An invitation to pedagogues in schools and other educational institutions

The Intercultural Youth Magazine trait d’union (hyphen) is an international learning project, based on the communication and cooperation of young people – and pedagogues – from different cultures and countries. It is on the one hand a forum where the young can exchange their views on topics of common interest. On the other hand, it offers a lot of opportunities for educational, especially teaching, purposes. We want to invite you, the pedagogues all over the world, to use these opportunities by joining this project.

Since its beginning, 28 schools from 14 countries and 5 continents have contributed in 30 languages. Three educational institutions are currently taking part in trait d`union: the Liceo Sesto Properzio, Assisi/Italy, the Education Center for Ophthalmic Optics and Optometry, Munich/Germany and the Gisela-Gymnasium München (Munich).   

As to the number and scope of the contributions, there are no minimum requirements. The flexible project structure allows to suit trait d’union smoothly to the interests and possibilities of the participating institutions and persons.

The editors’ activities are not restricted to printable media (texts, drawings, photos), but reach to contributions that can be recorded through audio and video. trait d’union Radio and trait d’union TV serve to document these activities. Let us not forget the Discussion section.

Over the course of a project year, the international team creates various contributions on a deliberately broad topic in which the interests of the young people and the teaching content of as many different subjects as possible overlap, such as “Boundaries”, “Boys & girls” or “Courage”. The project kicks off in the autumn with a three-day international online workshop where participants are taught journalistic skills by experts, for example interviewing, creating podcasts and videos. The skills learned will then be applied to the annual theme.

The main objective of all acts of communication and cooperation within the trait d’union project is to encourage and to support intercultural competence, being one of the social and vocational key qualifications in the age of globalization and also a powerful instrument against the nationalist and populist currents that are nowadays regaining strength in many countries. A particular role is attributed to the possibility to make comments on the contributions of the colleagues on the commentary function. This can fulfill various functions: asking, adding own experiences, comparisons, approval and criticism, and planning extensions of the contribution. Important is openness and mutual respect.

The use of trait d`union as a project complement in the classroom can enhance the following elements according to the desired ‘dosage’: 

1. Strengthening of the daily life context ("... sed vitae") through thematic intersections with current events and interests of young people
2. Motivation support through action and product orientation
3. Interdisciplinary learning
4. Orientation to the individual interests and abilities of the students through the division of labor within the overall context of the project, by choosing between different …
1. basic orientations: the journalistic or the creative one
2. media: texts, drawings, photos, audios, videos
3. genera: e.g. reports, interviews, comments / stories, dialogues, poems
5. Acquisition of special competencies within the workspace of the project (values, capacity for teamwork, organization, technics, media)
6. Communication and cooperation with young people (and possibly adults = teachers) from other cultures for common products (newspaper)
7. Use of trait d’union contributions from foreign partners in the classroom (authenticity, daily news) with the possibility of subsequent feedback to the author (inquiries, exchange of experience and opinions)
8. Change of perspective
9. Increase of intercultural competence

For more information, please read “The trait d`union profile in five languages”

If you are interested in participating, please contact us: lothar.thiel@traitdunion.online

Welcome to trait d’union!