Curriculum & impulse paper on (Digital) Active Citizenship in educational centres published

Following the conclusion of the Erasmus+ project "PROMOCITI - Promoting Active Citizenship", the results publications are now available.

For two years, the PROMOCITI project team dealt with questions such as:

How can educational centres and similar adult education institutions in Europe expand their work on active citizenship and be a resource for democratic development?
What is the actual situation in European educational institutions with regard to active citizenship?
And does digital citizenship play a role?

What is it all about? A brief explanation of the project

Imagine educational centres being THE engine for citizen participation and democracy in the near future. They are a (virtual) place where people can meet, discuss and act together in the spirit of "We, the people!". Bildungshäuser, adult education centres and similar educational institutions act as peacemakers that stand for positivity, diversity, respect and are places of hope. Because adult education is a key to reaching people's consciousness. This is the dream we dared to dream of when PROMOCITI started in early 2022, under the leadership of the German Association of Rural Education Centres (VBLR). Four other European partners were also on board.

Funded by the Erasmus+ programme, PROMOCITI was intended to enable the systematic recording, professionalisation and further development of educational institutions and participants in the five programme countries on this topic.

Project results published as a curriculum

At the end of the project and as part of the final conference in Berlin in March 2024 (see here for more information), the publication "Promoting Active Citizenship by Adult Education - A Curriculum for Educational Managers" was finally published. This curriculum describes the steps that have been taken towards the above-mentioned dream. It gives an overview of the topics and goals that the actors in the project were concerned with. In this regard, it also contains, among other things, the results of a survey conducted among managers of educational institutions and adult education centres on the topic of active citizenship (note: publication of the overall results in 2023, see here).

In addition, the curriculum presents experiences gained during a two-module train-the-trainer seminar. It also provides a brief overview of active citizenship in the digital sphere.

The curriculum is not intended to be a systematic guide. Rather, interested readers can pick and choose the chapters that appeal to them most and that seem most relevant to their own private or professional context. The main aim is to promote civic engagement and participation through adult education based on shared European values. This curriculum explains how different education centres and adult education institutions in Europe do this and provides ideas and inspiration on how to implement the project in your own institution.

Impulse paper on digital active citizenship

In addition to the curriculum, the impulse paper "Digital Active Citizenship in the context of Folk High Schools" was also published. The digital aspect of active citizenship should not be excluded. Its integration is what makes the concept of active citizenship holistic. This became increasingly clear to the project team over time. For younger target groups in particular, the digital world is THE communication tool par excellence.

But what does digital active citizenship actually mean?
What can it look like? What are the opportunities and challenges?
And what role do educational centres play in this?

The authors shed light on these questions and try - as the name suggests - to provide impetus. 

The partner organisations

The partners working on PROMOCITI are the association of adult education Federació d'Associacions Culturals i Educatives de Persones Adultes (FACEPA) from Barcelona (Spain), Folk High School Färnebo Folkhögskola from Österfärnebo (Sweden), the folk high school SPES Zukunftsakademie from Schlierbach (Austria) and the three associations of folk high schools from Austria, Poland and Germany, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bildungshäuser Österreich, Ogólnopolska Sieć Uniwersytetów Ludowych and Verband der Bildungszentren im ländlichen Raum.

Further Informationen:

Link to the Curriculum „Promoting Active Citizenship by Adult Education – A Curriculum for Educational Managers“

Link to the Impuls Paper "Digital Active Citizenship in the context of Folk High Schools"

Link to the report: Folk High Schools and Active Citizenship in Europe

ARGE BHÖ's info page on PROMOCITI

Facebook page of PROMOCITI