LEARNING CULTURE

Abstract

Culture is a general term used to define the collective achievement of human intellect. It is encompassing of both the art and the ideas, behaviours, and customs of a particular society. Through its numerous initiatives, including the Erasmus+ program, the European Union is focusing on international cultural relations, sustainable cultural heritage, as well as cohesion and wellbeing, in the context of border fluidity and an unprecedent level of information exchange due to the ubiquity of the world wide web. Even in a multicultural space, it is a challenge to attain a truly immersive cultural experience. This happens, in part, because young people do not accord time to the subject, and, in part, because culture has so many facets to explore.  Using principles of social learning and experiential learning, the purpose of this article is to show a new approach to learning culture. It investigates an Erasmus+ course where thirty-two participants from eleven countries experienced a shift of narrative from “outside” to “within”. This shift allowed them to gain a new understanding of culture heritage and of community.