TRAME Manual for teachers and educators
WP leader: Association of Cultural Heritage Managers
The specific objective is to properly organise all activities leading to the production of an innovative educational methodology addressed to high school pupils, aimed to promote the active involvement of the
pupils in the construction of paths of discovery and interpretation of cultural heritage under the thread of ancient migration flows
The WP leader is responsible for coordinating activities. University of Warsaw is in charge of coordinating research activities and support the WP leader throughout the whole process.
PArCo is supposed to provide inputs for the piloting phase and to supervise the whole process. All partners are in charge of translating the manual into their national languages.
The educational value of cultural heritage is nowadays widely recognized both at societal and institutional level, as officially recognised by several communications and
recommendations published in recent years by the EU institutions. Based on these assumptions, the TRAME partnership is going to develop an innovative and comprehensive
educational methodology targeted to school pupils aged 14-18 and addressing several learning needs such as:
– increasing knowledge of cultural heritage as a symbolic element on which cultural identities are built;
– active involvement in the learning process;
– better understanding the value of cultural diversity and apparent dualism between local/national and European identities;
– enhancement of key competences such as in particular creativity, critical thinking, spirit of initiative and communication in foreign languages, social and civic skills, awareness and
cultural expression;
– better understanding the common cultural roots linking different populations in Europe.
In particular, the TRAME methodology aims to promote the active involvement of pupils in the construction of paths of discovery and interpretation of cultural heritage, under the thread
of ancient migratory flows. In fact, the theme of migrations is at the core of the methodology, starting from the assumption that, since the earliest displacements of the farmers who left
the Middle East around 6.500 B.C., migrations have been triggers of technological progress, further developed and diversified by the encounter with the indigenous cultures and
leaving traces of a legacy of which the contemporary societies still benefit. The learning path, marked by the continuous interweaving of diversity and equality, aims at the identification
of those common features that, in spite of local peculiarities, are at the basis of European culture: for instance, the representation of myths that, with different names, represent similar
abstractions in different places.
An analytical approach to the topic, framed in a multidisciplinary perspective (including a variety of subjects such as history, geography, religion, art, languages, geometry, architecture,
chemistry, craft techniques, etc.) will allow students to discover the value of cultural diversity, e.g. through the observation of the divergences from a unitary stock occurred over the
millennia with regards to languages, ways of subsistence, techniques of construction, religious habits, artistic expressions. The methodology will be based on a participatory approach to cultural heritage, in which teachers and heritage managers cooperate for the active involvement of students in the
learning process, by providing them with keys for a better reading of the stories told by the archaeological sites. The learning process will include different steps, namely:
– identification of the main themes to be developed
– research activities
– exploration of the sites
– reflection and creative activities
– experiential interpretation
– elaboration of final outputs
A radical change of perspective from passive to active learning characterizes the TRAME methodology: the pupils are introduced to cultural heritage and then expected to produce
their own interpretations, according to their specific field of study. Through this experimental approach, they are directly engaged into the heritage management and develop a sense of
ownership and belonging, which are crucial for the conservation and valorization of cultural heritage.
The TRAME educational methodology, developed during the project involving specific archaeological sites and schools, can be potentially transferred and adapted to any
archaeological site and educational area. In fact, although the results may be different, the learning process remains the same, based on research, interpretation and creative
production, which can take different forms depending on the specific targets involved: mapping, visual arts, cinema, music, poetry, theatre, comics, videogame, community exhibition,
etc. The methodology is therefore intrinsically multidisciplinary and cross-sectorial as well as transferable to any geographical context.
Based on its huge transferability potential, the TRAME educational methodology is expected to produce a wide impact, starting from the archaeological sites involved, which will be
able to involve different target groups and reinforce the link with their territories. Once the methodology has been widely disseminated and shared with other potential users, there are
no real limits to its use in different EU countries, archaeological sites and schools, so that cultural heritage will become a key factor for the development of key competences and the
construction of an active European citizenship. In addition, the diffusion of the TRAME methodology is also expected to strengthen the link between the management of archaeological
sites and local communities, in particular through enhanced cooperation with the world of school.