"SUSTAINABILITY FOR DEMOCRACY, DEMOCRACY FOR SUSTAINABILITY” (SDDS) came into existence because of four public secondary schools' joint desire to work together on an Erasmus+ Project on the theme of democracy, environment and sustainability.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

Concerning students:

- reinforcing links between school education and active citizenship, economic, social, cultural and European considerations;

- increasing students’ self-confidence and to acquire better English language and digital skills;

- promoting inclusion of students with economical and learning difficulties.

Concerning teachers:

- enhancing professional development by integrating collaborative and innovative pedagogies into the project activities;

- establishing networking relationships that will lead to future collaboration as a result of this project.

Concerning schools:

- to open our schools to internationalization and to increase the European dimension of the education we provide.

Throughout the 2-year project, in each of our four schools, there will be a team of about 21 students, aged between 14 and 18 and from very different socio-economic and geographical backgrounds, working on the project, alongside other fellow students interested in our theme. All the proposed activities have been selected as a result of consultation with colleagues interested in sharing their methods with others and learning from the approach of other European teachers and will involve people living and working close to our respective schools.

The project´s objectives will be achieved by means of a four-phase structure, preceded by preparatory work and culminating in a short-term transnational learning activity (TLA) hosted in each partner country. We’ll start with Greece – the cradle of Democracy and during the project all partners will explore Democracy, with sustainability being always the guideline and establish relations with the Environment, Economy, Arts, Science and Technology. The outline of this structure is as follows:

- Phase 1: “Democracy and Environment in Institutions” with the TLA hosted in Greece (01/2019)

- Phase 2: "Democracy, Environment and Economy" with the TLA hosted in Finland (05/2019)

- Phase 3: “Democracy, Environment and Art(s)” with the TLA hosted in Portugal (11/2019)

- Phase 4: “Democracy, Environment, Science and Technology” with the TLA hosted in Estonia (05/2020).

Students, in turn researchers, interviewers, writers, artists, webmasters, will thus, thanks to the collaboration with students from partner schools, construct their own learning processes, their relationships, their sense of responsibility, making them truly European citizens.

All activities and work produced, uploaded on the eTwinning platform, the Project Blog and the EU Dissemination Platform will enable European teachers and schools to find inspiration for their daily work and for future cross-border cooperation.