The overall aims of the ConCitizen project were: 1. Through a transnational virtual exchange format and teaching tutorials to strengthen the students’ democratic competencies and to develop citizenship education based on experiences of teaching contested narratives (CN) and controversial issues (CI) in very different national and democratic contexts. 2. Across the participating institutions to develop new pedagogical models for teaching CN and CI that will improve the ability of lecturers and students to include CN and CI in the teaching to improve the pupils’ ability to think critically, reflect on differences and contribute to peaceful coexistence. 3. Through an open-access textbook to combine theoretical perspectives with pedagogical approaches that strengthen the student teachers’ and schoolteachers' ability to facilitate inclusion, dialogue, and mutual understanding in classrooms when topics are controversial and contested.
KP, along with our partner institutions, identified the need to address contested narratives and controversial issues in citizenship education. A central aim was to qualify pedagogical approaches that engage with contested, controversial and conflict topics. We set out to develop pedagogical strategies, models and teaching materials that can qualify the teaching of contested narratives (CN) and controversial issues (CI) in teacher education programs and NGOs The ConCitizen project has addressed a key issue in citizenship education: how do we teach controversial issues particularly related to contested narratives in post-conflict and diverse societies? We approached this in the light of current challenges, such as populism, extremism, and the impact of the digitalization in terms of polarization and filter-bubbles. ConCitizen has explored how CN and CI are included - or avoided - in the school subjects of history, religious education, and social studies. The transnational cooperation has stimulated innovative learning and teaching practices and created pedagogical models that encourage self-reflection, awareness of power relations, and critical thinking when teaching CN and CI.