Εμείς και οι άλλοι, ταυτότητα και μνήμη στην ευρωπαϊκή πραγματικότητα:: Μια εκπαιδευτική δράση στο Σπίτι της Ευρωπαϊκής Ιστορίας

Abstract

Learning in modern education is not only connected to the school environment. Nowadays learning is viewed as an active process, based on student collaboration, the exchange of opinions and the exploration of data, leading to the formation of knowledge, the acquisition of beliefs and the redefinition of attitudes. The dynamic of active learning also dictates the principles for the design and development of educational programs and activities, which are to be implemented outside the classroom. The museum is, indeed, such an environment, with enhanced learning dynamics. In this environment, stories are not simply presented to the public. Instead, the exhibits contain ideas and motivate visitors to reflect on them and discover new meanings and feelings. The educational and cultural program “Dia-polis: The Other as Self and the Self as Other” was designed by the scientific manager, the associate professor of DTH Simos Papadopoulos and his interdisciplinary team, and was implemented based on the dynamics of the museum space as an active learning environment.

The purpose of the program was to raise the awareness of the participants on the issue of managing diversity, by providing incentives and stimuli for the discovery of the “Other”. Art and culture were the basic tools of this effort, as presented in important museum spaces in Athens, Alexandroupolis and Brussels. The Brussels group visited the House of European History three times during the months of November and December 2021. During their visits, the students had the opportunity to get to know the cultural space of the museum, to discover its permanent exhibition, and the messages embedded in it. They participated in artistic and visual collaborative actions, and finally, based on the culturally imported information, they communicated online with their classmates from Athens and Alexandroupolis.