Revisiting the Role of Education in Global Society: Relevance of the Concept of Value Generalization in an Educational Context

Interpreting global society through the morphogenetic approach, the article looks at education as one of the dimensions of social change brought about by the plural process of globalization. The role and vision of education will therefore be questioned to finally claim that education has to be revisited in culturally diverse and complex global societies. Necessary steps include moving from a market- to a human-centred approach to education and taking the paradigm of human rights as the universal point of departure. Indeed, framing the concept of “value generalization” (Joas, 2013) within an educational context, the paper argues that human rights should be at the core of the learning process and translated into educational practice, in order to enable people whose value systems are diverse and apparently incompatible to establish creative relationships and, ultimately, recognise and accept common standards and principles that make living together in society possible. In particular, considering school class as a social system, the article concludes that “value generalization” could be regarded as a relevant sociological concept to make the school system an inclusive public sphere and further develop constructive discussions on human rights in the school classroom

Revisiting the Role of Education in Global Society: Relevance of the Concept of “Value Generalization” in an Educational Context

Interpreting global society through the morphogenetic approach, the article looks at education as one of the dimensions of social change brought about by the plural process of globalization. The role and vision of education will therefore be questioned to finally claim that education has to be revisited in culturally diverse and complex global societies. Necessary steps include moving from a market- to a human-centred approach to education and taking the paradigm of human rights as the universal point of departure. Indeed, framing the concept of “value generalization” (Joas 2013) within an educational context, the paper argues that human rights should be at the core of the learning process and translated into educational practice, in order to enable people whose value systems are diverse and apparently incompatible to establish creative relationships and, ultimately, recognise and accept common standards and principles that make living together in society possible. In particular, considering school class as a social system, the article concludes that “value generalization” could be regarded as a relevant sociological concept to make the school system an inclusive public sphere and further develop constructive discussions on human rights in the school classroom

Competence Development and Portfolios: Promoting Reflection through Peer Review

Portfolios are widely used in higher education to support students' com-petence development, especially in professional disciplines. A claimed strength is that by actively engaging in portfolio construction, and in reflecting on and assessing their current competences and future de-velopment, students will grow as self-regulating professionals. How-ever, researchers argue that students require coaches to support their reflections. Yet coaching is time-consuming, and research shows that it often undermines the very reflective processes that it is meant to help develop. This article investigates peer review as an alternative ap-proach to supporting reflection. Education students identified three competences and justified and evidenced them in a portfolio. They then reviewed the competence claims of peers and received feedback on their own claims from peers. Findings showed that both reviewing and receipt prompted deep reflective thinking as evidenced by changes in the students\u2019 portfolios. The discussion focuses on the value of peer review in promoting reflection, on ways of extending this method, and on its relationship to coaching practices

Citizenship education in Croatia and Italy: what place and role for human rights? A multi-level actor-centred approach to human rights education

The research focuses on citizenship and human rights education, particularly looking at two case studies, namely Croatia and Italy. The main objective is to understand whether citizenship education in lower secondary school (specifically grade 8) includes a human rights component and is aligned with the concept of Human Rights Education (HRE) as enshrined in international and regional standards. The research is based on a quantitative part, coming from a secondary analysis of the results of an internationally renowned study developed by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and entitled ICCS 2016 (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study). More specifically, data relevant to the research were analysed for both Croatia and Italy (e.g. students’ endorsement of gender and racial equality, learning objectives, school contexts, etc.) and used to frame some of the questions that have been asked during a series of 25 one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders identified in both countries (Ministry of Education, National Agencies, Local Authorities, Civil Society, Academia). Refusing the assumption of linearity and uniformity in the structure and development of citizenship education (CE), and rather conceptualising it as a tension political field of diverse and conflicting demands to which a multitude of actors have to respond simultaneously, the research adopts an actor-centred perspective using the methodological steps of the talk-and-action approach (Zimenkova & Hedtke, 2008) to: - identify the differentiated picture of CE actors as seen by the actors themselves, including their beliefs, conceptions and perceptions; - better understand the complex systems and environments of citizenship education focusing on multiple key actors at stake; - discover (inconsistent) demands and central tensions of citizenship education related to human rights and how these are perceived by the selected actor; - analyse the reactions of each respective actor to the demands previously assessed, pushing for a thorough differentiation between talk, decision and action; - investigate the relationship between citizenship education and human rights education in the two focus countries (Croatia and Italy)

Students' Attitudes Toward The Influence of Religion in Society: a connection between Dobbelaere's Compartmentalization and Citizenship Education

Secularisation is a complex and multidimensional concept. The article frames secularisation as the decline in the social significance of religion and differentiates it from personal religious beliefs, though negatively correlated. The article further explores Dobbelaere\u2019s notion of compartmentalization and underlines that people\u2019s expectations from religion are crucial aspects to understand its public and social role. While it is well known that education provides a rich field for uncovering the relation between state and religion, the article takes a closer look at citizenship education through the lens of Dobbelaere\u2019s compartmentalization. Indeed, they both encompass different levels and spheres of life, including the educational, the economical, the juridical, the familial, the medical, the political and the scientific. Moving from the results of a recent international study on civic and citizenship education (ICCS 2016), and presenting some of its main findings in the area of students\u2019 attitudes toward the influence of religion in society, the article shows that a higher degree of religious involvement tends to increase support for religion having a role in society, confirming also for students a tendency already identified by previous research. On the contrary, students\u2019 higher levels of endorsement of religious influence are negatively associated with parental education and levels of civic knowledge. This last trend suggest that students with a higher level of civic knowledge held somewhat less positive attitudes toward religious influence in society. The result can be interpreted as a higher level of compartmentalization, in the sense that students believe that religion should not influence the other spheres of life, the so-called profane sub-systems, leading to the conclusion that learning about civic issues may have the by-product of strengthening convictions about the necessary separation between state and religion

Revisiting the Role of Education in Global Society: Relevance of the Concept of Value Generalization in an Educational Context

Interpreting global society through the morphogenetic approach, the article looks at education as one of the dimensions of social change brought about by the plural process of globalization. The role and vision of education will therefore be questioned to finally claim that education has to be revisited in culturally diverse and complex global societies. Necessary steps include moving from a market- to a human-centred approach to education and taking the paradigm of human rights as the universal point of departure. Indeed, framing the concept of “value generalization” (Joas, 2013) within an educational context, the paper argues that human rights should be at the core of the learning process and translated into educational practice, in order to enable people whose value systems are diverse and apparently incompatible to establish creative relationships and, ultimately, recognise and accept common standards and principles that make living together in society possible. In particular, considering school class as a social system, the article concludes that “value generalization” could be regarded as a relevant sociological concept to make the school system an inclusive public sphere and further develop constructive discussions on human rights in the school classroom

Revisiting the Role of Education in Global Society: Relevance of the Concept of \u201cValue Generalization\u201d in an Educational Context

Interpreting global society through the morphogenetic approach, the article looks at education as one of the dimensions of social change brought about by the plural process of globalization. The role and vision of education will therefore be questioned to finally claim that education has to be revisited in culturally diverse and complex global societies. Necessary steps include moving from a market- to a human-centred approach to education and taking the paradigm of human rights as the universal point of departure. Indeed, framing the concept of \u201cvalue generalization\u201d (Joas 2013) within an educational context, the paper argues that human rights should be at the core of the learning process and translated into educational practice, in order to enable people whose value systems are diverse and apparently incompatible to establish creative relationships and, ultimately, recognise and accept common standards and principles that make living together in society possible. In particular, considering school class as a social system, the article concludes that \u201cvalue generalization\u201d could be regarded as a relevant sociological concept to make the school system an inclusive public sphere and further develop constructive discussions on human rights in the school classroom

Human Rights Education: a Literature Review between Legal and Normative Dimensions

During the past three decades, human rights education (HRE) has emerged as an important component of the broader human rights movement, as well as a field of scholarship and practice on its own. While there are many approaches to and variants of HRE, the article aims to show that there is broad agreement about certain core components which include both content and process related to human rights. Indeed, the main argument of this article is that HRE has both legal and normative dimensions. The legal dimension deals with content about international human rights standards, treaties and covenants to which countries subscribe; the normative dimension looks at HRE as a cultural enterprise and a process intended to provide skills, knowledge and motivation to individuals to transform their own lives and realities so that they are more consistent with human rights norms and values (Tibbitts and Fernekes, 2011). Starting with a contextualisation of HRE within the United Nations (UN) human rights framework and a dedicated focus on the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, the article further explores the twofold dimension of HRE through a critical literature review, the analysis of HRE models (Tibbitts, 2002 and 2017) and some related criticisms (Keet, 2012 and 2015; Vlaardingerbroek, 2015). The article finally reiterates the importance of keeping together the legal and normative dimensions of HRE in order to live up to its ultimate goal: empowering persons to contribute to the building and promotion of a universal culture of human rights

Danilo Dolci e Paulo Freire: un intreccio intellettuale tra maieutica e dialogo per un\u2019educazione problematizzante

L\u2019articolo presenta il profilo intellettuale di Danilo Dolci e vuole sottolinearne il suo importante ruolo e impegno educativo, purtroppo passato in secondo piano al grande pubblico rispetto alle sue opere di attivismo sociale e lotta politica. Dopo una breve ricostruzione biografica, l\u2019articolo si concentra sull\u2019approccio maieutico reciproco del metodo dolciano e la sua Bozza di manifesto Dal trasmettere al comunicare. Successivamente, la figura di Danilo Dolci viene intrecciata a quella di Paulo Freire, uno tra i pi\uf9 importanti pedagogisti e teorici dell\u2019educazione al mondo, in un esercizio intellettuale da cui emergono numerose analogie, sia a livello biografico che di pensiero e modalit\ue0 operative. L\u2019analisi di Dolci in questo articolo e il suo accostamento a Freire mirano, infatti, a illuminare di nuova luce una specifica sfaccettatura della figura poliedrica di Danilo Dolci, ovvero il suo impegno educativo e maieutico per creare una societ\ue0 civile pi\uf9 attiva e responsabile che risulta, ancora oggi, di estrema attualit\ue0 e interesse per tutti coloro che si occupano di educazion

The 2017 Council of Europe Report on the State of Citizenship and Human Rights Education: \u2018Connecting the dots\u2019 between responses from governments and civil society organisations

Purpose: The article gives a brief introduction to the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (EDC/HRE) and illustrates the review process of its implementation. Focusing on the second review cycle of 2016, it stresses that the Council of Europe fell short of a thorough analysis of the discrepancy in perceptions between governments and NGOs with respect to the effective implementation of EDC/HRE. Design/methodology/approach: Looking at the 2017 Report resulting from the second review cycle, the paper analyses analogies and discrepancies between responses received from governments and civil society organisations to the surveys organised by the Council of Europe. Findings: Through the selection of answers analysed, it is shown that there are areas in which responses from governments and civil society organisations are similar and aligned, for example on the issues for EDC/HRE to address and on the little priority given to make financial support available. However, there are other areas in which considerable discrepancy can be highlighted. The article draws a reflection on the way in which the Report has been put together and argues that, in order to build a more accurate analysis, the Council of Europe should have connected the responses received from governments and civil society organisations and make them dialogue, rather than providing two unrelated summaries on the state of citizenship and human rights education without merging analogies and questioning discrepancies between responses received from different stakeholders