A
couple of months ago, we were presenting the different approaches to
learning “about”, “through” and “together” democracy "Taking education for democracy a step further" and we were wondering if civic education has failed.
We
have to admit that a lot of our concerns, having to do with: our
political systems, the mindset of people and society and of course
with our own mindset, as part of the microcosmos “educational
system”, are not yet dispersed. As we believe in educational
institutions, where values develop a central role, we want to insist
in our approach “Building democracy together” (BDT). This is the
aim of this article.
What
is new in this approach and why is BDT relevant now?
BDT is aiming to change the structures, which do not work properly and to work on improving our own competencies for democracy in order to contribute to a fairer society and this for the most and not only for the few.
In
this sense is related to fairness and universal access and focuses on
change, going therefore further than the classical approach of civic
education and the liberal approaches based on the development of
individual competences. Both described in Taking education for democracy a step further.
BDT
goes from the individual to the collective, but does not remain only
in the collectivity. It transcends the person, without forgetting
individualism and minority rights, however not putting the focus on
the last. It consists of building from solidarity in order to achieve
common goals as societies. The main goal: being able to set the
conditions to change into a fairer society for the most.
To
face the challenges of our societies we consider that it is not
anymore the time for just being competitive in the development of
the own individual competences aiming to become a democratic person,
but more the time for sharing and opening the self to the others from
the basis, of course of the own competences. The focus is on
attitude and values. Yes, in deed they are crutial part of the
competences for a democratic culture.
It
is therefore the goal of this approach of civic education to build
democracy together, and by doing this, learn about democracy and
through democratic competencies. BDT consists of a practical
approach, learning by doing, and learning by acting. The basis is
that acting is worthy and change things and that when acting we are
also risking an erratic behaviour and that this is all right.
Learners should be aware of this.
As
we see in the #fridaysforfuture movement, students are leading our
societies to a radical change, so this means that activism works and
that young people now have some experience of real activism.
How
to relate BDT to our pedagogy? Hey, teachers, you matter!
On
the other side, the approach BDT is in consonance with the new
pedagogical research and methodologies of learning.
The focus is on the learners. We consider every person with implications in the learning process as a learner, also the teacher.
And of course not to forget about designing learning processes as project learning! It might be necessary and
urgent. Only understanding that there are no borders between what we
call “real life” and “school life”, we will be building
democracy together.
This
is the main challenge in our opinion for which we need all the talent
and experience. Society needs you as education professional
wherever you are. Even if you feel you cannot do many advances,
because of the lack of a democratic culture in your country,
environment or school, you still can! ..and should, because it
matters.
We
can say that we have a great set of good practices attested
throughout years of education about democracy. Fortunately, most
school curricula now include them and there are adequate manuals and
lot of good practices.
On
the approach of competences for democracy, valuable materials based
on parameters were published, and although they have different
denominations, they promote similar contents and conclusions. This
aspect of education for democracy must, in our opinion, increases its
weight in school curricula and in teacher training. Training in
individual competencies for democracy is obviously compulsory for
each of us as citizens and of course in the classroom. Unfortunately
it is only present in a very incipient way. The potential of true
democracy should be harnessed.
If
one of the main functions of education all over the world is to get
students to become responsible citizens, we must emphasize the
presence of education for democracy in its complexity, in the
threefold aspect of “institutions, skills and as a collective
construction”.
Research
is necessary on how to learn about or better through the construction
of a democracy in every sense or the word that we exposed in this
text. It is in this field that the materials are required, the debate
is relevant and finally the collective exchange of ideas as product
of the collective intelligence. These are our only paths leading to
proposals and solutions for a brighter future for all of us.
Randy Colas
