One outcome of increased international connectedness is that global tensions are increasingly reflected within local communities. Particular anxieties exist about the social disengagement of those with differing cultural, social and religious backgrounds and the difficulties in addressing this through education by traditional means. These concerns have been heightened by international terrorism and high-profile extremist events. Against this background young people from communities with different religious or cultural identities can find it difficult to identify, engage with or be welcomed into an inclusive sense of citizenship in their host society and may not acquire a sense of inclusive citizenship which embraces Europe comfortably. The need for a contemporary and more inclusive conception of European citizenship and a wider participatory democracy has been increasingly noted both in EU policy and more widely. However the desire to develop a stronger, more cohesive sense of European and national citizenship by implementing Citizenship Education in schools has met with limited success. The intentions for citizenship education are sometimes contested and misunderstood, its delivery may make little reference to significant local and national issues and how politicians, the media and the wider society deal with these and in many schools, colleges and universities the general provision for citizenship education is inadequate. Teachers often find the topic problematic to teach, due to poor knowledge, inadequate training or resources and pedagogy that do not strongly engage young people. There is growing recognition that European citizenship education needs to be more about engaging and empowering individuals and less about the study of academic content, citizenship duties, the institutions of government, or citizenship as social compliance and contribution. The objectives of this project are to develop educational practices and innovative digital resources to allow young people in secondary, further and higher education to explore, develop and practice citizenship in a safe environment representing real-world contexts that deal with issues of direct relevance to them, their lives and their growth as European citizens in a pluralistic democracy. It will achieve this by using new and emerging digital technologies (including virtual reality) that are popular with and attractive to young people and motivate them to participate and therefore sustain their involvement. Research has shown that the imaginative use of ICT can, if used appropriately, change long-held and culturally deep-rooted views and that the use of immersive virtual environments is effective in developing self-perception and a renewed sense of identity. Experts in citizenship, digital technology and educational pedagogy from nine educational institutions including primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities and organisations involved in training and teacher education from across Europe work together in this project, together with their students, to create a toolkit of innovative digital resources and a library of guidelines, manuals and training packages for educators. These will provide teachers, lecturers and trainers with the skills and resources to better engage their students to develop a stronger sense of European citizenship and understand and embrace the shared values underpinning modern democratic societies. The resources will also include scenarios, responses and reflections on these by young people and because of their authenticity these will enhance their impact on citizenship education and create high credibility for the project outcomes. The resources will be extensively tested and widely distributed and enable educators to acquire the necessary skills to develop further resources using the training and guidelines the project will provide. The impact of the project will be to enhance the skills, knowledge and resources of educators to help them teach European citizenship in a more effective and engaging way that will motivate and inspire them and their students to create a deeper sense of European citizenship that identifies and embraces common democratic values to promote social inclusion and harmony. The project will also increase the acquisition of the digital skills, literacies and competencies of educators and students that are essential for the 21st century. The potential longer term benefits of the project will be to: identify what motivates young people and individuals with differing cultural, religious, political and social backgrounds and heritages to engage with citizenship education; promote greater engagement with public and political life; encourage informed debate to facilitate a deeper understanding of the concerns and values of other social, cultural and ethic groups; promote greater social inclusion, harmony and individual well being; and enhance the digital skills and competencies of citizens.
This project aimed to address the anxieties, which exist about citizenship, in particular the social disengagement of those with differing cultural, social and religious backgrounds, in particular, the well well documented global tensions which are often reflected within local communities. This central discourse was the primary theme, interest and challenge to be solved by the project partners at the outset of this work. The project engaged participatory methodology, design and delivery to produce pedagogical resources that could be used in educational settings to address these issues. In preparatory discussions across the team that led to this project, it was evident that they had shared knowledge, experience and expertise in this field across all three participating countries. The team was specifically keen to address this issue by utilising young people from communities with different religious or cultural identities, who can find it particularly difficult to identify, engage with, or be welcomed into; their host society and may not always fully acquire a sense of inclusive citizenship. We were also cognisant that teachers often find the topic problematic to teach, due to poor knowledge, inadequate training or resources and pedagogy that do not engage young people. Therefore this project set out to develop educational practices and innovative digital resources that will allow young people in secondary, further and higher education to explore, develop and practice citizenship in a safe environment representing real-world contexts that deal with issues of direct relevance to them, their lives and their growth as European citizens in a pluralistic democracy. In doing so, our aim has always been to engage teachers and their classroom students in the process, enabling them to better learn how to teach and be taught citizenship education. As a result, the resources developed by the project team have, where practicable, involved both in the various stages of planning, creation and testing. In addition to teachers and students, the project team included academic researchers from its higher education partner organisations. The academic researchers were able to share their expertise and research experience to direct and support the project’s design, implementation, delivery and reporting. This partnership of higher education, further education, college and schools helped develop a wide network of end users to share the project resources with and reach larger external audiences to promote the project findings to. To ensure a collaborative approach was maintained throughout the project, partners met regularly, either online or face-to-face, in a series of team meetings, and were able to use two multiplier events to design, creative, develop and test a series of outputs. These include a Teacher Toolkit, Teacher Training Course Modules, a beta version of a virtual immersive world, a series of eBooks, and a Digital Survey Tool. Teachers reported that teaching the topic of citizenship was often problematic. The ‘Teacher Toolkit’ and the ‘Training Course Modules’ were created to enable them to increase their knowledge in this area, gain access to useful resources and expand their pedagogical approaches that engage young people. The eBooks were collated and co-authored by students as a mechanism to empower their personal skills, develop their study of academic knowledge of citizenship and support engagement with their own school or college’s ambitions to develop peer support. The beta version of the virtual immersive world developed by the project enables students from secondary, further and higher education settings to explore, develop and practice citizenship in a safe environment representing real-world contexts that deal with issues of direct relevance to them, their lives and their growth as European citizens in a pluralistic democracy. The students participating in its development in particular will have immediate and long-term benefits. For both groups, research has shown that the imaginative use of ICT in the classroom can help change long-held and culturally deep-rooted views. It is hoped that the use of the project’s innovative digital resources should therefore be effective in developing the self-perception and the renewed sense of identity required by the project. In addition, an unexpected outcome and bonus of the project has been the reported upskilling of digital competencies, literacies and training of its school participants (both students and teachers) that are essential for the 21st century.