Abstracts
François Audigier: L’éducation civique dans l’école française (OJSD/JSSE 2-2002)
Since ten or fifteen years ago, civic education is coming back to the foreground of the news. It is now an obligatory school subject in primary and lower secondary school, the college, namely nine years of a schooling which it is as a rule the same for all pupils. The author introduces programmes from primary school and from the college. However, between official programmes and what is effectively taught, differences are often very large. What some primary school's teachers say about what they teach and about college's pupils provides another point of view on civic education. A short evocation of the history of civic education in French school puts in prospect actual choices and specific problems of this school subject, in particularly its difficult stabilisation. The article closes with the presentation of some tensions and contradictions which are necessary to take into account to think and to implement civic education.
L'éducation civique est revenue au premier plan de l'actualité depuis dix à quinze ans. Elle est actuellement une discipline scolaire obligatoire à l'école primaire et dans le premier cycle de l'école secondaire, le collège, soit neuf années d'une scolarité qui est en principe la même pour tous. Dans un premier temps, l'auteur présente les programmes de l'école primaire puis ceux du collège. Toutefois, entre les programmes officiels et ce qui est effectivement enseigné et construit dans les classes, les différences sont souvent très grandes. Ce que disent des enseignants de l'école primaire sur ce qu'ils enseignent et des élèves de collège apporte un autre regard sur l'éducation civique. Une rapide évocation de l'histoire de l'éducation civique dans l'école en France met en perspective les choix actuels et les problèmes propres à cette discipline, notamment sa difficile stabilisation. L'article s'achève sur la présentation de quelques unes des tensions et contradictions dont la prise en compte est nécessaire pour penser et mettre en œuvre l'éducation civique.
Nicole Tutiaux-Guillon: Civic, Legal and Social Education in French Secondary School: Questions About a New Subject (OJSD/JSSE 2-2002)
In summer 1999, a new compulsory subject was introduced in French upper secondary school: civic, legal and social education (éducation civique, juridique et sociale or ECJS). This teaching has been introduced as an answer to problems resulting from social and cultural changes in secondary education, from growing indifference to politics and from debates about citizenship. The curriculum in ECJS, through contents based on concepts and social and political controversies, and through pedagogy based on debates, upsets traditional secondary teaching. What is taught and what is learnt differ a lot form one classroom to another. The thesis presented in this paper asserts that this subject shows such an heterogeneity not only because it is new, but also because the three actors in the project, the institution, the teachers and the students, refer ECJS to legitimacies and to contents that do not coincide. The institution refers largely to politics and citizenship, the teachers to school difficulties and school knowledge, the students to their personal experience and common sense. This interpretation calls for discussion.
En août 1999, un nouvel enseignement obligatoire a été introduit dans les lycées français: l'éducation civique, juridique et sociale ou ECJS. Cet enseignement apparaît comme une réponse à divers problèmes: ceux résultant des changements culturels et sociaux lies à la massification de l'enseignement secondaire, ceux relevant d'une indifférence croissante au politique, et des débats concernant la citoyenneté. Le programme d'ECJS, tant dans ses contenus fondés sur des concepts et des questions socialement et politiquement controversées, que dans ses méthodes pédagogiques centrées sur le débat, perturbe le fonctionnement usuel de l'enseignement secondaire. Ce qui est enseigné et appris diffère notablement d'une classe à l'autre. Dans cet article, j'attribue cette hétérogénéité non à la nouveauté d'un tel enseignement mais au fait que les trois acteurs impliqués dans le projet, l'institution, les professeurs et les élèves, réfèrent l'ECJS à des légitimités et des contenus différents. L'institution la réfère largement au politique et à la citoyenneté, les professeurs aux difficultés de l'école et aux savoirs scolaires, les élèves à leur expérience quotidienne et au sens commun. Cette interprétation demande discussion.
Birgit Weber: Economic Education in Germany (OJSD/JSSE 2-2002)
It is rather difficult to describe economic education in Germany: Due to German
federalism the sixteen German Länder are independent in terms of educational
policy. Thus the German educational system differs slightly from Land to Land,
even more heterogenous is the situation of economic education. With regard to
this it is impossible to give a detailed picture of the whole, but it is useless
to present the situation in only one land.
This report tries to do the impossible by giving a rough overview of the situation
of economic education in Germany at school as well as at university. Above all
it is concerned with outlining the gap between claim and reality of economic
education. A summary about the main topics of the didactic discussion can reflect
contents and methods, which influence the syllabus construction.
Christa Händle: The Burden of History? Civic Education at German Schools (OJSD/JSSE 2-2002)
The following essay gives an overview of the development of civic education at German schools in the 20th century. This is based on the study of German contributions to the international comparative project "Civic Education" within the scheme of the International Association for Evaluation of Educational achievement (IEA), which were published internationally and by the German project group. Essential empirical findings are taken into account to describe civic education in Germany in an international comparison. This article helps for a better understanding of civic education in Germany under both a historical and comparative perspective.
Gitsa Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides/ Maria Ntelikou/ Georgia Papadopoulou/ Bessy Tsakmaki: Greek conceptions of democracy, citizenship, the state role and immigrants (OJSD/JSSE 2-2002)
Despina Bousiou, Stavros Tsopoglou: Economic Education in Greece at the High School Level (OJSD/JSSE 2-2002)
Klaus Koopmann: Experiental Civic Learning by using "Projekt: Aktive Bürger" (OJSD/JSSE 2-2002)
Various social and political developments seem to sum up to a process of 'de-civilization' which impede - rather than facilitate - the project of a humane and democratic society. In order to make this project a successful one it is necessary to reclaim citizens as politically acting subjects. The ability to act as enlightened and autonomous citizens will be sustainably acquired by experiencing extensive participation in society and in politics. Civic education should foster this process of 'revi-talization of citizenship' by offering youth meaningful participatory experiences of social and po-litical relevance. That is: Civic education should create, organize and offer learning strategies that are oriented towards the notion of reflective acting as experiential learning. Experiential learning processes, aimed at the sustainable acquisition of competencies which are relevant in politics and civil society, will particularly unfold in the course of the (inter)active dealing of the individual(s) with the authentic political and social problems and processes that surround and concern them. This also includes reflection and co-operation. One example of how to practice an experiential and prob-lem-centred learning strategy is well being demonstrated by the civic education program "Projekt: Aktive Bürger", the German adaptation of "We the People ... Project Citizen" designed by the American Center for Civic Education.
(c) 2003 sowi-online e.V., Bielefeld
Editor of jsse 2-2002: Reinhold Hedtke
WWW-Presentation: Norbert Jacke
URL: http://www.jsse.org/2002-2/abstracts.html
Publishing Date: 2003/03/01 Corrections: 2004/09/20