Citizenship and Constitution: Learning EU at school (2012)

In the framework of its training programmes on human rights and European citizenship for school teachers, the Human Rights Centre of the University of Padua submitted to the European Commission the project “Citizenship and Constitution” in September 2011. The project, framed in the Jean Monnet Programme/Information and Research Activities/Learning EU at school, is one of the 47 proposals adopted by the European Commission.

The partners for the project “Citizenship and Constitution: Learning the EU at school” (Cittadinanza e Costituzione: apprendere l'Unione Europea a scuola) are the Italian Ministry for Education University and Research (MIUR) and the National Agency for the Development of the School Autonomy (ANSAS, ex INDIRE).

The general goal of the project is to increase the level of general knowledge about the European Union, its polices and institutions, in order to bridge the increasing gap between civil society and European institutions, as well as to contribute spreading the values and objectives of the EU, sharing knowledge and strengthening attitudes and behaviours aimed at promoting human rights, by building capacity for civic, political and democratic action.

The specific objective of the project is dual. On the one hand, it aims to train a group of tutor-teachers coming from all regions of Italy on the subject of human rights and active citizenship in the EU; on the other hand, the goal is to elaborate a training course on learning the EU at school to be included in the teaching course “Citizenship and Constitution” (Law 169/2008).

The project was developed into phases.

In the first phase, two training seminars were organised at the national level with the participation of 40 selected tutor-teacher. These seminars were composed by frontal lectures and working groups. The topics on which the working groups were: The institutional architecture of the EU between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism; The paradigm of human rights as a foundation of the EU system; Interests representation in the EU system; Identity and sense of belonging; The EU in front of the challenges of globalization; the EU policy for education and lifelong learning. Each working group was coordinated by a professor of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Padua.

Information about the two seminars are available at the following links:

Learning EU at school: human rights, subsidiarity, multi-level governance
National Seminar, University of Padua, 2,3,4 April 2012

Learning EU at school: contribution to the preparation of a training module in the dynamics of the curriculum development
National seminar, Sorrento, 27, 28, 29 May 2012

In the second phase, five thematic fora were activated for discussion and opinion exchanges among participants in the e-learning platform of ANSAS.

In the third phase, teachers developed conceptual maps and educational objectives as a basis to build up a curriculum on European integration in the framework of Citizenship and Constitution. The final compositions are collected in the document “Contributi degli insegnanti-tutor a conclusione del percorso di formazione” (available only in Italian and attached below).

In the forth phase, 6 thematic newsletters have been sent on the following topics: European Union, civil dialogue, democratic participation; Human rights and the European Union; European Citizenship; the European Union and the protection of those belonging to vulnerable groups (migrants, children, women, persons with disabilities); European identity and intercultural dialogue; Education to democratic citizenship and human rights.