Address: Chkhorotsku municipality, village Akhuti

Country: Georgia

 School website

Project: Democracy in my glasses

Working language during the project:

• Georgian
• English
   

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

• Making children’s and students’ voices heard
• Tackling discrimination
• Improving well-being at school
   

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

• Valuing human dignity and human rights
  The students watched an animated film. After watching and reviewing the animated film, the students worked independently on posters showing the importance of assessing human dignity and rights.
• Respect
  After learning about human rights, students prepared posters and slogans showing that respect for different people is necessary and important. While working on the posters, students developed respect for a different people.
• Autonomous learning skills
  The students involved in the project independently made "colored glasses", made posters, slogans, where they presented the democratic vision seen through their eyes.
   

Target group age range:

• 5-11
• 11-15
• 15-19
   

Level of education:

• Primary education
• Lower secondary education
• Upper secondary education
   

Short description of the project:

Within the reference framework of competences for democratic culture, a short-term educational project was planned and implemented in Akhuti Community Public School No. 1, in which 45 students and 25 teachers participated. Within the framework of the project, the elementary school students developed a priority topic defined by the National Curriculum: human rights; what are the challenges facing human rights in social networks, online platforms and remote communications? The following issues were identified within the project: Equality, conflict, bullying on social platforms and in real life. The following disciplines were integrated in the project: Civic education, Georgian art. The following target concepts were developed within the project:

• Democracy (Human Rights, Legal Documents, Principles of Democracy);
• Civic participation;
• Socialization.

The elementary students involved in the project found and processed information about bullying, conflict and equality. They read information on the internet; They also read the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. They interviewed teachers and listened to what bullying means. The information retrieved was transferred to a flip chart in a list of bullet points and presentation material was prepared for primary school students. Part of the group found an animated film on the Internet that well illustrates the essence of bullying, oppression and the need for equality.

Students involved in the project made colourful, large, fun glasses from a variety of resources (cardboard paper, markers). These were distributed to elementary students involved in the project, who were asked to use their own eyes to imagine what they see when they see bullying.

What equality means and why is it necessary? The students involved in the project conducted a workshop with middle-school students. An animated film about bullying was discussed. The youngest pupils expressed their opinions: “How democracy is seen through their glasses?", How is conflict and bullying seen?”, “What do they see through their glasses?”. One complex task was developed within the project. Elementary school students (15- 4th graders) created posters with other elementary school students to show what democracy is, why it is important in terms of equality. Why is bullying condemned? How does a person feel when they are oppressed? The students jointly developed the recommendations and wrote them down on the posters in a list of bullet points: how to protect yourself from bullying in social networking and online communication? The students came up with slogans which convey well the main message of the posters: "Democracy in my glasses".

The students made coloured glasses for the final meeting, using cardboard papers and markers. These were distributed to the guests entering the exhibition hall. A poster exhibition and presentation were subsequently held. The presentation was covered live on the school social network. The students involved in the project stood in front of their own posters and delivered their concluding words - "Democracy through my glasses."

For the final phase of the project, the project team organised flyers and invited public relations’ representatives from the local municipality to the event, who covered the final phase of the project. Representatives of the school board of trustees (parents, teachers, students) were invited to the event, to listen to presentations by the students on the nature of democratic culture and the challenges that people face when interacting on social networks. Students involved in the project presented posters to the visitors in the gallery.

The school council, together with representatives of the public relations department of the local municipality, plan to conduct a joint project in the region’s schools, enabling students to work on the problem of bullying. A joint conference is planned to be held at the Local Resource Centre, where schools will present their product related to bullying and human rights.
 

Aims/objectives

• Collaboration of basic and elementary students;
• Provision of information on bullying, oppression and equality at the elementary and basic levels;
• Strengthening empathy and developing collaborative skills.
   

Expected results/outcomes

• Basic and elementary students will jointly develop the product provided by the Project;
• Students will develop their social skills through collaboration.
   

Changes

The school culture was enhanced when a product was created based on the collaboration of basic and elementary students.
 

Challenges you faced

• Establishing objective criteria for evaluating the exhibition work.
• Lack of digital competences and skills required to follow pandemic regulations.
• Increasing students’ motivation during pandemic regulations
   

Time-frame of the project:

The project was implemented for a period of two months
 

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

• Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture
• Addressing violence in schools through EDC/HRE
• All Different – All Equal
• We CAN!