Migration on European stages - MEUS

Topic(s) addressed

This project focused on theatre, drama and acting as a way of promoting inclusion, participation, interaction and cooperation, in particular for schools with a mix of native and migrant students.

Target group(s)

All students, including from many different backgrounds, were welcome to get involved in the project.

Methodologies

For many of the schools, theatre was not part of their regular curricula. The project represented a unique opportunity to implement a new form of teaching, including of voice, language and body language. 

As the working language was English, teaching and acting in English made this a multidisciplinary project. 

Innovation environment

A great driver of the project was the participating schools’ openness to social and emotional learning (SEL). Many of the schools involved have tight curricula, and the project allowed them to implement more SEL into classrooms.

Through theatre, the students at each school, who encompassed a variety of nationalities, were able to get to know each other better and interact in a way that other classroom activities do not normally allow.

As budgets were constrained, many plays were acted out with a creative use of resources.

Teachers’ role

All teachers were highly motivated to implement and complete the project. At the end, they agreed that the teaching and learning processes were extremely rewarding and that all teachers benefited from the new learning environments that were created.

Impact and output

The students’ feedback during and after the project highlighted its great impact on them. This included gaining knowledge about new and different cultures. Students could be included who had never been out of their countries and the project took some of them as far as the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Some students fed back that the project would surely alter their futures.