In Athens, the very cradle of democracy, 183 students have enrolled in a unique Master’s programme – one that combines the academic standard of the university and the practical experiences of the European Wergeland Centre.
The Master Program “Identity, Education and Competences for Democratic Culture,” is an international collaboration between three Departments of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Theology, Philology and Educational Studies) and the European Wergeland Centre. All the partners provide their expertise on Competences for Democratic Culture and insights on their implementation in Education.
The three faculties each offer significant assets disseminated in all three specializations:
- Religion, Education & Competences for Democratic Culture
- Language, History & Literature in Education & Competences for Democratic Culture
- Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC) and Human Rights Education (HRE) and Competences for Democratic Culture
“Yesterday we had the first meeting with the students. Two hours to get know each other and say hello. The atmosphere was excellent”.
Angelos Vallianatos, EWC’s head program coordinator in Greece, is brimming with joy and enthusiasm. He himself is going to teach one of the obligatory classes: Human Rights and Education for Democratic Citizenship.
“Everything is online, but we are not talking about passive lectures. It is cooperative. All the students must have their cameras and microphones on. Some were shocked by this. People are not used to being treated as living creatures online”, Angelos continues.
Democracy can help education
How come EWC finds itself as a partner in a master program? Angelos seems a bit bewildered himself:
“I am not a university person. At EWC we are experts in many ways, too, but we are practical. Here I am compiling lessons at a master level. I take my practice and find theory to support it. At universities they usually go about it the other way around. They have the theory and try to make it relevant to practice”, Angelos says somewhat modestly as he holds a PHD in Theology.
But this is important to him. It is the combination of the academic standard of the university and the practical experiences from NGOs which make the master program unique. Students will even be offered the possibility to try out what they have learned if they opt to participate in the offered internships (awarding extra ECTS) that will be organized with relevant NGOs, schools and other educational institutions. (There are plans for an international summer school to be held in Greece as well.)
“We also have students with background from NGOS and local institutions, “Angelos says “I think this can build a community of practice. People in NGOs will know teachers and teachers will know people in NGOs. This approach builds on our experiences from the Schools for All programme, building bridges between schools and the local community”.
It is also embedded in the master’s raison d’être as it “aims to disseminate democracy at all educational levels and processes through the training of teachers and other professionals in the Competences for Democratic Culture, placing human rights and the processes of identity formation at the centre of the educational process”.
“This is not the way academics usually do it in Greece, but our work with Schools for All has built an understanding that democracy can help education,” Angelos explains.
Also in English
In many ways the master is a culmination of many EWC projects and long-term partnerships involving the same experts but in different fields in Greece. But its core is the ERASMUS+ project Step-Up – Student Teachers’ Practice for Democratic Culture, that serves as the foundation of the Master Program’s courses. The project developed a Training Program (TP) for the teaching and development of Competences for Democratic Culture in education
“In the Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for a Democratic Culture a crucial point is that they should be taught at universities. But had anybody done it? Not in this way. We realized that we had the people, the reputation and the teaching resource to do it. This gave us the possibility to make a master”, Angelos concludes.
The master awards successful students with 75 ECTS. This year it is only being offered in Greek. But as of September, next year, the university will also welcome international students as the program will be offered both in Greek and English with more international EWC experts joining the teaching staff.