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Mind-opening to Economy. Creative Approaches to Economic Literacy
Start date: Oct 1, 2016, End date: Mar 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Economy is more and more present in daily lives, politics and global developments.The context of work, health care, pension insurance, education and other spheres are progressively shaped by supply and demand, competition and efficiency. However, there is a lack of knowledge of how a market function. If markets fail like during the financial crisis 2008, questions raise but often too simple answers are given. Moreover, the European countries face economic instabilities but the problems of for example the euro project are not understood by many citizens. Economic issues such as inflation, deflation, the role of a central bank in a currency area, consumers' debts, etc. are often regarded as being too complex and complicated. This meets a widely spread feeling of uncertainty. As people normally refer to interpretations in public discourse, there is a threat that they may get attracted by nationalist perspectives on economic, social and political phenomenons. Democracy needs education. At least a basic economic education is indispensable that learners learn overcoming uncertainty, finding orientation, developing their own point of view, and practicing tolerance, humanity and respect. In its practical dimension economic education enables to cope with challenges by strengthening initiative, social entrepreneurship, active citizenship, employability and individual management. The project “mind-opening to economy” aims to provide methods and information to bridge the lack of knowledge. Its activities are addressed to trainers to enhance their basic skills in economic education and to encourage them implementing economic issues in their trainings. It is also addressed to the indirect target groups of learners – mostly disadvantaged who do not have the capacity of getting basic economic skills individually – who would benefit from more educational offers in this field. The project brings 4 organisations from East, West and Central Europe together who exchange good practises in socio-economic learning by combining a) creative approaches of civic education (sociodrama, film making, future workshop), b) economic issues such as labour market and employability, money, management skills for life and environmental economics and c) a European perspective on recent socio-economic developments. It also aims to create networks of organisations dealing with socio-economic issues in Europe. In order to allow democratic learning, partners seek to reflect economic questions in a multi-perspective way taking different economic “schools” into consideration. Partners come together during three transnational project meetings and two teaching/learning activities of 5 days in which they share and apply methods, knowledge, and experiences in the field of socio-economic education. The exchange results in a) a concept of teaching material which shall be developed and produced during an additional project; b) one example-chapter of such material to be implemented in teaching practice and c) at least a small network of socio-economic education in Europe as well as systematic information on existing cooperations. The activities will be filmed and documented at the project's website. Regular evaluation and dissemination will ensure a high quality of cooperation and visibility of the project.
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