Belonging
Aims and objectives
The project aimed to develop materials and teaching and learning approaches to encourage citizenship amongst people who are not originally from the partner towns. For example, the UK partner was working with English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, including many asylum seekers and refugees. The project aimed to share and develop good practice on a transnational basis, develop standards in integrating citizenship in ESOL programmes/second language programmes and promote innovation for learners, enabling contact with learners in other countries and mobility. Learners developed citizenship and ICT skills as part of the ESOL programme.
Overall, the Belonging project sought to increase attention, motivation, independence and benefit in relation to further education, sustainable employment and good quality of both working and social life with ongoing changes. It confronted cultural and social, as well as physical obstacles, through various activities.
Lessons learnt, and how it was achieved
All partners agreed to produce learning materials which could be piloted with their own learners and then shared with the partner organisations. In the UK, for example, in the first year staff produced a booklet called ‘A Walk in Leeds’, for ESOL learners to use to help them learn about and identify places of interest in Leeds. In the second year it was felt that learners could be more involved in developing materials, so the grant funded a visit to York and learners helped to put together the second booklet, titled ‘A Walk in York’, which was much easier for ESOL learners to navigate.
As a culmination of the transnational partnership work, learners in all three countries contributed their own personal ‘Belonging’ stories to a book that was produced as a final project outcome, and all stories were translated into the three partner languages so all the learners could learn something about everyone else’s participation.
Achievements
The progression that was made throughout the project life can be summed as follows:
Developed by staff for learner use > Developed with learners for learner use > Developed by learners for learner use
Materials produced
First Year – A Walk in Leeds booklet (ESOL teaching & learning material)
Second Year – A Walk in Leeds booklet (ESOL teaching & learning material)
Final outcome was ‘Belonging’ booklet – a collection of personal memoirs from learners in all three countries and co-ordinated and produced by the UK co-ordinating organisation.
Partnership organisations/countries
Leeds Thomas Danby, UK – Co-ordinator
EPLE, St Livrade sur Lot, France
Orebro Kommun, Orebro, Sweden
Learner involvement
In the first year learners played a key role in the production of the material piloted with them, but were not really actively involved. However, after a Grundtvig event at the British Council, it became apparent that other organisations were including learners in mobility and they were really benefiting from it. As the majority of ESOL learners working on the project were asylum seekers or refugees we thought there would be an issue with travelling, but we managed to find two enthusiastic Lithuanian students who participated in one of the meetings in Sweden.
Learners were also actively involved throughout the second year in terms of helping to put together the ‘Walk in York’ booklet, and contributed many personal stories to the ‘Belonging’ collection of memoirs. These books have been used with several groups of learners in all three countries.
Impact
On the organisation
It is the first Grundtvig project we have been involved in. It has enabled
the European work to reach a much broader learner base. The college has a
European and International Strategy in place and this has helped the strategy to
become more inclusive.
On staff
The staff team working on the project has had the opportunity to meet with
other European colleagues and share practice. It has also given staff themes
around which to develop learning materials. For one member of staff in
particular, it developed their skills in ICT and the Publisher programme.
On adult learners
For our adult learners it has enabled them to see that people in similar
situations in other countries come up against similar issues or have similar
feelings when arriving somewhere new. It has brought a sense of unity. It has
also helped them learn more about their new hometowns and given them the
opportunity to develop materials that will be of benefit to others in the same
situation. This has given them a sense of ownership. It has also given two
learners the opportunity to visit our partner town in Sweden. This gave them
more confidence, and as a result of a presentation they gave this has increased
their communication skills in the English language .
Contact details
Name, organisation and address:
Marguerite Hogg
European Projects Co-ordinator
Leeds Thomas Danby
Roundhay Road
Leeds
LS7 3BG
Telephone no: 0113 2846208
Email: marguerite.hogg@thomasdanby.ac.uk
Classification data
Focus of your project
| Active citizenship | x |
| Essential skills | |
| Inter-generational learning | |
| Cultural/multi-cultural | |
| ICT and learning | |
| Foreign languages | |
| Other* |
Project type Grundtvig 2 Learning Partnerships
UK project base
| East Midlands | |
| East of England | |
| London | |
| North East | |
| North West | |
| South East | |
| South West | |
| West Midlands | |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | x |
