Call for Proposals 2017
On 17 March 2015 in Paris, the European Union Ministers of Education adopted a Declaration on Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education. The Declaration urges EU level actions "to co-operate and co-ordinate, to exchange experiences and to ensure that the best ideas and practices can be shared throughout the European Union". The follow up of the Paris Declaration is at the core of the mandate of the working group on “Promoting citizenship and the common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education” set up within the Strategic framework for European co-operation in education and training (ET2020). The objective of the Working Group is to provide a forum for exchange on the key policy issues falling under the scope of the Paris Declaration, with a focus on citizenship, fundamental values and non-discrimination in the different sectors of education and training.
During its 125th Ministerial Session on 19 May 2015 in Brussels, the Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe adopted a Declaration and an Action Plan “The fight against violent extremism and radicalisation leading to terrorism”. As part of the follow up to this Action Plan, which includes a series of actions in the field of education, the 25th Standing Conference of Ministers of Education held in Brussels on 11-12 April 2016 adopted the following strategic objectives: 1) Make the preparation for lifelong active democratic citizenship of all learners in education and training a hallmark of the quality of European education systems; and 2) Provide all learners in education and training with the necessary competences (values, attitudes, skills, knowledge and critical understanding) for the culture of democracy.
Moreover, growing use of social media and digital technologies has also brought about the need to support the educators and learners in developing digital competences. In response to this need, the European Commission published the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens in 20131 , offering a tool to improve citizens’ digital competence.
In 2016, Council of Europe embarked on an intergovernmental project on “Digital Citizenship Education”2 , which aims to contribute to reshaping the role that education plays in enabling all children to acquire the competences they need as digital citizens to participate actively and responsibly in democratic society, whether offline or online. The Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (Council of Europe, 2016) provides the starting point for this approach to digital citizenship, noting that the competences which citizens need to acquire if they are to participate effectively in a culture of democracy are not acquired automatically but instead need to be learned and practised.
With regard to inclusive societies, during the 1251st meeting of the Council of Europe Ministers' Deputies on 15- 16 March 2016 in Strasbourg, the Deputies adopted an Action Plan on Building inclusive societies encouraging specific work on competences for democratic culture, intercultural dialogue and language skills in education. In September 2017, Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner, Nils Muižnieks, released a Position Paper on “Fighting school segregation in Europe through inclusive education” 3 , where he elaborates on the negative consequences of segregation and presents a list of recommendations to promote inclusive education practices to combat segregation.
The European Commission also proposed to the Education, Youth, Culture and Sport Council to organise an Education Summit in January 2018 focusing on the theme “Inclusion in Diversity”. With the Education Summit, the Commission aims at raising the political profile of education as a vital force for economic growth and social cohesion; and giving renewed focus and stronger impetus to the reform/modernisation of education policies. It will focus on priority issues such as inequality and low achievement in basic skills.
1 For the latest version: DigiComp 2.1 2 https://www.coe.int/dce 3 Position Paper on fighting school segregation in Europe through inclusive education 4 These complementary European initiatives underline the decisive role of education in fostering the values inherent to democratic citizenship. In this context, the Council of Europe and the European Commission have decided to pursue their co-operation in this area and support the 2018 - 2019 programme cycle of the “Democratic and Inclusive School Culture in Operation” Joint Programme for International Co-operation Projects (hereinafter Programme).
This call for proposals will support projects designed to contribute to building democratic and inclusive societies through helping develop a culture of democracy by promoting education for democratic citizenship and human rights education in States party to the European Cultural Convention.
In particular, it will focus on:
- Thematic Priority 1: Digital citizenship education in relation to the implementation of the Council of Europe Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture and its guiding documents
Participating countries are invited to support teachers in teaching and testing competences for digital citizenship for the promotion of democratic values and fundamental rights, non-discrimination, as well as active citizenship, and facilitate the acquisition of these competences based on the Council of Europe Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture.
- Thematic Priority 2: Building democratic and inclusive school culture by embedding the learning environment in the local community (whole school/community approach)
The participating countries are invited to develop mechanisms to foster inclusion and a sense of belonging to a community for groups which face a high risk of exclusion, such as migrants, refugees, minorities and other vulnerable groups by creating opportunities to embed the learning environment in the local community based on a whole school/community approach.
Deadline: 12 February 2018 (at 23:00, EET, GMT +2)
How to apply?
- See the application procedure and the list of documents to be provided under Section V "How to Apply?" of the Call for Proposals.
- Send all documents completed and signed in electronic form (Word and/or PDF) to the following e-mail address only: DISCO2017.Applications@coe.int. Emails should contain the following reference in subject: Application - Democratic and Inclusive School Culture in Operation – Call for Proposals 1.
- Applications must be received before 12 February 2018 (at 23:00, EET, GMT +2). Applications received after the above mentioned date will not be considered.
For more information click "LINK TO ORIGINAL" below.
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/charter-edc-hre-pilot-projects/call-for-proposals-2017