1. Activities

Democratic Readiness against anti-Semitism and Racism
On June 26, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research and the Norwegian Directorate of Education and Training announced that the proposal for the development of a capacity building programme on prevention of anti-Semitism and racism in schools handed in by the Centre for Holocaust Studies in Oslo has been accepted. The programme will be carried out in cooperation with the EWC and the University of Oslo, Department for Teacher Education and School Research.

The programme will cover the topics of anti-Semitism, racism and other forms of group-focused enmity, democratic readiness, critical thinking and conflict resolution. It will comprise training of the whole teacher staff of the participating schools and additional work of teams from these schools to develop local projects based on a whole school approach. The programme will focus on democratic competences and inclusive, participatory school cultures as means of prevention.

Summer Academy: Democracy at School
While the teams from last year have just completed their online follow-up phase and submitted their final evaluation reports, this year’s teams will arrive in Warsaw, Poland, next week!

The official inauguration takes place 9 July, with opening addresses by:

• Mr. Mirosław Sielatycki, Undersecretary of State, Polish Ministry of National Education
• Ms. Yulia Pererva, Division on citizenship and human rights education, Directorate General IV - Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport, Council of Europe
• Ms. Marlena Fałkowska, Deputy Director, the Centre for Education Development (ORE)
• Ms. Ana Perona-Fjeldstad, Executive Director, EWC

The 8 day seminar in Warsaw will address different areas related to democracy at school, and it includes sessions on classroom climate, democratic school governance, local cooperation and active methods. There will also be a session on children’s rights, with a particular focus on the Polish-Jewish pedagogue and pediatrician Janusz Korczak.

Workshop in Estonia completed - looking ahead to reunion in Norway
The first part of the CoE Pestalozzi Tandem workshop on Evaluation of Transversal Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge in Tartu/Estonia closed on June 8. The workshop was co-organized by the Estonian Ministry of Education, the Curriculum Development Centre, University of Tartu and the EWC.

For a whole week, teachers and teacher trainers from 11 countries worked on how evaluation/assessment can become an integral part of a democratic classroom and school culture. The idea that evaluation first of all should be a support for learner’s development and a contribution to “learning to learn”, was embraced by all participants. The participants developed action plans on how to test the approach and elements of the tool kit during the next five months. They will have a second workshop in November in Norway.

Teacher students support democratic school development as co-researchers
On June 15, representatives from the University of Hamburg, the Institute for Teacher Training and School Development in Hamburg and the EWC met to discuss the ongoing cooperation activities between teacher students and local schools which had been explored at the Educators’ Consultation held in January.

Students from different schools have developed a questionnaire on pupil’s participation, and the survey was conducted in early June. The findings will give the participating schools relevant insights regarding their planned activities in the field of democratic school development. It will also provide a comparative research of the status quo regarding student participation.


2. Resources

New media and education: how will educators take up the challenge?
What is the role of the educators in the field of developing digital literacies and what is really at stake in the field? How can teacher education help the profession take up the challenge? These are some of the questions Pascale Mompoint-Gaillard discusses in this new statement on the challenges and opportunities of new media and education.

Library:
EWC's online library offers free access to resources in the field of education for democratic citizenship, human rights and intercultural understanding. Stay up to date on relevant teaching and research materials, CoE Recommendations, papers and literature.

Latest Publications:

• Citizenship Education in Europe - This document, published in May 2012 by the Eurydice, shows that all European countries now have introduced central regulations to promote student participation in school governance. Encouraging citizens, particularly young people, to actively engage in social and political life has recently become a growing political priority both at national and European level. The report provides information on 31 of the Eurydice Network countries (EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, Croatia and Turkey). 
  
• Report on issues in teacher education in the Caribbean Sub region: Understanding the Challenges to Promoting Democratic Ideals in Schools - This report, published by the Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practice, seeks to examine the challenges schools and teachers face in promoting the democratic ideal in the Caribbean sub-region.
• The Child’s Right to Respect - Janusz Korczak’s legacy - Lectures on today’s challenges for children published by Council of Europe
  
  

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4. Calendar

7-15 July: Summer Academy: Democracy at School - The seminar offers training to strengthen the participants’ competence in the field of education for democratic citizenship (EDC) and human rights education (HRE). It combines a one week face to face seminar in Poland with pre-seminar and follow-up activities via an online platform. This year’s teams come from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Poland, Russia and Ukraine, and they have already “met” each other and completed preparatory tasks on the online platform.


Visit the EWC website for more information on our activities and resources