The Neo Project: An Educational Radio Program to Promote Social Cohesion

Abstract

The Neo Project is an educational radio program organized by teachers and students in two secondary schools in the town of Burela (population 12,500), an area characterized by a relatively high percentage (10%) of residents originating from outside of Galiza. These include those from outside of the Spanish state (for example, Cape Verde, Portugal, Peru, and Indonesia) as well as internal immigrants from other regions of Spain. The Neo Project is coordinated by the Teaching Innovation Area of the Perdouro secondary school and produced by the coordinators of the Language Normalization Committee, who take responsibility for selecting and supervising students who carry out interviews and assist with technical and organizational tasks related to interviewing, broadcasting, and communication via social networks. The aim of the project is to highlight experiences of new speakers of Galizan, with a special emphasis on members of immigrant communities. In this chapter I will describe and analyze how this initiative seeks to normalize the use of a minoritized language among both indigenous and migrant communities and promote student participation in an intercultural project.