Advanced Citizenship Education-Bethlehem Moravian College Social Studies Department : April 2016

Are Educators Nation Builders?

Are Jamaica's prospective training teachers or student-teachers nation builders?

How can prospective teacher influence students to become future Nation Builders?

Contributor:

Joshua Black

4th Year History and Social Studies Student

Bethlehem Moravian College

How can citizenship education promote transparency within government?

The University of the West Indies, (UWI) Mona and the Organisation of American States (OAS) have launched a Partnership Programme which will build UWI’s capacity to promote citizenship education and highlight the importance of governance to the society. Under the terms of the partnership, the OAS will support the efforts of the Department of Government’s Governance Society to promote governance issues, through the provision of technical assistance and capacity strengthening. This will assist the Department to develop practical initiatives of civic education, which will be transferred to communities and schools throughout Jamaica.

Currently, students in the department visit high schools across the island to promote governance issues including the rule of law, transparency, and effective and efficient government. Under the agreement, the OAS will share its educational resources and initiatives, giving the Department free access to material developed by the Inter-American Programme on Education for Democratic Values and Practices; free access to online courses and also provide technical assistance for the development of online training courses that focus on citizenship in education. The initiative will further seek to recruit partners for the UWI’s Youth in Governance and Development Programme.

Can Active Citizenship Change Your Country for the Better?

Active citizenship means people getting involved in their local communities and democracy at all levels, from towns to cities to nationwide activity. Active citizenship can be as small as a campaign to clean up your street or as big as educating young people about democratic values, skills and participation. Active citizenship is one of the most important steps towards healthy societies.

Though the concept of citizenship grounded in activity, responsibility and democratic values is emphasized in educational policy, the views and opinions of the younger generation in are, it appears, changing in a direction not conducive to bolstering active citizenship. As we understand it, active citizenship is a combination of knowledge, attitude, skills and actions that aim to contribute to building and maintaining a democratic society. Active Citizenship supports democratic cooperation that is based on the acceptance of universal human rights and the rule of law, values diversity and includes the whole community. Education towards gaining this knowledge and developing and practicing the skills take place in all levels of our shared social life, but schools play a very important role in it.

Educational program’s need to be developed to improve competencies like co-operation and communication as well working to increase critical ability, reduce prejudice and build tolerance, understanding, empathy, and an openness to diversity. During the research, tailored programs were developed to address these competencies and were positively received by participants. More widespread endorsement and implementation is now required.