Teaching Democracy: Tools and Methods in the Secondary Education

Year 2020, Volume: 5 Issue: 4, 380 - 388, 01.10.2020

Theodore Chadjipadelis Marina Sotiroglou Antonis Papaoikonomou

https://doi.org/10.24331/ijere.768954

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Political and Social scientists, since the end of the 20th century, have been concerned about youth’s
“withdrawal” from participating in public life. This paper addresses the issue of teaching Civic
Education and presents new didactic and interactive tools that can be used in the educational
process. Introducing the meaning of Democracy to students takes place in compulsory education but
during Secondary Education is taught extensively with the aim of creating responsible and
interactive citizens. Therefore, students are exercised in democratic procedures during courses,
interactive learning and by electing students’ board into school premises in order to motivate
political participation and political understanding. However, an individual is not considered as a
citizen only on the election day. To this end, thematic workshops were designed and implemented
by using the principle of deliberation in schools in the area of Thessaloniki (Greece), in the context of
the course "Contemporary World, Citizen and Democracy" in Secondary Education. The workshops
focused on the familiarization with the Greek and European Parliament functions into the school
communities by interactive and experiential learning. At the end of this approach, a survey was
conducted to students concerning their opinion about deliberation and electoral procedures. In that
terms, we aim to develop a structured and interactive Civic Education curriculum that will help
shape active and responsible citizens. Our teaching practice is based on mathematical skills and
statistical concepts to cultivate further the concepts of democracy and representation

Keywords

Democracy, civic education, secondary education

References

• Biesta, G. (2011). Learning democracy in school and society, education, lifelong learning and the politics of citizenship. University of Stirling, UK, Sense Publishers.