Different Nations - Shared Experiences

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The Baltic Sea region (BSR) bears marked differences resulting from its complicated past. Both economic and social developments have differed severely since the middle of the 20th century, even though historical ties in the region have been strong due to economic, geopraphical and natural reasons. Today the citizens of the region, despite their numerous similarities, do not have a sense of neighbourliness. This also defines the core problem of the project which is the two-fold: that citizens in the Baltic Sea region lack a) a awareness of their commonalities and b) awareness of each other’s recent history. The core problem complicates the forming of personal contacts and leads to hindered co-operation in the fields of politics, business, government, culture, science, etc. This in turn reduces, sharing of best practices between organisations, political unity, investment opportunities, hosting of joint projects, and general mobility of people in the region. Additionally, a sense of unity is necessary for building solidarity between nations – a value that forms the foundation of the European Union. Maintaining solidarity is especially important at economically and politically problematic times such as the World is going through currently. Consequently, it is necessary to deal with both aspects of the problem – to raise awareness of historical commonalities between the nations on the one hand and help people understand the region’s recent history on the other. Tackling these issues can form a foundation of a common BSR history "canon". These goals are, however, long terms ones that can not be received with a 3-year project. Thus this project aims to create the circumstances for sustainable change to occur. As knowledge and attitudes are often acquired during formative years, the projects activities are geared towards devising educational methods for both classroom usage in school as well as outreach activities. It is worth emphasising that this project is a pilot project that creates preconditions for curriculum change in the project countries. These preconditions include a solid overview of history awareness among the region's youth (Awareness Survey execution) and a set of efficient methods to increase awareness both in and outside of the education system (Strategy & Action Plan development, educational method development). Once these methods have been devised, they can be institionalised via curriculum change, the necessary teacher training, and other publicly and privately supported activities (Final Conference & Dissemination activities to key stakeholders and policy-makers).

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