Student and family engagement for developing a culture of democratic/civic participation

Apie kvietimą

Expected Outcome: Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes: Policymakers, education and training institutions, and educators will be provided with an evidence base, toolkits, and recommendations on the types of collaboration mechanisms with families that are most effective in supporting schools' efforts to provide citizenship education[1]. Policymakers, education and training institutions, and educators will have a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of student councils and other student participatory mechanisms on influencing school decision-making and on student civic engagement. Policymakers, education and training institutions, and educators will have a deeper understanding of the impact of family involvement in citizenship education in schools. Educators have frameworks, guidance, and tools for evaluating social-emotional learning, including values and attitudes, as part of citizenship education. Scope: Research should examine schools as a locus for practicing participation and developing innovative participatory practices. Research should examine student and family engagement to foster a democratic culture via school activities. It should consider schools as social places for intergenerational dialogue. Research should examine the role of socio-emotional learning in tackling sensitive topics in the classroom and in fostering civic agency development among learners. Research could explore the emotions that drive civic engagement and investigate strategies to help students emotionally cope with frustrations when their civic engagement efforts do not unfold as expected. Research should integrate an intersectional approach that is sensitive to gender and ability, by studying how students contribute to and respond to civic engagement efforts differently according to their identity and backgrounds. Research should examine the active role of families in building children and young people's civic identity. Parents/caregivers and the wider family are key in children and young people’s informal learning, shaping their interests, values, and world-views; family involvement in school citizenship education might vary in more diverse communities, depending on the family’s cultural, migrant or socio-economic backgrounds; some families may not appreciate the importance of teaching about social issues, democracy, or civic participation or may feel excluded or disconnected from schools’ efforts to provide citizenship education. Research should examine how citizenship education is reinforced or challenged outside the classroom, especially with growing polarization and diversity of our societies. The research should provide recommendations of how to effectively engage families from diverse backgrounds in their children's citizenship education. The main focus should be on parents and caregivers (legal guardians); exploring other wider family influences is also possible. Research should examine families’ and students' views on…