The main objective of this project is to inspire participants and provide learning opportunities in how to implement citizenship in a quality, effective and integrated way in their schools. Learning about integrated working on citizenship, creating, nurturing and stimulating school support, learning how to evaluate process, effectiveness and integration of citizenship initiatives at school Starting from the school's own vision, participants reflect on the practical examples and see what translation they can make from what they have learned to their own school context. We set up a shared network where they can achieve deep professional learning. The applied in practice (content, process and results) will be disseminated in Flanders. This will be done by sharing the experiences the existing learning networks around citizenship. Participants will connect internationally through eTwinning and look for opportunities to connect with future projects. Therefore, parallel to answering citizenship needs, the consortium will also work to transfer knowledge, skills and enthusiasm around international projects.
The importance of citizenship at school is recently seen as much more important than in the past. Polarisation, individualisation, low participation of young generations in society and strong mediatisation are just a few examples of a strongly changing social context that increase the demand for citizenship education. This also featured strongly in the "Van lerensbelang" campaign (2016) set up by the Flemish government. During this campaign, anyone with an affinity for the field of education could join the debate on the new attainment targets. In September 2019, the final new attainment targets, including more emphasis on citizenship, were introduced in 1st grade secondary education in all Flemish schools. These innovations are also on the way for the 2nd and 3rd grades during the next school years. In the educational curricula of KathOndVla, citizenship was given a place within both a subject "man and society" and within a cross-curricular curriculum, the "common basic curriculum". Schools are therefore encouraged by both social trends and policy to develop a vision on citizenship. We see both kinds of needs strongly reflected by our partners in this consortium.