Living Democracy
The EDC/HRE project “Living Democracy” is an educational project, which aims to promote democracy and education for democracy in the different levels of various school systems in countries like Albania, Bosnia-Herzegowina, Croatia, Greece, Kosova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland etc.
IPE (International Project in Education) developed six teaching books about EDC/HRE in cooperation with the Council of Europe. The principle of the teaching material is based on the idea that Education for Democracy should teach the students to assume an active role in school and their life environment.
Students are supported in three dimensions to develop the therefore necessary competences:
- Lessons about the topics democracy and Human Rights
- School as a place for living democracy and Human Rights
Learning to participate in society
School plays a crucial role in students lives. Therefore, school must provide an environment in which children and teenagers are able not only to achieve competences in the classroom but also the ability to apply this classroom knowledge to real life.
School should motivate students to participate in the community and provide them with the necessary tools for this task.
Democracy Education acts on three levels:
- Classroom As it is a small collective the classroom provides a lot of opportunities for first experiences in democratic education.
- School Social participation occurs inside the school which is an extended community.
- Society Children and teenagers experience what participation means through defending their interest outside school.
Adequate teaching materials for Democracy and Human Rights Education can support the learning process and teach students the necessary subject matter, methodical and decision making competencies.
Another element of the project is the publication of all the translated units, exercises and background articles from EDC/HRE Volumes I – VI on a specific based webpage open and free for all teachers and the interested public.
