Competences for Democratic Culture: A new Council of Europe initiative on citizenship education Martyn Barrett University of Surrey, UK

‘Competences for Democratic Culture’ (CDC) This is the title of a new project which the Council of Europe is currently working on The key aim of the project is to assist national education systems to enhance the intercultural and democratic competences of young people across Europe To achieve this goal, the project is developing a new European framework of reference of the competences which young people need to acquire in order to participate effectively in democratic culture and intercultural dialogue The project is going to use the framework to formulate detailed recommendations and guidelines on the development of new curricula, new pedagogical methods and new assessment methods for use in citizenship education and intercultural education

Why ‘democratic culture’? The phrase ‘democratic culture’ is used in the title of the project to emphasise the fact that, while democracy cannot exist without democratic institutions, these institutions cannot work in practice unless citizens hold democratic values, attitudes and practices In other words, a functioning democracy requires citizens to have: – A commitment to democratic processes – A willingness to express their opinions – A willingness to listen to the opinions of others – A commitment to decisions being made by majorities – A commitment to the protection of minorities and their rights – A conviction that conflicts must be resolved peacefully

Democratic culture requires intercultural dialogue This is a key assumption of the project A fundamental principle of democracy is that the people who are affected by political decisions should be able to express their views when those decisions are being made, and that decision-makers should pay attention to those views when making their decisions Intercultural dialogue is precisely the means through which citizens can express their views, needs, concerns and aspirations to other people who have different cultural affiliations from themselves In other words, in the case of culturally diverse societies, intercultural dialogue is absolutely vital for democratic discussion, debate and deliberation, and for enabling all citizens to contribute to political decision-making on an equal footing, irrespective of their specific cultural affiliations

The CDC project The CDC project is therefore developing a new conceptual model of the competences which young people need to acquire to participate effectively in democratic culture and in intercultural dialogue The project is also developing a set of descriptors for each competence that is specified by the model - a descriptor is a statement or description of what a person is able to do if they have mastered a particular competence These descriptors are being formulated using the language of learning outcomes, and they are being assigned to proficiency levels (e.g., basic, intermediate, advanced) and to levels of education (e.g., preschool, primary, secondary, higher) The project is also writing supporting documentation to explain how the competence model and the descriptors can be used to inform curriculum design, pedagogical design and the development of new forms of assessment

The CDC competence model

Examples of descriptors

Openness Uses opportunities to meet new people Expresses interest in working with people from different cultural backgrounds Civic-mindedness Takes action to stay informed about civic issues Collaborates with other people for common interest causes Knowledge and critical understanding of culture and cultures Can explain the dangers of generalising from individual behaviours to an entire culture Can describe several different cultures, especially the values, customs and practices which are common in those cultures

On completion, the CDC framework is going to be presented to the education ministries of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe This process will start here in Brussels next April at a conference of education ministers of the 47 member states that has been convened to highlight the project to them The CDC framework will be offered as a set of non-binding guidelines and recommendations to the member states, who will be able to use and adapt the framework to their own education system, at all levels of education, as they see fit The education ministries of the member states have been kept informed about the project at all stages, and have been inputting ideas to the project throughout its development The member states have also expressed strong support for the project at sessions of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Educational Policy and Practice

The project is extremely challenging and ambitious, and it does not pretend to be a panacea for all of the problems which our democratic societies currently face That said, the project does provide an extremely exciting opportunity to make a very real difference to European society, as long as education ministries do take up and adopt the CDC framework For further information on the CDC project, please see: Thank you for listening!