EDC/HRE competences and the teachers for the future

Within the framework of the “Preparing Future Teachers in the Western Balkans: Education for Democracy and Human Rights 2019 – 2022” project led by the European Wergeland Centre and guided through the support of the IPE Department at Zurich University of Teacher Education, and in particular with the professional contribution of Prof. Rolf Gollob and the Albanian education expert Astrit Dautaj (https://theewc.org/projects/preparing-future-teachers-in-the-western-balkans/).

This project is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Three lecturers from the Faculty of Education at the University “Aleksandër Moisiu” in Durrës, Albania (Lindita Lutaj, Elda Tartari and Enkelejda Cenaj) conceived and prepared the semester module entitled “Democratic Civic Education” for Master’s students and implemented it in the first semester of the 2020 – 2021 academic year with lecturer Lindita Lutaj. The purpose of this module is to develop the skills for democratic citizenship for students who will be future teachers.

The module gives the students the opportunity to get acquainted with the importance of human rights education and democratic citizenship education. The module explains the role of the educational institution in instilling a democratic culture for students, giving them contemporary models of living in democracy. The module also helps students address issues regarding conflict, familiarise themselves with the conceptual challenges of citizenship and invites them to analyse and debate the general features of democratic education and culture. Students are introduced to the theoretical foundations and practical skills in the field of citizenship in a special way. They learn to understand the pillars of democracy and are challenged to embrace and develop their values ​​in civic education and to increase their knowledge of human rights, responsibilities, participation, conflict and rules in a democracy.

They are also encouraged to develop their knowledge of equality, the role of minorities and majorities in

society, knowledge of teaching and learning and evaluation in a society that respects the rights of individuals and aspires to a democratic culture.

The implementation of the project gave the students participating the possibility to project themselves as future teachers and to challenge themselves in this quality, and gave them the opportunity and the courage to evaluate the entire teaching and learning process from the perspective of the philosophy of the project, reconsidering their role and their responsibility as future teachers while still students.

Within this framework, they had the possibility to project themselves within the hierarchy of learning expectations and the expectations of the teaching process and, as a result, obtain the motivation to get the best out of their time at university.

The project brought to life the switching of the focus of teaching from pure lecturing to more practice-based learning.

Within this practice, the theoretical concepts of democratic education and culture become real and tangible and, as a result, are turned into a model for action.

 The module is written in Albanian, and is available for download from the following link: https://theewc.org/resources/kompetencat-e-ednj-eqd-dhe-mesuesit-e-se-ardhmes/