Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ModernArgonauts (The Modern Argonauts: A Multicultural Educational Programme Preparing Young People for Contemporary Challenges through an Innovative Use of Classical Mythology)
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2025-03-31
Every day we face challenges – at both global and local levels – that affect our social and private lives. How do we ensure lasting peace and respect for human rights in the world? How do we manage the migration crisis? How do we take care of the health and well-being of ourselves, our families, and our fellow citizens? How to use our planet’s resources fairly? What can be done to prevent climate catastrophe? There are no easy solutions to these issues, but there is something that gives humanity a chance: Community. By acting together can we face the challenges of the modern world.
Unexpectedly, our modern-day problems take us back to Classical Antiquity – they compel us to repeat the questions of Greek and Roman thinkers and artists about human nature, about our mission on Earth, about the values that build our humanity. These are timeless questions. The rapid development of the sciences that we are observing today has not made them obsolete. On the contrary, it has further demonstrated their validity.
The ancient heritage is also one of the pillars of the European Union. The Preamble to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights speaks of the peoples of Europe who are conscious of her heritage and wish to share a peaceful future based on such universal values as dignity, equality, and solidarity. To foster these values and shape this kind of future together, we need an education that, paradoxically, ensures continuity on the one hand, and on the other a readiness for change in response to ever new challenges – including those we are facing today, ones so serious that they will certainly also be the lot of future generations.
“The Modern Argonauts” project has responded to this need with an international educational programme integrating and preparing high-schoolers for the challenges of the present through the innovative use of Greek and Roman mythology.
Unexpectedly, our modern-day problems take us back to Classical Antiquity – they compel us to repeat the questions of Greek and Roman thinkers and artists about human nature, about our mission on Earth, about the values that build our humanity. These are timeless questions. The rapid development of the sciences that we are observing today has not made them obsolete. On the contrary, it has further demonstrated their validity.
The ancient heritage is also one of the pillars of the European Union. The Preamble to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights speaks of the peoples of Europe who are conscious of her heritage and wish to share a peaceful future based on such universal values as dignity, equality, and solidarity. To foster these values and shape this kind of future together, we need an education that, paradoxically, ensures continuity on the one hand, and on the other a readiness for change in response to ever new challenges – including those we are facing today, ones so serious that they will certainly also be the lot of future generations.
“The Modern Argonauts” project has responded to this need with an international educational programme integrating and preparing high-schoolers for the challenges of the present through the innovative use of Greek and Roman mythology.
The programme is a research-driven, non-commercial endeavour making use of the results of the ERC Consolidator Grant project “Our Mythical Childhood… The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges”. That project allowed us to unveil Classical Antiquity as a living element of contemporary culture, important for the development of the identity of children and young people worldwide. In particular, we decided to build on the potential of classical mythology as a cornerstone of the cultural code of communication that is both attractive and widely comprehensible. We also referred to the edutainment concept of making the learning process enjoyable and we included role-playing game components into the programme. Within the ERC Proof of Concept Grant we created its principles and core elements and commenced its implementation.
We address our programme to high-school students who transform into Modern Argonauts and embark on a quest for our shared mythical heritage. They discover myths through ancient sources, learn about their reception, and solidify their knowledge through creative tasks that foster teamwork and other essential soft skills. Each lesson permits teachers to discuss with their students pressing modern issues, precisely via the code of mythology. For instance, the myth of Prometheus can spark debate on the responsibilities of scientific advancement; King Midas triggers a discussion about the responsibility of global companies for generating ethical profit; and the myth of Poseidon draws attention to the problem of pollution in the seas and oceans.
We also included non-European myths for an important context that highlights the beauty of cultural diversity, strengthens a community spirit beyond borders, and teaches respect for local heritage.
The lessons for the programme are the work of experienced and dedicated scholars, consultants, and doctoral students, all passionate about education, from the following countries: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Estonia, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the UK, and the USA. The project’s potential exceeded our expectations and prompted us to aim for ca. 60 lessons (instead of the ca. 30 initially planned), all to be published in Open Access. Each lesson undergoes real-world testing in schools. So far, over 300 teachers and students from ca. 20 institutions spread around the world have gotten involved: not only from classical schools such as the famous institutions in Austria, Germany, or Italy, but also from an automotive technical school in Poland or an evening high school in Cameroon, for we strive for inclusivity, equality, and integration. We also cooperate with a sensitive reader in order to support young people in making the appropriate choices when approaching the lessons.
Our activities to date, in addition to the educational materials, include an international conference; over 15 lectures presenting the programme to scholars, educators, and authorities, incl. at the Cambridge School Classics Project’s Teacher Forum; press releases, reports, and interviews, incl. podcasts and Our Mythical Childhood Blog (over 1,000 subscribers) disseminating the project; several presentations and workshops for high-schoolers and teachers; the project’s website; 5 publications; with more actions forthcoming. “The Modern Argonauts” has also been chosen by the ERC for a presentation as a highlighted project in the PoC competition.
We address our programme to high-school students who transform into Modern Argonauts and embark on a quest for our shared mythical heritage. They discover myths through ancient sources, learn about their reception, and solidify their knowledge through creative tasks that foster teamwork and other essential soft skills. Each lesson permits teachers to discuss with their students pressing modern issues, precisely via the code of mythology. For instance, the myth of Prometheus can spark debate on the responsibilities of scientific advancement; King Midas triggers a discussion about the responsibility of global companies for generating ethical profit; and the myth of Poseidon draws attention to the problem of pollution in the seas and oceans.
We also included non-European myths for an important context that highlights the beauty of cultural diversity, strengthens a community spirit beyond borders, and teaches respect for local heritage.
The lessons for the programme are the work of experienced and dedicated scholars, consultants, and doctoral students, all passionate about education, from the following countries: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Estonia, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine, the UK, and the USA. The project’s potential exceeded our expectations and prompted us to aim for ca. 60 lessons (instead of the ca. 30 initially planned), all to be published in Open Access. Each lesson undergoes real-world testing in schools. So far, over 300 teachers and students from ca. 20 institutions spread around the world have gotten involved: not only from classical schools such as the famous institutions in Austria, Germany, or Italy, but also from an automotive technical school in Poland or an evening high school in Cameroon, for we strive for inclusivity, equality, and integration. We also cooperate with a sensitive reader in order to support young people in making the appropriate choices when approaching the lessons.
Our activities to date, in addition to the educational materials, include an international conference; over 15 lectures presenting the programme to scholars, educators, and authorities, incl. at the Cambridge School Classics Project’s Teacher Forum; press releases, reports, and interviews, incl. podcasts and Our Mythical Childhood Blog (over 1,000 subscribers) disseminating the project; several presentations and workshops for high-schoolers and teachers; the project’s website; 5 publications; with more actions forthcoming. “The Modern Argonauts” has also been chosen by the ERC for a presentation as a highlighted project in the PoC competition.
The innovativeness of our project lies in several elements. Let us mention five that are of utmost importance. First, interdisciplinarity: by means of the classical reception studies methods we encompass issues from fields such as astronomy, musicology, art history, and even economics and leadership, the latter being the subject of a special lesson prepared by our team member – a former bank director considered by the “Wall Street Journal” to be among the 25 most influential women in Europe. Second, multimediality: we have prepared a number of audio-visual materials boosting education, such as “The Solar System” animation teaching the planets’ symbols and “The Modern Argonauts Apprentice ID” tutorial enhancing the IT skills of students interested in the Humanities. Third, creativity: we inspire creative activities and our approach has already yielded results in the test phase, such as students’ short stories, artworks, and a song. Forth, inclusivity: we strive to respond to various needs of our audiences, for example, users with dyslexia can choose a more accommodating font on the project’s website and we offer such attractive elements as audio recordings of the ancient sources, incl. music performances in Ancient Greek and Latin. Fifth, our programme can provide a framework for the idea of holistic, research-driven education in many fields, also in terms of life-long learning for older groups and even as family leisure. Above all, our framework fosters the applicability of humanistic projects. This potential has been recognized by important institutions involved in researching and popularizing Classical Antiquity that have declared their support for the dissemination of our results. For it is our hope that young people, aware of the heritage of the past, can better deal with the challenges of the present and make plans for a peaceful future in the spirit of community and reciprocal understanding.