Strengthening education for democracy
Summary
The systematic development of competences for democracy – transversal attitudes, skills and knowledge – and the strengthening of education for democracy, and within that, education for personal development, democratic citizenship and intercultural dialogue is more important than ever.
This course for pre-service and in-service teacher trainers will look at how to integrate the development of these competences in pre- and in-service teacher education.
The preliminary outcomes of the project “Competences for democratic culture” and the work results of the Pestalozzi Programme as well as relevant project results from other education projects will form the resources pool the participants will discover, and use to discuss develop and to test ways of integrating these concerns in their teacher education and development practice.
The participants will develop and test training formats and materials for these purposes which are published afterwards and serve as examples of practice to be disseminated and developed further.
Expected results
After the training course the participants will be in a better position to contribute to the integration of education for democracy into pre-service and in-service teacher education; in particular they will be better equipped to:
•raise awareness in colleagues and students, in their peer groups and academiccommunities of the importance of the role of teacher education and professionaldevelopment for the future of our democratic societies
•integrate the development of the necessary attitudes, skills and knowledge in theirteaching and training practice in a structured way
•take action in their institutions and peer community to promote the strengthening ofeducation for democracy
The participants will form a network of education professionals equipped to continue the training on the international, national, regional and local level with a shared view of the competences which need to be developed and of the appropriate methodology of training and teaching. A collection of tried and tested training resources and/or pre-service curricula proposals and in-service training programmes will be available online to serve as a support for teacher education institutions and as a stimulation to further develop resources and programmes along similar lines.