Student and Teacher Perceptions of Citizenship Strategies Supported by the Internet of Things

Since the demands of civic life are constantly increasing, there is an emergent call for citizens to actively engage in local and wide societal issues. To build the portrayal of the study participants' participatory citizenship attitudes, several research instruments were implemented in the educational community. A closer look at the data analyzed presents a portrait of low involvement of students, as far as participatory citizens is concerned, in the educational community they belong to. Recently, we have witnessed the emergence of technological innovations, the internet of things (IoT) being one of them. Although IoT is not considered to be a new technology, teachers are just scratching the surface on how to use it to enhance innovative and disruptive learning scenarios. This chapter looks at the development of participatory citizenship co-constructed guidelines, based on students' and teachers' perceptions of citizenship strategies.

Practicing Resistance and the Struggle over Power as Democratic Citizenship

Teaching democratic citizenship has never been more vital, particularly given the dismissive attitude and direct attempts to undermine democratic institutions exemplified by the Trump administration. In addition, traditional approaches to teaching citizenship foreground the underlying values of self-governance, knowledge of the different branches of government, and the skills for behaving within this system (i.e., voting) but lack a broader intellectual framework to guide those actions (Parker, Teaching democracy: Unity and diversity in public life, 2003). Parker, a critical multicultural educator, argued that this approach has rendered participatory citizenship superfluous and ignores more central concerns, namely, how people can live together justly while honoring their multiple individual and group identities (i.e., gender, race, class, religion, etc.). This essay focuses on the task of living together justly and offers one example of how this might be promoted through the communication studies curriculum.

Reconsidering Informed and Participatory Citizenship in the Current Media Ecosystem

The focus of this chapter is on how changes in the media landscape have forced the reconsideration of the way in which ‘memory’, ‘knowledge’, and ‘informed citizenship’ are understood, defined, and researched. Thus, for example, journalism needs to take account of the phenomenon of so-called news grazing (the active consumption of news by flipping through channels and skipping unwanted material) and that of incidental news exposure (unintended exposure to news when media users go online for non-news functions). Traditional views of informed citizenship (as simply acquiring appropriate facts and information) are challenged by calls to include applied understanding and comprehension of social issues and emotional responses to those issues. The chapter is critical of an excessive reliance on verbal tests of memory and stresses the need to develop visual measures, given that the human brain is better adapted for visual than verbal processing.

Social Justice, Participation and School during the COVID-19—The International Project Gira por la Infancia

The purpose of this article is to present the data which have been obtained in a research project on education during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the framework of the international project Gira por la Infancia 2020. The aim was to construct a critical, active, and participatory citizenship. The method used has been the pedagogical hermeneutic in which the qualitative analysis of data was preceded by a process of child participation which allowed the analysis of the opinions of 6867 children and adolescents from 22 countries and 3 continents. The results present the children’s thinking about the closure of schools, the alternative teaching carried out, the role of teachers and families, and on the return of the "new school" with the health protocols. This work provides the children’s view on the measures of social distancing and massive school closures. However, without doubt, it also shows children’s and adolescents’ potential to empower themselves in complex situations which put the world’s schools in an unprecedented crisis. In addition, it shows the opportunity to take into consideration a joint construction of a society from the germ of its citizenship: children.

Transforming Adult Education from Neo-liberal to Holistically Inclusive Adult Education in Baltic States

After regaining the independence and entering the market economy the Baltic states went through the neo-liberal changes resulting in some new developments in adult education taking the main direction in mobilizing people for transforming learning into a desirable consumer commodity. Active citizenship has been operationalized in adult education largely through developing citizens’ entrepreneurial attitudes and ability to be less dependent upon the state. The recent trend in adult education is promoting educational opportunities for developing job skills and work-embedded learning, non-formal and informal education as the means to proactively advance competences through project work, voluntary activities, self-employment and enabling the validation of competences learnt at job situations in formal adult education institutions. As a new direction, adult educators in the Baltic states have started to practice sustainable and holistic approaches in adult education practices that highlight personal self-development besides their employability goals. In this chapter, we explore how changes in adult education in the Baltic states appear at micro level, focusing on three dimensions of active participatory citizenship in the observed educational programmes and among the programme stakeholders’ reflections. We posit that holistic approaches in adult education may be illustrated through three dimensions of active participatory citizenship concept – politico-legal, socio-cultural and socio-economic.

Promising or Compelling Future in Hungary?

Adult education, employment and integration strategies have been characterised by somewhat fragmented and uncoordinated implementation practices in the context of CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region. Some relevant data (OECD, EUROSTAT) on socio-economic factors may provide partial explanation for this. Additionally, this could be explained through considering some examples of Roma and young people with disabilities, in terms of how they can access adult education. Specifically, these examples demonstrate how the national and European reform goals, capacity building projects and financial supports remain isolated and incomplete. In this chapter, we outline how these factors undermine the opportunities for independent and democratic thinking and participatory citizenship. Low skilled and low educated young Roma from underprivileged family backgrounds (e.g. long-term family unemployment), living in poor rural areas, and youngsters with disabilities living in difficult environments are facing similar barriers to becoming active, responsible and educated European citizens. This chapter brings attention to the significance of the development and implementation of appropriate prevention strategies as well as regular evaluation and monitoring of relevant programs. Some cross-cutting characteristics and implications will be identified and considered, and future directions of adult education will be discussed, including its needs, demand and supply in the context of this region.

Conclusion: Divergences or Convergences? Facilitating Active Citizenship Through Adult Education Across Europe and Beyond

The chapter draws the lines of discussion of the book together and scrutinises the findings from the perspectives motivating the EduMAP study. A multiplicity of adult education policies, programmes and actions presented in the book sought answers to the question: What policies and practices are needed in the field of adult education to include young adults at risk of social exclusion in active participatory citizenship in Europe? Each contribution in this volume approached the question from original social and educational starting points, which may further be elaborated on within the national, European and wider contexts. Chapter includes reflections on alternatives to the discourse of Neo-liberal Life-Long Learning and Adult Education, the expectations vs. reality of Adult Education as a means to prevent social exclusion, and key conclusions outlining the future challenges for Active Participatory Citizenship pursued through adult education.

How Are the Prospects for Refugees to Become Active Members of Society? – The Vision and Practices in Turkish Adult Education

Social integration of refugees is a major challenge for any country that hosts sizable refugee communities. Recently, Turkey has joined the ranks of such countries as it was transformed to become the country with the highest number of refugees in the world through an inflow of over 3.6 million mostly young and uneducated asylum-seekers from Syria in a matter of a few years. This chapter presents a critical analysis of the Turkish adult education (AE) sector by applying the concept of active participatory citizenship in the context of the current refugee crisis with a focus on its role in helping this vulnerable community to become active members of the society. This chapter argues that AE and Lifelong Learning (LLL) programs have the potential to empower Syrian refugees in such a way to make them into active members, contributing social, economic and cultural ways in Turkish society. To make its arguments, the chapter firstly provides a brief analysis of Turkey’s reform agenda in the field of AE since 1990s. By drawing on selected statistics it highlights the shortcomings in Turkey with respect to developing sustainable and gender sensitive AE programs, especially for young adults. Secondly, it investigates the major legal and institutional developments in Turkey since the first wave of the refugees entering to Turkey after beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Lastly, it will provide an analysis of how new AE programs for refugees are designed, which are characterised by a holistic view of social inclusion and target specific groups of refugees under the pressure of multiple vulnerabilities.

Active Citizenship Programmes for Unemployed Young Adults with Low Skills in Southern Europe: Participation, Outreach, and Barriers

The development of policies and targeted initiatives that promote or support active participatory citizenship for vulnerable young adults with low skills has largely passed unnoticed in Southern Europe in the last decade. Despite the existing lifelong learning (LLL) strategies, most countries in the area do not place active citizenship for low-skilled young adults as a priority. This chapter is based on the results of the European research project EduMAP (Horizon 2020), and focuses on participation of unemployed young adults with low skills (hence early school-leavers) in educational activities that either focus or promote active citizenship in Southern Europe (Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Spain and Portugal). More specifically the chapter explains the reasons behind low participation rates among vulnerable young adults in the region. South European countries are not yet showing any favourable conditions for increasing participation of the low-skilled unemployed young adults in such programmes. Some of the countries that were hit by economic depression in particular, face –not necessarily for the same reasons– major barriers for implementing policies to increase the number of low-skilled young adults in active citizenship oriented courses. The chapter concludes that one of the problems in promoting active citizenship through adult education activities is that the programmes delivered in the region are still not competence-based. Adult education is not high in the value system, and therefore low skilled young adults do not appear motivated to obtain such skills and competences. A key challenge therefore is to deliver a service that simultaneously meets the needs of the learners, provides sufficient responses to the needs of the local societies, and stimulates further demand.