Organizational aspects of involving students of high school in governance of civic society: citizenship education policy brief

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Organizational aspects of involving students of high school in governance of civic society: citizenship education policy brief

O.M. Vlasenko

Abstract

The article considers modern approaches to citizenship education in the context of the didactic process in high school. At present, the citizenship education is prioritized in Ukraine, as it is based upon humanistic concepts of active engaged citizenship, justice, tolerance, trust and respect, as well as striving for peaceful co-existence and interaction within a multi-cultural community. Citizenship education is seen as a conceptual basis of innovative pedagogical practice that forms civic values in high school students, encouraging them to national identity and self-representation as a representative of civil society, a citizen of the state, Europe and the world.

The author explores the theoretical views of scholars on the problem of civic values in the scientific literature, identifies the characteristics that relate to the implementation of reforms in civic education in Ukraine. It has been demonstrated that citizenship education is recognized as a priority, as it is based on the normative and legal principles of state social policy, proclaims the principles of civil equality, cultural diversity, justice, honesty, tolerance, etc. Thus, the citizenship education is currently treated as a conceptual basis for the innovative pedagogical practice, which tends to nurture the students ' feel of equality and justice, is also believed to encourage them to continue self-cognition of their own ethnical and cultural identity, as well as perpetual development of their own personality as representing a particular social or ethnical group, citizenship of a European country and the world in general. The system of values acts as a regulator of students' behavior, which is manifested in all spheres of social society. The main link in the implementation of the system of civic values in society is curricula, the humanitarian component of which has a decisive influence on ensuring the integrity of the individual and human civilization as a whole. In the article the author suggested some effective conditions of successful curricula in the context of citizenship education and gave recommendations for implementation of effective citizenship education in different educational institutions.

Key words: education, civic education, civic values, system of civic values, civic responsibility, civic competence, high school students, civil society policy, New Ukrainian school.

Анотація

ОРГАНІЗАЦІЙНІ АСПЕКТИ ЗАЛУЧЕННЯ УЧНІВ СТАРШИХ КЛАСІВ ДО УПРАВЛІННЯ ГРОМАДЯНСЬКИМ СУСПІЛЬСТВОМ: ЗМІСТ ОСВІТНЬОЇ ПОЛІТИКИ ГРОМАДЯНСЬКОЇ ОСВІТИ

О.М. Власенко

У статті розглянуто сучасні підходи до громадянської освіти у контексті дидактичного процесу сучасної школи. Громадянська освіта розглядається як концептуальна основа інноваційної педагогічної практики, яка формує у старшокласників громадянські цінності, спонукаючи їх до самопізнання своєї національної ідентичності та репрезентації себе як представника громадянського суспільства, громадянина держави, Європи і світу. Автор досліджує теоретичні погляди науковців щодо проблеми громадянських цінностей у науковій літературі, визначає характерні особливості, які стосуються реалізації реформ громадянської освіти України. Продемонстровано, що громадянська освіта визнається пріоритетною, оскільки заснована на нормативно- правових засадах державної соціальної політики, проголошує принципи громадянської рівноправності, культурного різноманіття, справедливості, чесності, толерантності тощо. Система цінностей виступає регулятором поведінки, що проявляється в усіх сферах діяльності людини. Залучення учнів старших класів до управління громадянським суспільством може бути ефективним за умови позитивного ставлення школярів старших класів до громадянської активності, відповідальності та громадянських цінностей. Інтеріоризація громадянських цінностей здійснюється поетапно: формування ціннісних знань; осмислення та прийняття досвіду в процесі рефлексії та інтерпретації; смислове осмислення громадянського досвіду та, як результат, привласнення громадянського досвіду як особистого. Інтерналізація громадянських цінностей визначається соціальними, економічними та культурними умовами українського суспільства. Основною ланкою реалізації системи цінностей в суспільстві є система освіти, гуманітарна складова якої має вирішальний вплив як на забезпечення цілісності окремої людини, так і людської цивілізації у цілому.

Ключові слова: освіта, громадянська освіта, громадянські цінності, система громадянських цінностей, громадянська відповідальність, громадянська компетентність, учні старшої школи, політика громадянського суспільства, Нова українська школа.

Introduction of the issue

Nowadays, in order to educate a responsible democratic citizen, society leaders and progressive teachers should first understand how a policy of citizenship education is developed. Ukrainian teachers, university lecturers and society leaders should be aware of the possibilities, which allow to actively participate in development of education, for they are the most relevant stakeholders, as well as the above-mentioned participants of the educational process must be able to identify the connection between international changes and local needs in citizenship education. Ukrainian educators should have the responsibility to lead the students at schools and universities in understanding their life opportunities and social obligations as citizens in our country.

Citizenship education sd the component of teachers' training at the universities and educational studies at secondary schools, particularly with a focus on civic values and civic responsibility, has not received much scientific attention. System of civic values is fairly important in Ukraine, but compared to other topics, attention given to teaching system of civic values is still lacking [1; 2]. Therefore, every educator should consider how to integrate citizenship education more thoroughly into the curriculum. In Ukrainian context, some important steps should be considered in the process of training of future teachers and developing their capabilities as the leaders regarding citizenship education. Since 1991, schools are encouraged to develop their own variative curricula within the national core curriculum framework, what is considered as a way of increasing school autonomy and democracy in education. But this fact acquired the necessary teachers' competence and their readiness to take an active approach to curriculum development and citizenship education within the educational approach.

Ukrainian government guidelines for high school graduators emphasize delegation of civic responsibilities and duties, but they carry out no core mechanism of this process. Although, we should note that Ukrainian school still need to develop knowledge of how to design and develop school curriculum in case of citizenship education, how to work with NGOs, local community and involve parents into open discussions, so that school surroundings and school teachers will become developers of citizenship education on both local and school level. Ukrainian national curriculum for high schools from 1991 declares that modern schools should create new opportunities and educational conditions for the balanced citizenship education of students for selfdevelopment and for shaping a scientific and social worldview. Thus, each student should be capable of integrating into civic society, and be able to contribute to sustainable social and cultural development of Ukrainian society. civic education didactic knowledge

Current state of the issue. Analysis of scientific literature sources showed that the problem of citizenship education in school environment is covered by both domestic and foreign scholars, including Abramchuk O., Aktayeva M., Berezina A., Berezivska L., Bekh I., Bratus B., Chorna K., Hartman N., Verbytska P., Vaskivska H., Zdravomyslov A., and others. Contemporary domestic and foreign researchers, in particular Blee H, Britton A., Cogan J., Grossman D., Levinson B. Peters M., Stevick D. investigates problems of civic values and civic responsibility, as well as civic competence is investigated by Bringle R., Cern K., Kerr D., McLaughlin T., Hahn T., Hapchenko O., Hart R., Hatcher J., Holeman D., Juchacz P., Kisla H., M aslow A., Michalovska D., Nazarenko H., Novak E., Rogers C., Silver M., Sutherland M., Tkachova A., Wagner I., and others.

The outline of unresolved issues brought up in the article. Studies and analysis of research on this issue have shown that the problem of citizenship education within the didactical process in Ukrainian high school is not sufficiently studied. The main idea of the theory and practice of citizenship education is to create didactical conditions for the development of the internal potential of each student in high school and the formation of his/her civic values' system.

Aim of research is to substantiate the effectiveness of the involving students of high school in governance of civic society in order to create an educational civic environment of the New Ukrainian School.

Results and discussion

The explosion of sociological, pedagogical and phycological legal literature on citizenship education over the past decade has been paralleled in many countries by government initiatives to develop and extend citizenship education into social life. Scientists' interest in citizenship education has increased over last years, and this fact has often been underpinned by a more general revival of interest in the concept of citizenship in many parts of the world.

In the last 30 years, a lot of requirements and competencies relating to citizenship education are realised in different state documents. Having examined these documents we might point out the next common issues: mostly encyclopedic coverage of details of historical and political documents that may have little meaning to students and do not connect to their own citizenship identity; focusing on formal patriotic traditions, which are important but incomplete in the preparation for actived citizenship; uncertainty in students' identities as citizens; low connections between citizenship and the curricula; the lack of teachers' access to high-quality professional development in citizenship education; need for new content or effective approaches into classes [3; 4; 5].

Moreover, the state documents support and foster equality, liberty and diversity; evaluate the civic participation in a pluralistic society; create and support posibilities in citizen's participation in government and civic life; develop the skills necessary for informed participation in public affairs, including analyzing public and social issues. But though official citizenship education documents have been developed and implemented at the national level in our country, there is considerable debates about whether civic initiatives would be better aimed at inculcating a sense of including into a community and forming of the system of civic values. Indeed, there is now a growing amount of literature on education for citizenship, national identity, civic responsibilty particularly in light of debates about the importance of citizenship in high school.

In this article we consider some of the ways in which theoretical and empirical work on citizenship education in high school can enrich the area of citizenship studies and the formation of civic values system. Due to our research which was provided in several Ukrainian high schools (in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Vinnitsa and Zhytomyr regions), we set out a range of goals for which our research was essential: to define the conceptual framework and identify the basic civic skills required to practise citizenship education in Ukrainian society; to define the knowledge within the educational process in high school and identify the contribution of the mass media and the support of partnerships between schools, parents, media, NGOs, youth organizations and education centers, etc.

Though modern Ukrainian school expands the use of community service to teach high school students about the civic responsibilities, active citizenship, but mostly these activities are one-time or short-term experiences and do not appear to foster continued civic engagement once students leave school. The proportion of high school students volunteering in high school is increasing, but the volunteer experiences they have are generally episodic (once in few months or less), rather than other school activities. Citizenship education is not the only responsibility of civics teachers; teachers of different subjects can provide opportunities for students to learn participatory skills and civic values. Among the shortcomings of secondary education, which negatively affect the formation of civic values of high school students, we highlight the lack of a single scientific position on the history of the country, language and cultural processes in Ukrainian society, ignoring the principles of systemic and continuity in citizenship education, the attitude of the Ukrainian population to the government and political parties, corruption, numerous violations of the law and impunity, undemocratic media practices, pessimism, etc., but this should not affect the feasibility and necessity of citizebship education in different educational institutions.

At the same time, a few number of teachers involved in the process of forming civic values forms the willingness and the ability to navigate in foreign and domestic policy; to protect the interests of society, to combine and reconcile public, collective and individual interests; active competent participation in public life, to make decisions and argue them, to resolve role conflicts, to control their activities, communication, discussion, active listening, risk assessment, cooperation in interaction with the social environment.

Among fundamental challenges of citizenship education in schools we point out: ensuring citizenship education is high quality should be a state and region priority. Therefore, it is important school textbooks facilitate the development of needed civic knowledge, skills and values. As well as the political climate in Ukrainian society will increase the likelihood that curricular of citizenship education will not be cast as advancing a particular political agenda. As we have already mentioned, a high school student as an effective citizen needs some civic skills, as well as civic knowledge, attitudes, expectations and motivation, behaviors, at last values and commitment. Therefore, it is important that educational institutions and society work together to determine the civic competencies most important to students. Civic knowledge, skills and values should build on and reinforce one another, beginning in the 1st grade and finishing at the university. Such system of civic knowledge, skills and civic values should be fostered through school-related and extra class activities (family, community). Students should be targeted through initiatives to encourage "civic responsibility» through volunteering, civic activities and various school subjects" [6; 7; 8].

Specifically, citizenship education requires students of high school to become competent as: an effective communicator in various modes of communication; a self-directed and lifelong learner; demonstrates independent consciousness; a creative problem solver; is able to apply solutions; generator of a variety of solutions, responses and critical evaluation; engaged citizen who demonstrates participation skills in community; who is responsibile and knows how to achieve community health; a collaborative and quality worker; an integrated and informed thinker who analyzes different types of thoughts.

Mostly civic knowledge is understood as basic information needed to be a responsible and active citizen (who, what, how, and why of state, government, political parties, and the law; levels and branches of government, civil rights, duties and liberties, civic values, and the process of making laws; when and how to register and to vote, what political parties and their ideologies, what community politics, community diversity, and historical trends, etc. Civic skills are a mix of "hard" and "soft" skills which cover communication (understanding facts and events, decision-making, critical analysis of social information, collaboration and teamwork to interact with other members of citizenship society. Civic values are the aggregate of attitudes and beliefs that motivate a student to participate in a society. They involve a person's concern beyond the self interest, with civic purpose being a sustained intention to contribute to a society through civic behaviour.

Among school activities which can provide the formation of civic knowledge and civic skills are the next ones: open climate classrooms; synthesizing information, simulations; student governance; research activity;

discussions; participation in school councils and boards; involvement into community; debating in any venue (classroom, home, among peers); investigative reporting; group leadership; volunteering; public speaking and persuasive writing; respect for others' ideas, collaboration, etc. Other school opportunities can include parent-teacher-student organizations, student advisory groups, student participation in strategic planning committees and school improvement councils. Student government and extracurricular activities provide students with leadership opportunities and a sense of affiliation to civic society.

A great number of teachers consider "citizenship education” to be a topic addressed only through educational course "Citizenship Education". But when we asked about civic values, knowledge and skills, however, they agreed that other courses also can create opportunities for students to obtain at least some civic competencies (Literature, Languages, History, etc.). Thus, studying various courses students get only one shot at an Ukrainian Citizenship Education in 10th grade, what does not allow for students to form their system of civic values from year to year, and completely misses the large number of students who drop out before 10th grade and are most in need of education regarding their values and responsibilities as citizens. Providing our analysis, we submit that it is not enough to teach some pieces about civic rights and duties.

Students should gain a deeper understanding from: civic knowledge, which influence on their critical thinking, that will help them to understand Ukrainian conflicts, both historical and contemporary, to examine the connection between history, government, science and democracy and how they work together, to realize the role of mass media in our society and its influence on their attitudes to different social problems, the ways how citizens can change the society [9; 10].

Developing civic education strategies in high school we noticed that students' understanding effectively participation in society changes is far more effective than simply students' digesting key historical facts, dates, literature stories and events. Thus, in our case the sole responsibility belongs to high school teachers.

Therefore, recommendations for implementation of effective citizenship education include: extending citizenship education into the middle and high grades; usage of citizenship education experience grounded in knowledge and students' skills; teachers' preparation and their professional development how to teach civic values. As young people are impacted more by curricula than almost any other activities, they take part in, so in order to cultivate active citizens, high-quality classroom instruction in Language, History, Literature, Geography, etc. must remain at the foundation of civic education. Among civic skills we can pointed out: historical and contemporary civic knowledge; understanding of the media information, its interpretation and the meaning of abstract concepts of civic society such as democracy, law and civic liberties, active citizenship, participation, freedom, trust, responsibility, and patriotism; own opinion on a historical, political or civic issue in contacts with other people; participation in respectful discourse about historical, civic, social issues; activity, mobilizing and working with others toward society goals; effective leadership in groups of peers, and how to mitigate the influence of negative experiences such as bullying, corruption, abusing, harassment, discrimination; how to act in more concrete everyday situations in which a person might be useful. And motivation for values include honesty, justice, and commitment to democracy; promoting civic values; respect for human rights and willingness to seek the truth, listen to others and help, spending time in bettering the community and nation.

We have identified some effective conditions of successful curricula in the context of citizenship education, such as the optimization of curricula and teaching methods; the improvement of didactic materials; the introduction of innovative pedagogical technology; strengthening the practical component of the process of forming a system of civic values of high school students in the teaching of social studies, the formation of critical consciousness; creating a safe space for students' development; elevating leadership; promoting partnerships and support; the involvement of high school students into civic activities; the development and implementation of a civic environment to strengthen and deepen the relationship «educational environment ^ high school student ^ civic activity», taking into account the world experience of citizenship education and domestic characteristics.

Conclusions and research perspectives. Modern society must move to a new paradigm of development, in which not only man affirms civic values are important for the development of society, but also society considers a person as the highest value. In order for education to have the greatest opportunity to influence the formation of a system of personal values, it must itself change its values. Nowadays education is a translator of the most important values, plays a significant role in the context of socio-cultural changes in the modern world, ensures the assimilation of the individual value system of society. Education provides the formation of knowledge, abilities, value systems and practical experience, so the individual becomes a creative participant in the transformational processes of society.

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14. Received: October 24, 2020 Accepted: December 08, 2020

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