Civic competence can be defined as ‘the ability and willingness to engage in active participation, based on an attitude of trust in other people, in all the contexts of social life: school, local community, working place, recreational activities’.
– From an individual point of view, civic competence is a tool for empowering the individual and giving them the motivation, autonomy and responsibility to control their own lives beyond the social circumstances in which they find themselves.
– From a social point of view civic competence, by helping to create social capital, underpins democracy and social and economic development (Fukuyama 1995, Putnam 1993, 2000, Hoskins & Deak 2008).
For its importance, The European Commission (2006) has listed civic competence as one of the key competences to be developed under EU LL strategy. In specific, each Member State should ensure initial education and training offers all young people the means to develop it. Following the Recommendation, many Member states have started to incorporate civic competence development in their schools’ curricula.
The Project wants to foster this trend by producing a Guide on developing civic competence in students addressed to teachers. The Guide, initially available in 5 languages, will contain 50 lesson plans to be used with students aged 14 and over. The Guide will be validated thorough a pilot carried out in 2 schools in each partner country, for a total 10 schools, 20 teachers and 400 students involved. Once validated, the Guide will be translated in other 5 languages and directly promoted, thanks also to an Helpdesk, with over 1500 teachers and stakeholders and used by other 35 schools in Europe. A virtual resource centre on civic competence will be also developed and maintained after the end of the Project. The Project is submitted by a consortium of 3 Universities active in the field of Education, 10 schools and 2 organizations supporting schools in rising the quality of education.
