Is ‘Global Citizenship Education for Teachers’ Essential for Democracy

By Eleonora Villegas-Reimers

When you think of teachers, what are five descriptors that come to mind? I think of them as expert professionals; essential for the well-being of societies; critical to sustaining and strengthening democracies; agents of social change; and significantly under-valued given their academic and professional preparation and the social responsibility in their hands. And you, what comes to mind and where do those ideas come from? As you read this piece, I invite you to think about the role that teachers and their education can play in strengthening democracy and democratic practices at the individual, community, and national levels. It may seem at first that this is a very large goal for teachers to undertake, but as Margaret Mead (1977) said long time ago, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world."

The role of education and teachers in strengthening global citizenship skills and democracies

At a time when we are trying to understand the status of our social systems, including the way our governments and communities are organized and function, including the current polarization of ideas and social values -as seen in the way that neighbors treat one another and the generalized lack of respect towards human rights-engaging the field of education, and in particular teachers, seems to be essential to improve the status quo. Education systems, through the work of teachers, are best at helping eliminate inequities, injustices, and bring back or strengthen systems where every voice counts, individuals are treated with respect, ideas can be expressed without fear of retaliation (which can go from simple social disapproval to jail time in totalitarian systems). Teachers can teach us the values presented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how to respect and implement those values in practical situations. At this moment, those values do not seem to be guiding many governments and societies, or many individual behaviors at the interpersonal level. Unless we commit to put our minds, hands, and hearts together to start moving toward a more humane world, the current decline in overall human well-being will continue. Teachers can help stop that decline, but they, too, need the right preparation and tools to do so.

The kind of social change needed to turn a significant number of current social and political practices around must be designed and implemented intentionally, and contrary to many initiatives that focus on changing institutions and adult behavior only, we should also consider a significant initiative that targets the education of children, youth, and their families. Thinking in macro-level change when discussing society's change is essential, but it is not the only needed initiative. Focusing on individual and interpersonal change, starting on a small scale and then expanding, may be a more effective strategy to effect realistic and implementable change. Who better prepared to take this challenge on than teachers? Who else spends time with youth intentionally trying to help them learn to understand the world, acquire the skills that will let them gather more information on their own, develop personal and social awareness, commit to listening and respecting others, and help them learn to live in community, upholding and defending the human rights of each individual? Well-prepared teachers are among the best professionals to lead that effort as they can develop meaningful curricula and implement it effectively to effect change. Yet, different data shows that not all teachers are yet ready to undertake this task responsibly and effectively, even when they may have the desire to do so. A number of institutions are trying to help (see for example the Inter-American Development Bank projects, and the Auschwitz Institute efforts (Latin America launch for the Democratic Education Needs Imagination report | The Auschwitz Institute), and I would like to argue that institutions which focus on teacher professional development from pre-service to continuous improvement throughout their entire career can be among the best allies for those interested in strengthening global citizenship education with a focus on strengthening democracy.

A few experiences regarding education and democracy.

One of the first large projects I conducted in my career was a research study on the state of civic education in 15 countries of Central and South America .

Organized by the Academy of Education Development in the early 1990s, we collected survey information and curriculum materials about civic education in those countries to learn about how each society addressed citizenship education in K-12 and whether they addressed education for democracy explicitly. The Latin American region was undergoing significant political and educational changes, and democracies were beginning to emerge in several countries after long dictatorship while others were enjoying long standing democracies. Among many other results reported in the study, we found that although all countries included a Civic or Citizenship Education curriculum in at least two and at most five or six grades between kindergarten and 12th grade, none explicitly taught about democracy, democratic principles, behaviors, or expectations. When asked for good examples of education for democracy in those countries, many pointed to the work of out-of-school private and non-for-profit organizations, as nothing of significance was happening in schools. The curriculum of most countries showed that in schools, students would be studying Civics by memorizing content, none of it was directly or explicitly connected to the well-functioning of democracies, and none was addressing how to apply those principles in practice. None of these findings surprised me. I had been a high school Civics Education teacher for six years in Venezuela, my country of origin, before entering my doctoral program at Harvard University. I had had no education or training to teach that content or develop democratic skills effectively as I had started my teaching career as a college freshman, and to this day I feel that I wasted a very valuable opportunity by asking my students to memorize the individual, social, and political rights the Constitution provided for "citizens" (not once addressing "for us" or "for you"), never once asking them to reflect on what those rights meant, discussing their implementation, or going in-depth into the complexities of democratic principles and practices. I remember concluding at the time when we completed the study in the early 1990s that as a society, taking democracy for granted was a mistake, yet I assumed at that time that democracy would prevail anyway. I have learned over the years, that democracy (democratic principles, values, and behaviors such as active engagement in society's functioning) is something that needs to be explicitly taught and learned, discussed, and practiced, evaluated, and improved regularly. From my point of view, if we want to bring back or strengthen existing democracies, teachers and their education are key players and worth investing in.

What are some recommendations and what is our role in implementing them?

When societies make the commitment to improve the education of their teachers, they can directly and indirectly be putting in place a mechanism to strengthen their countries' human rights, democratic principles, and the overall well-being of their populations. There is nothing innate about the kinds of knowledge, skills and values necessary to be responsible global citizens, peaceful, non-violent individuals who practice democracy; those values must be learned, and teachers -as professionals with proven expertise in helping people learn- are the best options to teach them and help students practice them. However, teachers need to be prepared and educated to know how to do this work effectively as well. If they come from education systems where these contents, skills, and values have never been explicitly taught during their lifetime, they, too, need to learn so that they can teach the next generation. Even when teachers already know about how children learn, the conditions and materials needed to make learning happen, how to organize information, lesson planning, and classroom management, many still need help learning about how to model democracy in their classroom, how to actively engage in democratic discussions and behaviors, and actively promote democracy in their schools and communities. Memorizing the rights of individuals in a country without respecting those rights in the classroom, for example, is not an effective form of education for democracy. Teacher education needs to emphasize that it is not only the content of what is taught, but the way in which that content is taught, modeled and practiced that can make a significant difference.

In general, those of us who work in teacher preparation describe teacher professional development as a life-long process that focuses on three large areas: the learning and strengthening of teachers' content knowledge, skills, and dispositions or values. Someone might say "it is not rocket science." And yet, it is not easy as teachers work in contexts that are usually not that supportive, earn a salary that is not equitable to other professionals with the same level of preparation, and receive very little respect in their own communities. Investing in and supporting them is critical, otherwise we will continue going through a path that takes us away from democratic principles, non-violent practices, and respect for all. For societies that are committed to improving the lives of their citizens and strengthening democracy, teachers are one of our best resources. They deserve our deep respect for their service to improving our lives and that of the next generations, and that respect should begin by giving them the knowledge, tools, and time to practice real democracy in their classrooms and schools.

The next time when someone asks you, what five descriptors come to mind when you think about teachers, I hope that one of them is that teachers are the best resource we have to protect universal human rights, peace, equity, and democracy in our communities.

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