A Romanian and Icelandic student's profile from the perspective of education for democratic citizenship

• Main Authors: Tilea, Monica, Ólafsdóttir, Sigríður, Duță, Oana-Adriana
• Other Authors: School of education (UI), Menntavísindasvið (HÍ), Háskóli Íslands, University of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Craiova, Department of Communication, Journalism and Education Science, Center for Scientific Research in Communication Sciences, Media and Public Opinion 2020
• Subjects: Menntakerfi; Viðhorf; Rúmenía; Ísland; Nemendur; Educational system; Romanian learners; Icelandic learners; Comparative research; Samanburðarrannsóknir; Opinion polls; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/2056

In a global context marked by the need to uphold democracy and human rights, education for democratic citizenship (EDC) has increasingly emerged as a prerequisite for shaping active and responsible citizens for the decades to come. The importance of EDC is strongly acknowledged by the Romanian and Icelandic educational systems and it is integrated in school syllabi at all levels of education. However, despite the wide recognition and support for EDC, challenges in its putting into practice are still persistent. Against this background and capitalizing on complementary expertise, the University of Craiova, alongside with Bifrost University and the University of Iceland, has proposed a project that aims at moving beyond the traditional approach to EDC by addressing the transversal competences that lead to it, in order to show how they can be developed in classes which are not specifically oriented towards topics related to democratic citizenship. The project A Comparative and Transferable Approach to Education for Democratic Citizenship (ACTA), developed from September 2018 to April 2020 and financed by the Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway Grants, is underpinned by a comparative approach of EDC in two countries that are fundamentally different in terms of state of democracy and educational policies. Moreover, it holds a transdisciplinary focus, reinforcing the EDC role of all school teachers and integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) in problem-based teaching/learning for EDC. The utmost objective of the project is to design transferable educational resources for the development and assessment of transversal competences related to education for democratic citizenship (with a focus on future language teachers). Thus, this project complements previous research endeavours undertaken at the University of Craiova within international projects aiming at developing transversal skills. A prerequisite for the transferability of educational resources is their adaptability to heterogeneous audiences ...