Workshops Serbia






The workshops in Serbia was organized in 4 high schools in 3 cities.
13th April, Tuesday: Workshop in Sombor, grammar school Veljko Petrović
14th April, Wednesday: Workshop in Sremski Karlovci, grammar school
15th April, Thursday: Workshop in Novi Sad, grammar school Jovan Jovanović Zmaj
16th April, Friday: Workshop in Novi Sad, grammar school Isidora Sekulić
 (Working hours from 10:00 – 18:00, with one hour lunch break)

Through exchange with our colleagues from Greece and Spain, we learned that different 
approaches were implemented in each partnering country in order to collect materials for the game, while we in Serbia got instructions to work directly with students and through interactive one day process with them, to acquire material for HuRiSu game. We also realized that some countries had real places where the violation of human rights occurred, to bring their participants, such as graves in Spain and the concentration camp in Italy, while we in Serbia were working more with symbolic place on mental level, creating the entire process of recalling history in the classroom.

in the first school in Sombor students didn’t get information on time, and due to his obligations a school principal convey the task to inform students to the student president of the School Parliament. That resulted in the fact that students were mostly motivated by the fact that they will miss some lectures and attend something new. Students who finally stayed on the workshop were mixed ages, from 16 to 18, and from different classes, and expressed real motivation for the subject. 17 students in total participated, both male and female. It was more students who haven’t had previous experience with this type of projects and work, but they were generally motivated for the topic. Majority of students attend religious education in school, and minority attend civic education. There were just few of them, and they were actually those who had participated in similar workshops. There were no teacher participated in this group. Prevalent atmosphere in the group was spontaneity and humour, with a great commitment for work once when they decided to stay in workshop.

In Sremski Karlovci, students were selected by their teachers of sociology and civic education. There were 20 students present, mostly girls, but few boys were present too.  Majority of students did participate in similar projects with the topic on human rights, and majority attend civic education. Only one student attends religious education. Students were 16 and 17 years of age, very motivated and ambitious. Both Teachers were present at the workshop and participated in the work with their students. Students showed great level of motivation and dedication, they were very serious, but compared to the first group certain competitiveness was visible in the group. All students were speaking excellent English, but also other languages, such Spanish, French, etc. School in general showed a great motivation to participate in this project.

Group in Zmaj Jovina grammar school in Novi Sad was consisted of the students of one class, in second grade, 16 years of age, both boys and girls, and only those who attend civic education. They were all invited by their civic education teacher, but they didn’t show much personal motivation to this work. In other words they came to obey their teacher’s request. It was significantly different atmosphere in this group, compared to previous two. Students were averagely one year younger than previous groups, but also their motivation was not authentic, and they admitted that they didn’t have own interest for the topic. Yet, since they stayed, they gave a positive feedback at the end, even though it seemed that it was socially desirable and polite answers, like their motivation. It was 17 students in the group. None of them had any experiences in similar projects. Their teacher was present only in the morning session. One student expressed visibly negative attitude towards the topic, and commented how senseless the whole idea was.
The fourth group in Isidora Sekulic grammar school in Novi Sad was amazing. It was primarily female group, only 3 boys. They were mostly age 17, a few 16, from different classes, 20 in total. Some left in the afternoon, but 17 stayed. They were very well informed about the workshop, this was the only group who read material sent prior to the workshop. They expressed authentic motivation for the topic of human rights, and the project in general. All participants had previous experiences with similar projects and they all came based on their personal interest. Two teachers were present just in the introduction session, and they left. School in general showed a great motivation to participate in this project. This group showed extraordinary maturity and sensitivity for the topic.