April 25, 2025

Cultural awareness: internationalizing the school with Erasmus+

What is cultural awareness

One of the key competences of lifelong learning – cultural awareness and expression – includes the ability to appreciate the creative expression of ideas, experiences and emotions, as well as active creativity in various expressions like music, arts, fine arts and literature.

The European schools are increasingly using a competence as a cross-curricular tool, as it involves a knowledge of local, national and European cultural heritage.

What is the cultural awareness? Various definitions and descriptions of cultural awareness is used across the different informative and scientific articles. According to our summary, the three most accurate and commonly used definitions are:

  1. Cultural awareness is sensitivity to the similarities and differences that exist between two different cultures and the use of this sensitivity in effective communication with members of another cultural group. 
  2. Cultural awareness is all about recognising and understanding that we all have different values shaped by our diverse cultural backgrounds. What we consider to be ‘normal’ behaviour in one country can be entirely different in another.
  3. Intercultural awareness recognizes that people are shaped by their own cultural background, and that this influences how people interpret the world around them and how they perceive themselves and relate to other people. It means that we often view other people’s behaviour and benefits through the prism of our own standards of culture. Culture itself is the sum total of ways of living, including behavioural norms, linguistic expressions, styles of communication, patterns of thinking, and beliefs.

How to develop and manage cultural awareness in the school

Might be that you, your team or school you are teaching or studying in are asking: “What can be the best tool of managing cultural awareness in the school?”

The answer – by promoting cultural awareness in the school and improving your students and teachers’ cultural skills. This is particularly important in today’s multicultural environment. It can help prevent cultural conflicts and allow your teachers and students to better deal with foreign people and colleagues.

The question: “How?” We suggest using the most remarkable tool: Erasmus+ teacher and student exchange programmes.

Erasmus+ promotes interculture and cultural awareness

Erasmus+ is the key for developing cultural awarenessamong the schools of European UnionThrough the unique experience of living, studying, training or travelling abroad, participants discover different cultures. Both students and teachers come from different cultural environments and the host organisation has to take care of intercultural awareness in all levels of activities, from administration up to teaching and passing exams. From program to program and project to project, goals are different but the role of Erasmus being the key to cultural awareness rise among the all involved in the education.

Great thoughts about Erasmus+ input in rising the cultural awareness throughout the Europe were expressed in Erasmus+ spotlight for its 30th anniversary. From ex President of European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker remarked that “Education and culture are the key to the future (…) It is how we turn circumstance into opportunity, how we turn mirrors into windows and how we give roots to what it means to be “European”, in all its diversity”. Sandro Gozi, Member of Italian Parliament, pointed out that “The biggest selling points of EU are its culture and its language diversity. When more people know about the EU and what it stands for, this is the best antidote against poisons like populism, hate and discrimination.”

By: www.playing4softskills.eu

Sources:

Jandt, F.W.: An introduction to Intercultural Communication – Identities in a Global com-munity. Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks (2004)

European Comission: Luxembourg: Erasmus+ annual report 2019, Publications Office of the European Union, 2020

Related Posts

Erasmus+ KA2 IPAL project: it’s time for the third Transnational Meeting.

November 23, 2021

November 23, 2021

On the 3rd and 4th of November, all the partners from Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, and Greece attended the third Transnational...

“Gastronomic” Job Shadowing in Rimini for the Teachers from ZST in Turku

June 7, 2023

June 7, 2023

For many years, the Erasmus+ program has been supporting the professional development of teachers engaged in vocational education and training....

Empowering Women Over 40: Learning Week by STARwomen

December 16, 2024

December 16, 2024

During the first week of December, as part of the STARwomen – Simulation Training for Women Erasmus+ project, Tribeka Training Lab organized...

P.IR.A.M.iD: the project for the development of intercultural skills in the tourism sector

August 9, 2024

August 9, 2024

The P.IR.A.M.iD. project (Path for Intercultural Awareness, Measurement and Development) was promoted thanks to the ErasmusPlus programme with the aim...

Erasmus call 2021-2027: latest news

April 2, 2021

April 2, 2021

The European Commission has launched a new Erasmus call 2021-2027, inviting all private and public bodies active in the field...

The Soft Skills Tree – Game Manual: the second output of the Playing 4 Soft Skills project is online

June 16, 2022

June 16, 2022

The second output of the “Playing 4 Soft Skills” project is online! This is the “Soft Skills Tree – Game...

Training – Experience – Welfare: the three key elements of any Erasmus Plus projects

May 10, 2021

May 10, 2021

After few weeks from the approval of the new 2021-2027 call of Erasmus Plus Programme, an important deadline is getting...

Just a few days left to apply your project to the Erasmus+ Programme

January 23, 2023

January 23, 2023

23 February at 12.00 (Brussels time) is deadline to apply for a short-term Erasmus+ project and participate in the European...

6 steps to write a perfect Erasmus+ mobility project

February 1, 2023

February 1, 2023

Are you writing a short – term KA12/KA22 Erasmus+ individual Mobility project for your school ? If the answer is...

Social Innovations – social and education inclusion” project for Bulgarian teachers and students at Tribeka Training Lab

July 26, 2023

July 26, 2023

The Erasmus+ program offers wide range of opportunities for its participants to acquire new skills and knowledge through short and...

P.iR.A.M.i.D. Project: Survey Insights and Theoretical Model

December 10, 2024

December 10, 2024

The first result of the ErasmusPlus KA220 Cooperation Project PiR.A.M.iD (Path for Intercultural Awareness, Measurement and Development) coordinated by Tribeka...

“Virtual Classroom”: Erasmus + training course for four teachers from Bulgaria has been successfully completed

July 26, 2021

July 26, 2021

The training course “BIG BLUE BUTTON AND G SUITE TO IMPROVE DIGITAL LEARNING” of the Erasmus + KA1 “Virtual classroom”...

Erasmus+: a survey states that experiences abroad increase the acquisition of soft skills

June 29, 2022

June 29, 2022

In 2014, the European Commission published the Erasmus Impact Study, a study carried out by experts in which it states...

At the foot of Mount Vitosha, alive, open, dynamic: Erasmus+ in Sofia is a journey between tradition and modernity

November 7, 2022

November 7, 2022

With Mount Vitosha in the background to protect it almost like a father with a daughter does, here we have...

Bulgarian school “Atanas Tsonev Burov” awarded for its Erasmus+ project on energy efficiency

December 17, 2024

December 17, 2024

Our partner, the Vocational School of Industrial Technologies “Atanas Tsonev Burov”, located in Ruse, Bulgaria, has been awarded a Quality...

Comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Newsletter