Walkscapes – An Interdisciplinary Study on the Practice of Walking (Training Course)

About the project
The project structured as a long‐term learning journey consisting of 2 international residency activities (study and production) and practice phases during the follow‐up of these activities. The study and production activities will involve 25‐30 participants in each event. The profile of participants will be youth workers, rural planners, artists so as young refugees in the second activity.
During the two residence activities various methods of experiential learning and outdoor education will be following the 'Walkscapes' approach. Participants will gain new insights through interdisciplinary exchange to the subject of walking, learn to design and implement experiential activities and learning programmes which later will be transferred to daily practice with groups of young people from inclusion groups.

Training in France, 1-15 May 2017
To reach a bigger socio-cultural impact we plan a first training in a rural area of France. During this activity, the participants will have the unique opportunity to experience and explore the interdisciplinary behind the practice of walking as a tool that they can later on use with youth.

Training in Turkey, 20-30 September 2017
A second training in Turkey will give them a chance to try out this tool with youth at risk, by working with young Turkish and Kurdish locals as well as Syrian and Iraqi refugees. This training will be dedicated to production of visual dissemination tools the priority will be given to those people who after the first activity will be willing to transfer their learning into visible products. Project partners design this project having an objective to not only to provide learning opportunity for youth workers, rural planners, architects and artists, but also to transfer innovative points of view into products that can be disseminated, such as video, photography, etc.

Partner's tasks
As a partner, we will need you to firstly apply by sending us an email with the PIF; secondly, once selected, by signing and stamping the mandate; then, if the project is approve, by joining us to develop and design the program and a dissemination plan; finally, by selecting participants to be part of the aforementioned project.

Project background and outcome
Seeing the current flow of refugees toward Europe as a crisis or as a potential and normal condition of human species depends on our mental construct about human migration and inclusion. It raises the question, how should we, EU citizens, see expressions of mobility according to our values of democratic and participative life. We want to provide an interdisciplinary opportunity to study mobility and migration exploring its most basic form - walking.
The results of Eurobarometer indicate that the most important aspect of education is related to educators ability to engage and motivate young people. Youth Strategy of EU points out the importance of non‐formal education sport activities, that help to develop interdisciplinary skills. According to Eurobarometer results young people, who take part in non‐formal educational activities are more likely to actively participate in the decision‐making of their communities.

Based on these insights, this project aims to empower youth workers, rural planners and artists to develop methods to create non-formal learning settings to actively engage young people in their living environment on mental, social and physical levels for their learning. Such specifically interdisciplinary tailored learning settings will provide young people with learning experiences that help them to obtain cross‐sectoral practical skills, increase their participation in their immediate environment and encourage them to be physically and creatively engaged in their environment.
Our methodology is based on interdisciplinary exchange, experiential learning, outdoor education and non‐formal education principles. Participants will learn through testing their designed methods and reflecting upon the experience. Thus, learning through experience is core element in our methodology. Using participatory approach we encourage the exchange of experience between the participants, thus enabling learning from the peers. In this project we will use the Theme Centred Interaction approach, which encourages participants to better perceive connections while learning between themselves, the group and the topic. Exploring the environment we will use elements of Outdoor education. Overall we want to encourage holistic learning, combining and intersecting sectors of interest, and get away from the input‐output oriented learning.

If you would like to apply, send an email to miguel@nomadways.eu adding the name of the project as a subject.