Description of the project
Citizenship education is a priority of the European Education Area work program (2021 – 2030), which emphasizes the promotion of citizenship in the process of strengthening common European values such as freedom, democracy, equality, respect for the rule of law, and human rights. The growing threats to these core values highlight the need to focus more on several factors, especially the promotion of citizenship education. Despite the effort to promote active and responsible citizenship, school efforts are limited to a presentation of the social problem, with no attempt to promote the engagement, participation or action necessary to initiate a resolution process. In addition, teachers and teachers have difficulty coordinating discussions on the social aspects of the social issue introduced in the classroom, thus bringing uncertainty to the discussions, thus making it difficult to learn about the eventual issue. Therefore, the professional development programs of e teachers must begin to focus on the pedagogical challenges of responsible citizenship. The Active Citizenship Through Dialogue in Virtual teacher communities – ACT-DI-V project aims to address this gap by promoting responsible citizenship in professional development courses for faculty, finding ways to support e teachers in their efforts to put it into practice in their classrooms by helping them transform their pedagogical practices into activities that enable them to coordinate discussions on responsible citizenship issues.
The goals of ACT-DI-V are:
- to raise awareness of the importance of promoting education for active and responsible citizenship through dialogue and argumentation;
- to develop pedagogical skills of and teachers on active and responsible citizenship education;
- develop practical resources on the promotion of active and responsible citizenship education to improve the critical thinking and decision-making skills of and students/teachers so that they are able to participate in democratic discussions;
- support the and teachers in reflecting on their practices of active and responsible citizenship education through dialogue.
Activities
- Fact-finding survey of needs, best practices, curriculum and existing literature on the topic, involving 232 people working in education through focus groups and online questionnaires.
- Design and development of a training program on the promotion of responsible citizenship rivolo to and for teachers at all levels.
- Creation of 8 Communities of Practice (groups aimed at producing organized and quality knowledge) – including virtual ones – supported by an online platform.
- Pilot phase of the training program.
- Local promotion events and final international conference.
Results
Material results:
- Toolkit with a collection of guidelines and best practices on how to implement responsible citizenship through dialogic and argumentative pedagogies
- 16-hour training program addressed to and for teachers of all levels aimed at enhancing pedagogical skills in the use of dialogic argumentation to promote active and responsible citizenship in the classroom
- Interactive platform, containing the interactive version of the Toolkit, open educational resources (Lesson Plan, activity examples, best practices) and an online sharing space for established Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoPs)
- Newsletter #1
- Newsletter #2
- Newsletter #3
- Newsletter #4
- Newsletter #5
The expected non-material outcomes are:
- Increased understanding of the uses of responsible citizenship through dialogic and argumentative pedagogies.
- Improved pedagogical skills of and teachers in implementing responsible citizenship through dialogic and argumentative pedagogies.
- Dissemination, promotion and enhancement work to improve teaching practices while promoting ‘high quality teaching on active citizenship education.
Partners
- Coordinator: EDEX – EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE CORPORATION LIMITED, Cyprus
- UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA, Portugal
- CENTRO PER LO SVILUPPO CREATIVO DANILO DOLCI, Italy
- HUMBOLDTUNIVERSITAET ZU BERLIN, Germany
