Case Studies

Name of the teacher

Juliette Giraudbit

Country:

France

Subject taught:

Chief Education Adviser

Name of the School:

Collège Les Fontanilles

School Typology:

Lower Secondary School

Country:

France

City:

Castelnaudary

Web site:

Background and Context:

The public lower secondary school of Les Fontanilles, in the South of France, is attended by about 800 students in the city of Castelnaudary (11 000 inhabitants).
It is located in a working-class neighborhood in the Western part of the city. About 62% of students come from laborers and employees' families. However, more than half of total students come from neighboring villages, in particular those living at the boarding school, which means that the school has a socially mixed population.

On top of regular classes from Sixième to Troisième, the school has four SEGPA classes (General and Vocational Adapted Learning Section) for each level, which aim at teaching students with difficulties and who have not entirely mastered the knowledge and skills expected at the end of primary school. The school also offers a ULIS class (Localized Unit for Inclusive Education) intended for students with disabilities or development and learning disorders.
The school also welcomes children of marked potential ability and allophone children (courses of French as a Second Language).
It has several sports associations.

Factual Description:

The projet was in line with the National Week for Education and Actions against Racism and Antisemitism promoted by the French Ministry of Education.
The goal of this week is to highlight commitments taken by schools to combat racism, and promote Human Rights and the values of liberty, equality and solidarity.

At the school of Les Fontanilles, the elected students of the School Life Council wanted to prepare and serve exotic menus and typical dishes from several foreign countries during this week. With cooking, their goal was to make other cultures and their traditions better known to all the students, in order to promote the understanding of others.
They were helped by their Chief Education Adviser and the school's chef.

Activities carried out:

The students imagined and created four different menus which were served during the week to the 700 people eating at the school:
- Monday: Iranian food
- Tuesday: Italian food
- Thursday: Morrocan food
- Friday: North American food

For the occasion, they decorated the school canteen with the colors of the project while explaining their idea. On the walls of the room, they put up the following quotations:
"You're always a foreigner to someone", Tahar ben Jelloun
"Tolerance is the virtue that makes peace possible", Kofi Annan
"Dissension is the great evil of mankind, and toleration is its only remedy", Voltaire

Assessment and lesson learnt:

The staff of the school is convinced that these actions directly done by students are effective and that they successfully raise awareness about the values of equality and openness to the world.

Indeed both the students who planned the project and those eating at the school canteen were able to participate.

This project is easy to replicate for every school, since it requires few resources and is fun for the students to do.

Description of the Case Study in National Language: