Citizenship Education in European secondary schools

CONTEXT/BACKGROUNDOur project was based on the shared value of citizenship education used as a tool to educate active and conscious European citizens. We wanted to discover and exchange new innovative ways of curricular and extracurricular good practices of our partners and to give a model how secondary schools can contribute to the development of the social and civic competences of their students and to their active citizenship with a competence- and project-based approach.OBJECTIVESThe main objective was to promote solidarity, social cohesion and active citizenship in European school education by discovering and exchanging good practices of partner schools and supporting teachers with the enhancement of social and civic competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) in a combination of both curricular and extra-curricular school based activities. We wanted to educate our student participants’ to become active European citizens, to develop their ability to work in multicultural groups, positive attitude towards European projects and tolerance towards different cultures.NUMBER AND PROFILE OF ORGANISATIONSThere were 5 European schools involved in the project - from Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain and Turkey, which all had their curricular and/or extra-curricular programmes for citizenship education. They all provide general education at secondary level, the German, Polish and Turkish schools are state ones, while the Spanish school is maintained by the Church and the Hungarian one by a foundation.DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES1. Preparation – project management was set up, students were selected and project workshops held in each school, while the project website was created and maintained by the coordinator school: https://crosscult.poli.hu/.2. There were 6 transnational project meetings to discuss management issues, to visit lessons and to plan how good practices can be integrated into citizenship programmes of partner schools.3. We organized short-term exchanges of groups of pupils in Budapest, Hungary; Zielitz, Germany; Kraków, Poland and Seville, Spain, where both teachers and students took part in the extra-curricular, citizenship education activities of the host school.4. Finally, we created our main products: a handbook: https://crosscult.poli.hu/2019/02/18/handbook-final-product-of-the-project/, and a video guide: https://crosscult.poli.hu/2019/02/18/video-guide-final-product-of-the-project/ of our good practices.METHODOLOGYAt after-school project workshops between student exchanges, students worked in groups or pairs. They prepared materials for student exchanges: made presentations, watched films about the topic, shared information about partner schools and countries. After the student exchange, they reported to their peers: introduced the activities of the exchange with photo and videos.At the student exchanges our main method was ’learning by doing’, i.e. students worked in transnational groups, presented home assignments, took part in interactive workshops, discussions and study visits to places of remembrance, created board games, etc.RESULTS AND IMPACT1. Main products - the project website for the dissemination of results, and a hand book and video guide, uploaded to the website with free access for the public.2. Impact on partner schools - the project has enhanced their extracurricular citizen education programmes with non formal, project- and activity based methods.3. Impact on participating teachers – it has contributed to the development of their motivation, attitude, professional skills and methods, English and ICT competences, which can help to prevent professional burnout.4. Impact on participating students – with learning about human rights, democracy, civic responsibility and the history, geography, culture and habits of their partners, the project has developed their critical thinking, English, ICT, general communication, social, civic and intercultural competences. The inclusion of students with fewer opportunities has helped their social integration.LONG TERM BENEFITSParticipating students will become active, conscious European citizens after graduation, actively contributing to the development of democracy, inclusion and social cohesion in society, collaborating with NGOs.With the help of the hand book and video guide developed in the project, extracurricular activities of citizenship education will be adapted and introduced in other European secondary schools.