The Debates on Education are an initiative of the Jaume Bofill Foundation and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, geared to the promotion of social debate on the future of education. [+]
Abstract
Throughout history, educating for citizenship has been one of the central aims of education systems and, on an international scale, a wide range of programmes have been developed to this end. The education reforms carried out in Spain and Latin America during the 1980s and 1990s had the common thread running through them of renewed concern for the moral, ethical and citizenship education of children and young people, and a growing consensus among specialists and educators for education based on the respect for human rights, democratic co-existence in tolerance and the evaluation of diversity, and active, respectful participation by the public in democratic institutions. However, we educators know that going from theory to practice is not as simple as it seems in some statements of intent. We teach laws and regulations, offer pretty speeches and reflections on values, but children continue to learn not so much from what we tell them but what they see us doing, and what we let them put into practice. A democratic population is first and foremost a practice that, like any other, needs to come into play because children and young people make it theirs. We feel that the time should come when the majority of educational institutions offer their students the possibility of approaching community spaces where they can develop their education practice for citizenship and awareness of solidarity. In this debate, we will be presenting a brief description of the pedagogy of service learning as an effective teaching proposal for a participative and solidarity citizenship education.
Keywordseducation, citizenship, values, participation, solidarity, tolerance
Coordinator of the National Solidarity Education Programme of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of the Republic of Argentina.
Academic Director of the Latin American Centre for Learning and Solidarity Service (CLAYSS).
Lecturer at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) and, since 1998, the South American representative on the IANYS (International Association for National Youth Service) management committee.
Coordinator from 2002 to 2003 of the "Solidarity Schools" programme of the Secretariat for Education of the Buenos Aires City Government.
Author of <i>La solidaridad como pedagogía</i> ['Solidarity as pedagogy'] (Buenos Aires, Ciudad Nueva, 2000).
Debates on Education:
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