Project in the frame of the programme Phare CBC Slovenia-Italy 2003
Project promoter: University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities of Koper
Project performers: University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities of Koper; University of Trieste, Faculty of Sciences of Education; UP, Science and Research centre of Koper; Slori – Slovene Research Institute, Primary school Elvira Vatovec Prada, Primary school “Pier Paolo Vergerio il Vecchio” in Koper
Project implementation period: 2005-2006
The main project’s goal is the formulation of methods and techniques for interethnic/intercultural awareness rising among young people, as far as the cultural contacts on the border between Slovenia and Italy are concerned, and this both in the frame of the family education and the school system. The specific project’s goal is the creation of an intercultural educational model, which focuses on the intercultural awareness rising of young people on the Slovene and the Italian side, about the interethnic situation in their own small reality and in the cross-border area (the relation majority vs. minority national communities, cultural differences etc.) and about the importance of mutual knowledge of different national communities and bi- or multilingualism.
On the basis of the intercultural educational model a publication entitled “Between the cultures and languages” – Med kulturami in jeziki / Tra lingue e culture (2006) has been issued. The authors Vesna Mikolič, Susanna Pertot and Nives Zudič Antonič have collected in this book some fundamental issues and guidelines, which in nationally mixed environments along the Slovene-Italian border may help teachers to explain, while the parents and the laic public to better understand, the policy of coexistence, multilingualism and interculturality in their everyday life.
However, the intention of the project was to check up the created model in a pilot way, with the cooperation of students or specializing students of the two participating universities (University of Primorska and University of Trieste), who chose to become teachers, and the teachers and the pupils of the two primary schools.
The project has contributed to a higher level of interethnic/intercultural awareness rising among young people, their parents and teachers, and in such a way to the reinforcement of the cross-border area; at the same time it helped to create a basis for a long-term and sustainable cooperation founded on mutual knowledge and comprehension, without trivial stereotypes and prejudices.