The Teacher Training Centre Bucharest established a training programme for teachers called Democratic Education in Romanian Schools, following their participation in the EWC training programme Building Democratic School Cultures.
“The teachers appreciated interactive activities and opportunities for reflection although it was tough and it was difficult for teachers to change their perspective. The debriefing exercises were very helpful for learning. As the main outcome of the training, participants mention a change of attitude towards school, improved relationships between teachers, teachers and students and with the school management”, Gabriela Bărbulescu, teacher trainer said.
The most important benefit so far is that teachers started to think about how to involve parents and students into discussions about school life, directors started to change their management style towards a more participative and less authoritarian approach
Gabriela Bărbulescu, teacher trainer
The programme has so far involved eight schools with 214 participants, including 16 head teachers. The demand for the course was much larger, and TTCB therefore aims to get national accreditation for the course and organize a 3-year programme involving up to 2000 teachers in the Bucharest area.
“We are now almost ready with the documents for the accreditation, we hope we can start the trainings in April 2020”, Bărbulescu said.
May 25, 2019 TTCB organized the National Conference ”Democratic School-from concept to reality” with 158 teachers from Bucharest and Ilfov, Ialomița and Buzău counties. The results of the training ”Democratic Education in Romanian Schools” were presented. Two of the participants in the training program presented how they applied the acquired knowledge and skills in class and school.The conference included the following concepts: education for democratic citizenship, education for human rights, principles of the democratic school, participation, partnership and the whole school approach.
The participants were involved in group activities, were challenged with reflection themes and identified solutions to common problems.The feedback from the participants shows that the activity was useful, appropriate to the national realities of the Romanian school and that it added value to the professional activity.
In June, TTCB organized the non-formal workshops ”Passport for democracy” with 68 teachers from Bucharest, Călărași and Tulcea counties.The activities started with a plenary session. A conceptual framework for the activity in the workshops was established. The passport on which the information on education for democratic citizenship, human rights education, democratic school principles, participation, partnership, whole school approach was presented to the participants.
Following the workshop activities, a plenary debate session took place. The participants highlighted the aspects considered most relevant. The activities were appreciated as useful and necessary, underlining the importance of good practices from the point of view of the strategies used in the workshops that the participants can apply in the classroom activity.