Ode2Joy
(2025)
Project objectives
Ode2Joy Up2Date aims to use the Ode to Joy, our European anthem, as a tool for artistic development and European citizenship among teaching teams and middle school students from disadvantaged rural and urban areas. Teachers in France and Belgium will test innovative and participatory teaching practices with these young people (such as transdisciplinary history–music approaches and games). The main goal: to create tools that make the EU accessible to everyone and strengthen European awareness within the educational community, with the Ode to Joy as a powerful lever for civic unity and European identity.
Activities
Activities 1 and 2 will provide training for 10 teachers from France and Belgium on the Ode to Joy in an innovative way. Together, they will create a pedagogical toolbox to teach music and civic education differently in these two countries.
Activity 3 encourages all young people to reinterpret the Ode to Joy.
Activities 4 and 5 combine advocacy actions with youth mobility.
The final activity involves producing digital communication tools.
Results
The expected outcome of this project—through civic and musical education training provided to 5 Belgian teachers, 5 French teachers, and their students—is the creation of pedagogical tools co-constructed by students and teachers, tested in an intercultural and inclusive context, and usable on a larger scale. The pedagogical kit will include an Ode2Joy website to provide resources and the creation of a virtual museum to showcase the contemporary Ode2Joy.
