[WORKSHOP] 🚩 E.00. Citizenship Education and International Pupil Mobility

Adjectives such as active, responsible, intercultural, and global outline a concept of citizenship that aspires to broaden the definition of citizenship established with the birth and development of nation states. From a pedagogical and didactic perspective, what skills are associated with this expanded citizenship? What teaching methods can be used to develop and assess them?

Internationally, some contributions offer proposals in this direction. For example, consider the European Union's key competences (2018), the Council of Europe's competences for a culture of democracy (2018b), the OECD's global competence in PISA (2018), and UNESCO's global citizenship (2014, 2018). In Italy, the introduction of civic education (Law 92/2019) had, in some respects, revitalised the debate on citizenship education, although it has revealed gaps regarding the intercultural and international dimension (Scuola Democratica 2021).

Are there opportunities to develop civic and citizenship education in schools that effectively combine democratic values with international and intercultural dimensions? Individual international pupil mobility is recognized as a resource for developing young people's intercultural competence (Barrett 2018), but how can its potential be integrated into citizenship education through innovative teaching approaches that engage not only the student participating in mobility but also the rest of his school class?

The workshop will present the research project “Civic Education and International Student Mobility” by Fondazione Intercultura and Associazione “Per Scuola Democratica”.  The project included variuous activities: a background study, a pilot study involving a group of schools and teachers, and a survey.

The provisional agenda is as follows: One speaker will introduce the background research, providing a critical review of the scientific and policy landscape on civic and citizenship education, internationalisation and international student mobility, intercultural democratic competence. Two speakers will present the research underpinning the pilot project to be proposed to schools. Two speakers, based on the concrete experience of the pilot project carried out in schools, will share insights into the teaching approaches and organizational conditions that help schools integrate internationalization into civic education. Two further speakers will discuss the survey, examining the values of students who studied abroad with Intercultura. The workshop offers a coordinated overview of how international mobility and democratic citizenship can strengthen each other, and provides insights into the obstacles that schools face in this context.