Address: Wolnosci 22b, 81-327 Gdynia

Country: Poland

 School website

Project: Developing democratic society

Working language during the project:

  • Polish
  • English
     

Themes of the Council of Europe campaign “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:

  • Addressing controversial issues
  • Dealing with propaganda, misinformation and fake news
     

Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:

  • Knowledge and critical understanding of the world (esp. human rights, media, history, law, politics)
    The topics we focus on deal with human rights and the contemporary situation of Europe and the world in general.
  • Analytical and critical thinking skills
    Choosing certain sources of information rather than others, relying on witnesses, evidence, facts, statistics, reliable sites, surveys.
  • Co-operation skills
    Building a team, working together, sharing tasks, being responsible for certain issues, supporting others.
     

Target group age range:

  • 15-19
     

Level of education:

  • Upper secondary education

Short description of the project:

Forming a European Debating Club - a group of students that will organise as well as take part in debates about current issues and issues concerning history..

The first steps were to bring together students that were interested in developing debating skills as well as topics concerning the world of media, politics, current issues. Then, we decided to take part in the debate in the District Court. To prepare for that students had to find statistics, reliable sources of information, materials they could use to illustrate the problem and prepare their arguments as soon as they shared the roles. The topics we were working on were: "Poland should accept refugees", "Brexit is a positive idea for Europe", "Politicians should always tell the truth". No one knew which side they would be on until the last moment. .

We invited students from ELSA (European Law Students Association) to organise workshops on the credibility of information we find in the news, how to avoid being manipulated, how to decide which sources you can rely on. A series of workshops were then organised on different topics connected to our debating issues: women's rights, hate speech, tackling discrimination by specialists for example: Women's Rights Centre, University of Gdansk and ELSA.
What makes the project more widely recognised is the fact that we always invite other students to watch the debates. Then they vote for the better team, the best speaker and the most convincing arguments. They also hold two different pieces of paper - red and green and raise them when they agree (green) or disagree (red) with the arguments. .

Some of the exercises are also given to students during English lessons. Students work in pairs of in small groups and have about 10 minutes to prepare for defending or rejecting some issues - just like in a debate. The examples were: Patriotism is outdated, More prisons should be built, Marriage is a perfect institution, Religion is the opium for masses etc... .

The students also prepare posters informing about, for example, European Parliament elections and reasons for voting. They can sign up to different debates organised by other schools. Right now they are planning to organise a big debate in our school on the future of European Union.

The students have taken part in numerous competitions on the EU, Law, our region and many of them have been successful.

Aims/objectives

The main reason for forming a club is to gather together students that would like to work together, organise something together, getting involved and involving others in discussion, being aware of the rules of discussion

Expected results/outcomes

  • Ability to be critical of information presented by the media and social media, whatever they are.
  • Ability to express their own views remembering to respect others’ different points of view . Before debating, the students never know which side they may be on, so they have to delve into arguments for and against and be prepared for both options - this increases their openness to different points of view.
     

Changes

Generally, there were no major changes to the idea, although the way the project is organised includes a lot of flexibility.
 

Challenges you faced

The main challenge is always to find time, balance between ordinary school work and that extra-curricular projects that, generally, cannot be carried out during lesson time.
 

Time-frame of the project:

One school year- preferably to be continued.
 

Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice:

  • Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture
  • Living Democracy-manuals for teachers
  • Teaching controversial issues-training pack