Is civic education training necessary?

Democracy is a system that in our civilization is considered the best and most consistent with human rights. But democracy is also a demanding system. It works well when implemented by intelligent, responsible and educated citizens who are able to recognize the common interest, understand their own private interest and are able to realize the boundaries between them, and why citizens have a responsibility to guarantee both types of interests. To be successful, democracy needs a civil society.

Civil society is a democratic society, active in public life, aware of its purpose, which is able to organize itself to achieve economic, political and social goals.

The starting point of any discussion about civil society is the individual, capable of realizing himself. An individual who participates in economic, cultural and other activities that arise and develop in local communities. Society is experiencing continuous and rapid changes before our eyes. Old forms of political and civic participation are no longer so significant or are being modified. The current model of decades of representative democracy is no longer fulfilling its function.

A significant contribution to the crises in the system of representative democracy has been made by the development of technology, which causes a much faster exchange of ideas (Internet, fast-acting, removing restrictions on communications). More and more emphasis is being placed on the topic of democratic participation. In order to actively participate in the ever-changing world, in order to consciously change it, people must become citizens armed with the necessary skills, not just knowledge.

• Definition of the concept

A new concept has been present on the pages of the pedagogical press in our country for several years now – the subject of “civic education”. Civic education represents organized, systematized educational activities that aim to provide young people and adults with the necessary knowledge and skills for participation in political and social life. It is a powerful tool for democratizing the state.

Civic education is education, training, raising awareness, providing information and carrying out activities, with the aim of students acquiring not only knowledge and skills, but also shaping their attitude and behavior towards fundamental values and mechanisms of a democratic society and the rule of law: the rights and obligations of citizens, respect for diversity, accompanying active participation in a democratic society, in the name of democracy and the rule of law.

Civic education is based on the fundamental principles of human rights, multi-party democracy and the rule of law. In particular, it deals with rights and duties, autonomy, participation, belonging and respect for diversity. It is valid for all ages and social strata and aims to prepare young people and adults for active participation in a democratic society by strengthening democratic culture. Civic education has an instrumental function in the fight against violence, xenophobia, racism, aggressive nationalism and intolerance. It contributes to social cohesion, social justice and the common good. It strengthens the efforts of civil society to ensure that citizens are well informed, acquire knowledge and develop democratic skills. However, it must take into account the context of national, social, cultural and historical heritage.

• Basic principles

The principles (also called criteria for achieving civic education) are the basic, starting points on which the theory of civic education is built. When planning education, they must be included in the preparation of the curriculum, teaching strategies and the institutional organization of the school. According to Petar Balkanski and Zahari Zahariev, there are basically nine of them:

• focus on the free personal development of each student;
• pluralism of ideas, excluding any ideologization or serving political, ethnic, religious, etc. interests;
• civic engagement and activism;
• interdisciplinarity;
• integrality;
• pragmatic orientation;
• value significance;
• dialogic and discussion-oriented;
• polyvariance and diversity.

Civic education is associated with the integral formation of values, knowledge and skills necessary for peace, respect for human rights and democracy. It should not degenerate into independent elements of education for peace, respect for human rights and democracy.. The main objectives of civic education are to teach adolescents to recognize and value differences. In a democratic society, intercultural dialogue strengthens the links between personal freedom, public governance, and a sense of collective belonging. Civic education should include maintaining appropriate social and moral orientations, statements, and actions to appreciate differences, while emphasizing the role of a sense of common belonging.. Issues of peace, democracy, and civil rights must be addressed at several levels: local, national, regional, global, with the local being the primary one.

Civic education is a necessary part of the overall educational process. It should be reflected in the curricula of social and humanitarian subjects. It should also be taken into account in the selection of teaching methods, the organization of relations at school, and extracurricular activities..

Civic education educational strategies and activities must take into account a wide range of factors – demographic, political, technological, etc. – to determine curricula, learning objectives and the social organization of school effectiveness. Civic education should not seek temporary solutions to problems, but embed them in educational objectives and programs.

• State educational requirements for the curriculum content of Civics Education

In the Republic of Bulgaria, the subject "Civic Education" is studied in the 11th and 12th grades of secondary education. The curricula for Civic Education are based on:

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
• The Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;
• European Reference Framework for Key Competences;
• The Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria;
• The requirements for the learning outcomes of the subject of civic education in the State Educational Standard for General Education.

The subject of civic education in grade 11 focuses on citizens, politics and democracy; citizens, rights and responsibilities; identities and differences in society. In grade 12, the emphasis falls on citizens, power and the state; citizens and the economy; Bulgaria, the world and global problems.

The basic competencies that students need to master include all forms of behavior in order to be able to participate effectively in social life and resolve conflicts when necessary. Interpersonal skills are necessary for effective communication and are applied in both personal and public life. Young people need to know the generally accepted rules of behavior, etiquette and protocol in different societies. They need to have an idea of the concept of a person, a group of people, a society or a culture, as well as knowledge of their history. Training in this discipline provides knowledge on maintaining good personal and family health, hygiene and nutrition. Civic education provides a wide range of knowledge: getting to know the culture of European and other societies, knowledge of civil rights and the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as government policy. It is also necessary to know the role and obligations of the institutions responsible for policy at local, regional, national, European or international level (including the political and economic role of the EU), as well as the international documents related to them (including the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the treaties of unification and accession). The main figures in local and national authorities, political parties and their programs are also studied. An essential part of education in this discipline are also the processes of emigration and immigration, as well as minorities in Europe and the world.

The basic skills that students build by studying the discipline of Civics are not few. Children develop the ability to communicate constructively in different social environments, learning to respect the perspectives and behavior of others; they become aware of individual and collective responsibility. They build skills to create trust and sympathy in others and improve their abilities to express a positive and constructive attitude in case of weakness or confusion. In this way, they learn to control aggression, violence or the tendency to self-destruction - destructive phenomena, extremely characteristic of modern society. They learn how to separate the professional from the personal sphere of life, and not to let the influence of professional problems in their personal lives. They build in themselves the skills to respect and understand cultural identity in intercultural contacts of Europe with the rest of the world, as well as the ability to accept and understand other perspectives arising from differences. They develop their negotiation skills and build good language skills. They acquire habits of participation in neighborhood/community activities, as well as decision-making at national and European level; voting in elections. They learn to show solidarity through interest in solving problems at local or wider level through effective intervention in the work of public institutions or by using the opportunities provided by the EU.

• Foreign experience

In Bulgaria, civic education is taking its first steps. But there are countries where it already has a well-developed structure. We are not talking only about the USA or Western European countries, but about countries that were in our situation, but are ahead of us in the pace and direction of reforms.

1. In the Czech Republic Work on the development of modern civic education programs began in 1989. It is being carried out in collaboration with American partners. The most famous is the CECR (Civic Education for the Czech Republic) program – aimed at reworking the content and teaching of social studies at the upper secondary school level. The program includes teaching content and active learning strategies aimed at developing democratic habits and attitudes. The content of the sections is focused on 5 key concepts derived from social studies courses: state structure, constitution and private laws, free market economy, citizenship and human rights, and the Czech Republic in the global society.
2. In Latvia The work on organizing the civic education system began in the 1990s after the separation from the USSR. Here, too, work is carried out in close cooperation with American institutions. The most famous civic education course is named after the group that developed it – DAC (Democratic Advancement Center). Instead of passive reception and repetition of information, Latvia emphasizes active learning (acquisition and application of information and ideas). Cognitive operations at a higher level of organization, interpretation and evaluation of content are used. Group work is used to acquire habits of democratic participation and decision-making, for example, role-playing, modeling, and solving cases with political issues. These active learning methods are most compatible with the educational goal – acquisition of knowledge and habits necessary for effective and responsible citizenship in a constitutional democracy.
3. In Poland The civic education program originated as part of an American-Polish project entitled “Civic Education in a Democratic Society”. Its main goal is to spread among Polish youth the relevant attitudes and behavior, as well as civic knowledge, and to form practical habits necessary for an active and responsible life in a democratic society with a free market economy. The program began in 1991, and the authors are teachers who are not from academic circles. The reviewers, however, are prominent university specialists from Poland and the USA such as John Patrick, Sandra Stotsky, Robert Wojach, Richard Remy, etc. The key goal of the program is to form young people as active participants in a democratic society. From there arises the requirement that the teaching methods form the relevant abilities, attitudes and variants of civic behavior. Students must not only master certain civic knowledge, but also apply them in specific situations.
4. In Hungary The program was created in 1990 and is called “Education for Democracy – Building and Living in Civil Society”. It offers a new approach to history and social sciences, which emphasizes the teaching of facts, concepts and ideas about social phenomena and is based on the principle that mastering these disciplines will allow citizens to better understand the problems of public life. The emphasis is also on the primacy of law in a democracy. The Hungarian program involves training in critical thinking, which aims to develop the intellectual ability to assess the quality and value of different types of reasoning, as well as the ability to make sound judgments. Students are taught ethics and morality and develop knowledge and skills to build a sense of the global. The latter emphasizes the fact that mastering the art of being a citizen must be based on a sound knowledge of the different ways in which people live and of the ways in which world problems are interconnected and affect the lives of small and large communities.

In Western European countries, the principles of civic education are not much different. The difference is that their programs were created much earlier.

1. In Italy In the last 60 years, various attempts have been made to teach civic education in the Italian school system. In 1958, ten years after the adoption of the Italian Constitution, an attempt was made to introduce the subject of “Civic Education” into the curriculum of primary and secondary schools. Due to the complexity and delicacy of the subject matter offered, the first system was very weak. The 1979 secondary school curriculum defined “Civic Education” as “a broad field of cultural and interdisciplinary connection with specific content”. The class parent-teacher council managed this subject by also defining its curriculum. In 1995 and 1996, a new step was taken to rethink and revive the still weak teaching of civic education. But something truly new in the field of civic competence appeared with a constitutional decree in 2001. At that time, local authorities were given greater scope for strategic decision-making. In 2003, education on the fundamental principle of “civic coexistence” was already offered in every Italian school. It is structured around six themes: citizenship, road safety, environment, health system, nutrition, tolerance and involves teachers of all subjects in a coordinated and integrated effort for the entire school period – at least 12 years – or at least until obtaining a professional qualification.
2. In Denmark Responsible citizenship is part of the general objective of primary, lower and upper secondary education. However, it does not exist as a separate subject and can therefore be seen as an interdisciplinary topic. There is no national curriculum in Denmark due to the decentralized nature of the Danish education system. The curriculum is decided at municipal level. However, there are two areas – social studies and history – that contribute to the “democratic upbringing or education” of students in primary and lower secondary education. An applicable interdisciplinary subject is health and sexual education and family studies. In primary and lower secondary education, the aim of the subject social studies is to develop in students the desire and ability to understand everyday life from a societal perspective and to actively participate in a democratic society; to acquire a sense of history and society, to have a critical attitude and observation skills, to be able to analyse and evaluate national and international situations and conflicts in society. Students should develop a sense of responsibility in carrying out common tasks and to gain knowledge about society and its historical roots.
   

In conclusion

The inclusion in the curriculum of Bulgarian schools of the cultural and educational area “Social Sciences, Civic Education and Religions” (OSCE) is an important achievement of the educational reform of 1999. OSCE is a new cultural and educational area. It expands and focuses knowledge on major problems of the contemporary world. The approach is interdisciplinary. All subjects in the curricula from grades 1-12 provide an opportunity to work on building social and civic competencies in students. In the curricula, greater responsibility for building social and civic competencies in students is assigned to subjects such as: home studies, man and nature, man and society (in primary education), literature, languages, history and civilization, geography and economics, psychology and logic, ethics and law, philosophy, and world and personality (in secondary education).

The Bulgarian social studies curricula focus on issues related to democracy, human rights, the culture of peace and intercultural dialogue. The State Educational Requirements for Social Studies and Civic Education for each stage of school education were officially introduced by Regulation No. 2 of May 2000. These documents outline the main characteristics of civic education (content, objectives, approaches) and formulate special requirements for it in the system of schools for general compulsory education. The standards describe the knowledge and skills that constitute the basis of civic education, which students must acquire as a result of compulsory school preparation. The main goal of the modern educational program is to instill in students an attitude of tolerance and respect for cultural identity and diversity, to introduce them to universal values, to make them clearly aware of their national identity and to teach them to build positive interpersonal and interethnic contacts.

People at the beginning of the 21st century are much freer than their ancestors to realize their creative impulses to build the society in which they will feel free. The civil sector unites the voluntary efforts to improve the life of humanity, which millions of people from all continents are making – a phenomenon that did not exist only half a century ago. Influential authors in this field have reason to call the third sector a new global force and even the “new invisible hand” (after the self-organizing market). In practice, civil society is a system of free, uncontrolled by the state and the market associations of individuals who have the quality of citizens. According to political philosophy, citizens are those who know and are guided simultaneously by: their personal interest, the interests of others and the public interest. Therefore, a citizen is not an egoist, knowing his own interest and nothing more. He is not a party to a contract that limits itself by recognizing the rights of only the other party. A citizen is an individual who acts in direct relation to the interest of the largest community with which he identifies in a specific situation.

Used literature:

1. Ivanov, I. Issues of Civic Education, Shumen, 2000
2. Recommendation (2010)7 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the Charter on Citizenship Education and Human Rights Education, adopted by the Council of the European Committee of Ministers on 11 May 2010 during its 120th session
3. Promoting civic competence among students. A handbook for teachers. Project Consortium Project "CITIZENS"
4. Lecture material by Prof. Dr. Stoyanka Georgieva
5. ORDER No. 13 of 21.09.2016 on civic, health, environmental and intercultural education. Promulgated – SG, issue 80 of 11.10.2016, in force from 11.10.2016, Issued by the Minister of Education and Science

© 2023 Iliana Dechkova