Progressive Education in Georgia: Tradition or Reality?

Year 2013, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 11 - 20, 01.08.2013

Bella Kopaliani Delwyn L Harnisch Nana Doliashvili Timothy C Guetterman

Abstract

Despite differences among progressive educators, they share the conviction that democracy means active participation by all citizens in the social, political, and economic decisions of their countries. The aim of this paper is to explore how Georgia is meeting goals and perspectives of progressive education by widely implementing civic education programs in schools and how its schools are developing a civic society. The paper highlights the 2010 inaugural national needs assessment, which studied conditions and attitudes towards civic education. The qualitative and quantitative results revealed the importance of civic education to diverse stakeholders. Civic education develops civic understanding founded on liberal and democratic values and helps students to comprehend their rights and responsibilities for their family, community, and state. Civic education developments in Georgia include adopting the diversity principle, empowering teachers to select and implement educational process, and using modern educational technologies and foreign pedagogical innovations

Keywords

civic education, educational innovations, Republic of Georgia, democratic society, international development