one world in schools

An educational program of People in Need

The Mission

JS na školách

To engage Czech youth through the powerful medium of human rights documentary film and a year-round, nation-wide network of active partners consisting of 413 teachers from 279 secondary schools and 202 teachers from 175 primary schools.

Project Description

One World in Schools educates Czech students through the use of human rights documentary films, harnessing the power of popular culture through film, the Internet, photography, posters and comics. The project forces students to discuss the meaning of human rights and tolerance, basic values on which democratic society is based. Project films help increase awareness among young people by raising questions and pushing students to search for answers, drawing parallels to the students’ own lives and encouraging them to form independent opinions. One World in Schools utilizes films that reflect today’s world without lecturing to the participants. Films are selected because they are through-provoking and pose basic questions participating students can relate to. By using the medium of film, the project gives the students the change to experience emotional conflict and interact with others as opinion forms and understanding grows.

In addition to films, One World in Schools also provides participating teachers with complete educational materials including handbooks, synopsis of films, scripts for discussion and scripts for interactive games and other activities. Seminars are also organized for participating schools, to help teachers understand how to use the materials and implement innovative teaching methods. In 2004, a group of active and experienced teachers formed an expert group that is participating in the creation of project materials, planning and preparation of activities and mentoring teachers with less experience.

JS na školách

One World in Schools believes in the value of regularly-published support materials. A monthly electronic newsletter is published consisting of current information about projects and all teaching materials are also published at www.jedensvet.cz/skoly. Link magazine and literary and art competitions are held regularly for students and school film clubs have been established, giving students a larger voice in the project. Students organize screenings of films and debates with guests, concerts and exhibitions. Student film club organizers are able to borrow films for individual screenings from the extensive archives of the People in Need, containing over 500 human rights, historical and socially oriented documentaries with Czech subtitles.

In 2004, a collection of films was created and screened for use in primary schools. Based on the success of these screening, the project will be expanded to other schools in 2005. Another development of One World in Schools is a collection of documentary films mapping the key events in modern Czechoslovak history. The collection covers the beginning of Masaryk’s First Republic, the Second World War, the Communist seizure of power, the era of Stalinism and the crimes of Communism, the Spring of ‘68, the Soviet intervention and the following normalization, the activities of the dissidents and their persecution, 1989 and the Velvet Revolution, and the resulting transition to democracy.

The favorable reactions of students, teachers and experts to One World in Schools has proven the great potential that documentary films have for opening young people to discussions and understanding of human rights issues.

The Development of One World in Schools

JS na školách

One World in Schools started as a complimentary educational program connected to the One World human rights film festival. In 2002 screening of documentary films were first organized for schools. Due to the resounding success of these early screenings, the project was developed and continued. In order to enrich the screenings, festival staff visited the schools, screened the individual films and participated in debates with the students.

The demand for the project quickly became greater than People in Need could manage alone from Prague, and twenty local non-profit partner organizations were approached to organize screenings and to take part in the follow-up debates. The majority of these organizations are partners in the One World Film Festival, allowing them to integrate the efforts of the One World Film Festival in Regions and One World in Schools. The project is not a one-time screening, but rather a thematic cycle, touching primarily on the following themes: regions in crisis, refugees, minorities, racism, accepting diversity and tolerance. After a certain amount of time it became apparent that even this group of twenty non-profit organizations was not able to meet the demand from the schools and to organize the screenings in all the areas in which there was an interest, and the project developed a more systematic approach.

The mission of the project is to truly incorporate the documentary films into the education system, reaching beyond a few participating teachers. To meet this goal more efficiently, individual schools are now provided with VHS cassettes of films for permanent use, in essence creating a video library at each participating school. At the same time, One World in Schools organizes seminars for teachers, at teachers are trained in how to use documentary films in their work with students and how to implement individual themes and use the teaching handbooks that have been created for the project. In 2004, these seminars received accreditation from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education.