CANDIICE is a five-country collaboration to provide: - active creative, arts-based learning resources using digital technologies and associated staff training to help future generations make democracy work inclusively for their harmonious futures - institutional change resources - wider implementation guidance During the 2019 – 2022 period of Erasmus funding, CANDIICE.eu will grow into an inspiring online training and resource hub for all educators wishing to expand their uses of creativity, collaboration and learner empowerment. Continual work to rethink and improve genuine inclusion is essential as communities become more diverse – our methodologies are focused on recognising the changing attitudes and forces that deprive and exclude and will promote new uses of digital learning (often non-verbal) to ensure that marginal and disadvantaged learners play their full part. CANDIICE.eu will provide flexible training modules suitable for educators in different sectors of formal and informal education. They will be designed to fit into existing training structures to maximise adaptable ease of use. Training will build capacity, confidence and inspiration to incorporate creative flair into this most important aspect of education for a future inclusive Europe. Additional materials for education leaders and policymakers will give detailed recommendations and strategic guidance at the institution, locality and national levels to provide a roadmap to update citizenship education so that it successfully reinforces inclusive, pluralist democracy in a digital age. Educators responsible for citizenship learning carry a massive responsibility – to ensure that future generations understand and build successful coexistence in changing, diverse communities. A universal commitment to common European values is the bedrock of peaceful coexistence; until recently we assumed that established democratic processes would defend these basic tenets. The mechanisms of democracy have been severely jolted by rapid changes in communications technology, many groups in our populations have been left behind, or excluded in different ways. Citizenship education with extensive digital awareness is the space where future generations must formulate a sophisticated understanding of their part in a democratic future: whether they can be collaborative agents of change or disempowered consumers of manipulated attention and attitudes. CANDIICE.eu will be a major support for educators needing to work effectively in that space. CANDIICE will make exciting new learning materials and associated training freely available through CANDIICE.eu with extensive links through other European online resources and strategic guidance. Materials will be produced through repeated processes of collection and evaluation of best practice, research-based innovation and unique collaborations between our partners: leading European agencies in digital open learning, intercultural inclusion, citizenship, creative community arts, learner empowerment and professional adult education and training. CANDIICE partners are: School Development Support Agency (Lead agency) – Leicester, United Kingdom http://www.sdsa.net National and international project development, networking and training for public services. International training programmes on service leadership and improvement, diversity and inclusion, intercultural education, language diversity, learner co-construction and empowerment. Eurosoc#Digital – Berlin, Germany https://www.eurosoc-digital.org Innovators of digital, interactive, creative learning exploring European citizenship, plural democratic values, community civic engagement, youth politics and activism. Forum za Slobodu Odgoja – Zagreb, Croatia Forum for Freedom in Education http://www.fso.hr/ Teacher training institution specialising in a wide range of unique in-service programmes with extensive international links. Expertise in values, liberal education, citizenship with well-established national impact. Les Tetes de l’Art – Marseille, France www.lestetesdelart.fr Progressive intercultural community-based arts and creative hub. Innovator of multi-media youth projects. Nova University– Lisbon, Portugal https://www.unl.pt Initial teacher education institution specialising in language and intercultural understanding.
As set out in our original bid, we believe that an improvement in the popular understanding of democracy is an urgently needed pre-requisite to a better defence of European values and the practice of inclusive democracy. Events in Ukraine have since shocked the western world and reminded us that our democracies are precious and need widespread popular understanding and support. The central responsibility for developing understanding lies with the education sectors across Europe. CANDIICE sought to improve on the uncritical normative descriptive approach that typifies much citizenship and civics education across Europe and provide learning and training materials which would lay foundations for more informed, thoughtful and politically capable populations. Given the universal stresses on education professionals, with almost no time for research and resource production, the optimal way of supporting change in the curriculum and pedagogy is to provide attractive, ready to use, motivating learning activities and flexible training units and resources, (together with guidance) which can all be fitted into crowded timetables and meeting calendars.
SDSA has coordinated school support inequality, multicultural education, student voice and democracy education for many years and been involved in European education projects since 2006. Our central involvement in NECE (Networking European Citizenship Education) included coordinating the focus group on inclusion. During these years, a debate on the working of democracy has become more public, urgent and prominent. In Europe, concern has increased over the rise of xenophobic rhetoric, extreme right-wing movements, the distorting impact of social media and the election of populist, authoritarian politicians, all of which appear to be at odds with the fundamental tenets and values of the European Union. In sharing these concerns with many of the agencies involved in citizenship education, it was recognised that there was little or no educational attention paid to the role of creative expression in exploring the motivations and emotions behind support for populist political action. Equally, it was apparent that there was a general deficit in ready-to-use materials available to continue the implementation of the Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture. These were the strong motivations which led us to seek partners to set up CANDIICE.