institutions working in the field of adult education and cultivation of memory. Based on the common working methodology, the participants produced autobiographical pieces, carried out interviews and collected personal writings. That way the project was put together was by "telling stories of Europe", in order to highlight personal experiences and events which give form and substance to a kind of "feeling European".
Out of all the valuable tenders submitted, the panel decided to give the award to the project named ‘Narrating on Europe´ for the following reasons:
- It presents an original and innovative approach, by starting with very personal experiences of story telling and then develops more general concepts from those personal experiences
- The method of telling one´s story creates a great opportunity to have active participation of citizens in the creation of knowledge, an opportunity for the subject to "take the floor", which is essential to activate citizens, and without which no citizenship is possible.
- Concentrates on essential aspects of democracy, valorisation of the individual and the necessary attention to diversity
- It promotes a sense and feeling of European citizenship which is not just economic or political, but, above all, emotional and cultural.
- It gives space to people of different age and social backgrounds (24-80 ), it is a kind of method of self-study.
- It offers the chance to focus on and present an opportunity of expression to a Europe which is often "invisible"
Displaying conflicting narratives
Secondly, we are giving a special award to a project submitted by the Peace Research Institute in the Middle East (PRIME), Beit Jala, Palestine.
The project is titled ‘Learning each other´s historical narrative: Palestinians and Israelis
´
The PRIME´s partners are: the Georg Eckert Institute Germany and the American University´s Centre for Global Peace, (US)
There are common textbooks written about common historical events, the experiences of which when applying in education are discussed by Palestinian and Israeli academics. The target groups are the primary school and high school history teachers, university teachers and students. It aims at the 15-16-year-olds. The five-year project produced three booklets, distributed in seven Israeli and seven Palestinian schools and in schools attended by Palestinians and Israelis puplis. The project focused on developing critical thinking in education. The aim was to help teachers and students become aware of the different respective narratives and see the complexity of the social and political reality.
Out of all the valuable tenders submitted, the panel decided to give the award to the Palestinian-Israeli project for the following reasons:
- The project is special because of the idea of two narratives that represent both sides of the conflict equally, and it proves that in spite of the ongoing violent conflict, and in spite of the tremendous obstacles, the sides involved can develop enough trust and hope in order to co-operate, and jointly create a product that may promote peaceful co-existence between the sides in the future.
- The group process affected the teachers´ attitude and behaviour to become more open-minded and inclusive towards the feelings and attitude of the teachers from the other side. Hundreds of pupils of both sides were exposed for the first time to the other side´s narrative.
- The idea of two narratives in conflicting situations is an invention and we assume that it will have many more applications in different parts of Europe and the rest of the world, as well as different aspects of ethnic, social and religious conflicts.
Prof. Bar-On and Prof. Adwan, the two co-ordinators of the projects say that writing the booklets was often emotional. "One man's hero was another man's terrorist," says Adwan.
28 October, Brussels
Prof. Bar-On and Prof. Adwan receive the special Grundvig Award 2005
