The European Wergeland Centre
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Norway
Summer Academy in Poland
“Create an institution where democracy is alive (…)” - Summer Academy on Democracy at School was held successfully in Poland
The first Summer Academy, ’Democracy at School’, ended after an intense week on July 17, in Sulejówek, Poland. Eleven teams of educators from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine joined the Academy. Each team consisting of a teacher, a head teacher and an NGO representative coming from the same school/local community.
The official opening ceremony took place at the Centre for Education Development (ORE) in Warsaw, where the participants and trainers were joined by representatives of the Polish Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Education Development Centre, European Wergeland Centre, embassies and NGO representatives.
The speakers all underlined the importance of initiatives like the Summer Academy and welcomed the plans of establishing the Summer Academy as an annual event. The Polish Ministry of National Education was applauded for making the initial proposal at the EWC Inauguration in May 2009, and all organizing bodies were acknowledged for their cooperation and contributions in making the first Summer Academy a reality within a year of the proposal.
The Academy aimed at training educators to be multipliers and to help them incorporate the principles of human rights and democracy into their daily work. It is meant to put the Council of Europe (CoE) education policy into practice through trainings and workshops based on latest recommendations and publications.
Thus, the one week program was based on two CoE manuals: Democratic School Governance, How can all teachers can support citizenship and human rights education: A framework for the development of competences.
An experienced team of trainers was carrying out the training: Ms Felisa Tibbitts (USA), Ms Olena Styslavska (Poland), Mr Andrey Ioffe (Russia), Mr Milosz Czerniejewski (Poland), Ms Malgorzata Tur (Poland), Ms Leah Davcheva (Bulgaria).
In accordance with the manuals, the training addressed multiple levels of HRE/EDC work, ranging from the individual teachers, the classroom, and the school to the community. It started with a variety of workshops on different learning styles, methodology, school climate, and participants could choose those that best matched their individual interest.
One of the highlights was a session which through a role play allowed participants to explore different kinds of school culture, hierarchical as well as more liberal types. This initiated personal reflections among the participants on the kind of leadership style typical of their own schools.
Another day centered on community involvement, including an active contribution from pupils/ students. The Warsaw Youth Council and School Councils were presented as concrete examples of how partnerships between schools and local community actors can work.
Building on previous discussions and sessions, each team was asked to draft a one year action plan on how to improve the EDC/ HRE competencies at their school. Future plans were then broken into more concrete steps, such as conducting a school-level survey on democracy as a starting point to identify needs for improvement, running training sessions for teachers, pupils and parents on human rights issues, and lobbying local media.
To follow up on the promising plans, the EWC has created an online working space which will be used by the teams to report on progress, and to discuss challenges and good practices with each other.
Once put into practice the various action plans will not just benefit schools and local communities, they could also be inspirational for other practitioners working on democratic school governance.
The week was packed with activities, and the enthusiasm and high motivation of participants indicated that the program served its purpose well. Participants generally gave very positive feedback, stressing the space given for sharing and building on their own personal experiences, and the opportunity to have a closer look at their whole school development.
The Summer Academy was organized by the Ministry of National Education, Poland, the Centre for Education Development, Poland, The Council of Europe and the European Wergeland Centre.
Download the program
The first Summer Academy, ’Democracy at School’, ended after an intense week on July 17, in Sulejówek, Poland. Eleven teams of educators from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine joined the Academy. Each team consisting of a teacher, a head teacher and an NGO representative coming from the same school/local community.
The official opening ceremony took place at the Centre for Education Development (ORE) in Warsaw, where the participants and trainers were joined by representatives of the Polish Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Education Development Centre, European Wergeland Centre, embassies and NGO representatives.
The speakers all underlined the importance of initiatives like the Summer Academy and welcomed the plans of establishing the Summer Academy as an annual event. The Polish Ministry of National Education was applauded for making the initial proposal at the EWC Inauguration in May 2009, and all organizing bodies were acknowledged for their cooperation and contributions in making the first Summer Academy a reality within a year of the proposal.
The Academy aimed at training educators to be multipliers and to help them incorporate the principles of human rights and democracy into their daily work. It is meant to put the Council of Europe (CoE) education policy into practice through trainings and workshops based on latest recommendations and publications.
Thus, the one week program was based on two CoE manuals: Democratic School Governance, How can all teachers can support citizenship and human rights education: A framework for the development of competences.
An experienced team of trainers was carrying out the training: Ms Felisa Tibbitts (USA), Ms Olena Styslavska (Poland), Mr Andrey Ioffe (Russia), Mr Milosz Czerniejewski (Poland), Ms Malgorzata Tur (Poland), Ms Leah Davcheva (Bulgaria).
In accordance with the manuals, the training addressed multiple levels of HRE/EDC work, ranging from the individual teachers, the classroom, and the school to the community. It started with a variety of workshops on different learning styles, methodology, school climate, and participants could choose those that best matched their individual interest.
One of the highlights was a session which through a role play allowed participants to explore different kinds of school culture, hierarchical as well as more liberal types. This initiated personal reflections among the participants on the kind of leadership style typical of their own schools.
Another day centered on community involvement, including an active contribution from pupils/ students. The Warsaw Youth Council and School Councils were presented as concrete examples of how partnerships between schools and local community actors can work.
Building on previous discussions and sessions, each team was asked to draft a one year action plan on how to improve the EDC/ HRE competencies at their school. Future plans were then broken into more concrete steps, such as conducting a school-level survey on democracy as a starting point to identify needs for improvement, running training sessions for teachers, pupils and parents on human rights issues, and lobbying local media.
To follow up on the promising plans, the EWC has created an online working space which will be used by the teams to report on progress, and to discuss challenges and good practices with each other.
Once put into practice the various action plans will not just benefit schools and local communities, they could also be inspirational for other practitioners working on democratic school governance.
The week was packed with activities, and the enthusiasm and high motivation of participants indicated that the program served its purpose well. Participants generally gave very positive feedback, stressing the space given for sharing and building on their own personal experiences, and the opportunity to have a closer look at their whole school development.
The Summer Academy was organized by the Ministry of National Education, Poland, the Centre for Education Development, Poland, The Council of Europe and the European Wergeland Centre.
Download the program
