Civic Education at Universities

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CIVITAS _at_ BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
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Seeds of the Civitas initiative were planted in
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in 1996 as a joint
venture of the Center for Civic Education, the
United States Information Agency (USIA), and the
Council of Europe. During the 1996-97 school
year, the program initiated a series of
development and training activities, and
Civitas_at_BiH began to take shape as a partnership
involving the Center, USIA, and the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Republika Srpska
joined in 1997. The following school year,
Civitas_at_BiH became part of the Civitas Exchange
Program, with the Center, Arizona, and Nevada as
Bosnia and Herzegovina's U.S. Partners.  
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Partnerships (25 countries)
Special projects (41 country around the world)
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We have successfully institutionalized civic
education programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This was made possible by a concentrated effort
of such orgnizations as the Council of Europe,
UNESCO, UNICEF, D_at_dalos, and by and our linkage
of schools and communities thru Project Citizen
activities. We bring together actors at all
levels of the system and involve them in the
decision making process.
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Overview of Civitas program in BiH schools
In lower elementary grades
In upper elementary grades
In final grades of elementary schools
In high school
Separate course or within Politics and economics
course
Interdiciplinary or homeroom/ community class
Interdiciplinary or homeroom/ community class
Homeroom or separate course
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3 District Coordinators
67 Municipal Coordinators
11 Regional Coordinators
Civitas Office
Establishing coordinators network
17 Cantonal Coordinators
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BiH model of systemic implementation of civic
education
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Civitas in numbers
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Teacher training

• Building of local trainer expertise
• Today over 25,000 teachers trained
• Independent studies rate CIVITAS as the number
  one professional development provider in BiH
  schools

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Certification of teachers
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Section Nomination Accreditation
Governing Board
Section Program Institute
Teaching staff section
Technical standards
Work group for evaluation and testing
Working groups
Educational Center for Democracy and Human Rights
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Among the major curriculum materials and
activities that enhanced the Bosnia and
Herzegovina Civitas Exchange Program are Project
Citizen, Foundations of Democracy, the "Education
for Democracy and Human Rights" program,
including books and teacher guides, developed
during 2000-01, and a new university curriculum.
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Project citizen

• Students do research and develop action plans to
  solve a public policy issue of their choice
• Linking school learning with practical
  experience in affecting positive changes in
  communities
• Massive participation-over 2500 teams and 60,000
  students each year

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A glimpse of Project Citizen
Student Competitions
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Razvijanje plana akcije
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Regional civic education cooperation on building
democratic societies
Civitas 10th Anniversary conference took stock
of what already exists in the region in terms of
civic education and how we can reinforce each
other and create synergy effects. The result is a
plan which would be co-financed by SEED civic
education funds and other sources)

• To establish a network for regional cooperation
  in civic education To share experiences and
  transfer knowledge of best practices and
  curricular materials in civic education To
  develop intercultural understanding and
  co-operation between the young people and their
  educators in the region. The network will work
  to strengthen, coordinate and connect existing
  organizations in the South East Europe countries
  that work in the field of civic education in
  order to promote opportunities and continuity.

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Civic education as a unifying factor
Significant efforts are evident in the region to
strengthen regional cooperation already existing
among NGOs in the region
Participation of BiH trainers in civics
training in Serbia, Montenegro and Romania
Last year three events were organized by
Civitas_at_BiH with regional participation -
Annual Civics Conference Neum- Brcko Summer
Camp- Certification program Civitas_at_BiH
organized a strategic planning conference
Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia,
Montenegro, Serbia and Romania attended,
Slovenia showed interest but didnt join.
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Introducing Civic Education at BiH Universities

• After introducing the Civic Education Program
  into elementary and high school curriculum, a
  program at the university level become a
  necessity in the educational system of Bosnia and
  Herzegovina.
• Changes at the university level have to be backed
  up by some experiential proof and conclusions
  that are result of scientific research

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Rational

• The educational system should be based on the
  fundamental democratic values and universal human
  rights perspective
• We feel that this has to be the philosophy
  internalized by all teacher training universities
  and every teacher
• Establish pool of Bosnian educators who are able
  to take a leadership role in the process

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Training of University Professors

• Seven (7) seminars for 30 university professors
  and assistants were organized between July 2001
  and March 2003
• 150 contact hours
• A Research Team was formed with the task of
  following program development, measuring results,
  and planning future activities.
•  Seminars were organized with the cooperation of
  American and local experts and concentrated on
  methodology and content

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Course Syllabus

• The course is divided into five units
• Foundations of Democracy
• Constitutional Democracy
• Democracy and Human Rights in Bosnia and
  Herzegovina
• Democracy and Civil Society
• Bosnia and Herzegovina in Process of
  Globalization
• The program is implemented during freshmen and
  sophomore year at all seven universities in
  Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a total of 1000
  student participants yearly.

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Major challenges

• Internalizing shared democracy and
• human rights values
• No multi-disciplinary study framework
• (What profile is best fitted to teach the
  class?)
• Providing integration of process and content
• (Research shows that if there is no integration
  the attitudinal change is not possible)