The Future of Education

Acquiring civic competences is one of the crucial goals of education systems in democratic societies. Encouraging young people to take an active role in society and politics should be a priority in every society. In most European countries, Civic Education is present in school systems, although under different names and varying in scope. In Croatia, the program of Civic Education is cross-curricular, but the results of numerous studies show the need for systematic, high-quality implementation of Civic Education as a separate mandatory school subject in higher years of compulsory education, secondary schools, as well as in institutions of higher education, particularly the ones devoted to educating future teachers. This need is also supported by the fact that reading literacy is one of the central skills needed for participation in politics and society, and according to the 2015 PISA study results, Croatia is among the countries whose scores were below average in this regard. Furthermore, factual knowledge of politics is another important dimensions of democratic culture, since it is a prerequisite to understanding political problems. Teacher proficiencies are also a key part in the development of civic competences, so the paper further presents a part of the results of a study conducted in 2017/18 at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb, which examined familiarity with EU institutions among the students of the Faculty of Teacher Education. The obtained results show that even future teachers themselves also possess certain inadequacies in political literacy.

Keywords: Civic Education, EU, democratic citizenry, political literacy, youth.

References:

[1] Dürr, K., Spajić-Vrkaš, V., Martins, I.F., "Učenje za demokratsko građanstvo u Europi", Zagreb, Ministry of Education and Sports, 2002
[2] Šalaj, B., "Političko obrazovanje u školama: nepotrebna politizacija obrazovanja ili važan uvjet demokracije? Slučaj Engleske", Politička misao, XLII, 2, Zagreb, 2005, 77–100
[3] Batarelo, I. et al., "Demokracija i ljudska prava u osnovnim školama - teorija i praksa", Human Rights Centre, Zagreb, 2009
[4] Bagić, D. (ed.), "Odgaja li škola dobre građane? Studija o političkoj socijalizaciji hrvatskih srednjoškolaca" (Does school raise good citizens? A study on political socialization of Croatian high school students), GONG and FPZG, Zagreb, 2011
[5] Ilišin, V. et. al., "Mladi u vremenu krize". Prvo istraživanje IDIZ-a i Zaklade Friedrich Ebert o mladima (Youth in a time of crisis: The first IDIZ-Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Youth Survey), Institute for Social Research and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Zagreb, 2013
[6] Velički, D; Šenjug, A., „Učenje demokracije i demokratske kompetencije budućih odgojitelja i učitelja“, Napredak, 151 (3– 4), 2010, Zagreb, 390– 406
[7] Bos, W. et al., "Konzepte der Lesekompetenz in IGLU 2006". In: Bos, W. et al. (ed.), IGLU 2006 Lesekompetenzen von Grundschulkindern in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich, Waxmann, 2007, Münster, New York, 2007, 81 - 104
[8] Milner, H., "Civic Literacy: How Informed Citizens Make Democracy Work", University Press of New England, Hanover NH, 2002
[9] Detjen, J., "Politische Bildung: Geschichte und Gegenwart in Deutschland", Oldenbourg Verlag München, 2013, 243
[10] Oberle, M., "Politisches Wissen über die Europäische Union. Subjektive und objektive Politikkenntnisse von Jugendlichen." Springer Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 2012 
[11] Nie, N. et al., "Education and Democratic Citizenship in America", University of Chicago Press, 1996 Jennings, M.K., "Political Knowledge over time and across generations", Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 60, Issue 2, 1, 1996, 228–252
[12] Putnam, R.D., "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" New York, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2000