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Description
Do children have civil rights? And if so, what are these? Or maybe it is true that ‘children should be seen but not heard’? When do we become citizens? According to our observations the ‘citizenship’ and ‘democracy’ notions are commonly associated with adults. Children are way too often not treated seriously, while civic education in Poland is insufficient and requires support. Together with the largest childcare facilities in Wrocław (‘Niezapominajka’ Kindergarten No 56 and Wrocławskie Centrum Opieki i Wychowania) as well as the Bjerkaker LearningLab NGO of Norway, we will prove that we are all born citizens. We will show to kindergarten kids that they can make a difference and that in the future they will become full citizen and will co-decide on issues related to their city, region, country and Europe. We will initiate a Children’s Council democratically elected by at least 150 kindergarten kids. Project participants together with their teachers will, among others, prepare a performance to commemorate the Independence Day, will write letters to MPs, and will meet with veterans. Together with Bjerkaker LearningLab we will organise workshops for 30 Wrocław teachers on how to teach little children the rules of democracy. We will also publish a brochure targeted at parents. Wrocław institutions invited to the project will provide us with space for our activities and will recruit young participants, whereas Bjerkaker LearningLab will support us with its know-how in the field of social educational projects.
Summary of project results
Do children have civil rights, and if they do, what are they? Or maybe ‘children should be seen and not heard’? When do we become citizens? Our observations show that such terms and ‘citizenship’ and ‘democracy’ tend to be associated with people of full legal age. It happens far too often that children are not treated seriously, and their civic education in Poland is insufficient and needs to be supported.
Together with the largest Wrocław childminding facilities ( “Niezapominajka” Kindergarten No 56 and Wrocławskie Centrum Opieki i Wychowania) as well as the Bjerkaker LearningLab Norwegian non-profit organisation we proved that we are citizens from our early age. We showed to kindergarten children that they could have impact on the surrounding reality. We initiated the establishment of the Children’s Council, and we organised a vote for it, attended by ca. 150 kindergarten kids. Children participating in the project, supported by their teachers, prepared an Independence Day performance, wrote letters to members of the Polish and European Parliament and took part in study tours to Warsaw (Senate, the Embassy of France, Presidential Palace) and Wrocław (City Hall, TV Echo, military unit). Together with Bjerkaker LearningLab, we organised for 30 Wroclaw teachers workshops devoted to teaching little children the rules of democracy and civic rights. We also published a pamphlet on this topic, meant for parents. Wrocław institutions invited to the project, arranged space for our activities and recruited young participants, while Bjerkaker LearningLab provided us with factual knowledge, coming from its vast experience in conducting social projects in the field of education.
According to teachers’ accounts, children were highly engaged both during the campaign, and during the voting. They treated it very seriously and particular groups engaged in a discussion about candidates, the vote, or democracy. Based on evaluation survey results, we know that workshops improved teachers’ competencies related to teaching democracy and civic attitudes.
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Summary of bilateral results
The bilateral partnership did not meet all of the assumed expectations. There was a lack of clear exchange of expectations and establishing the quality of the collaboration (e.g., training materials/outlines sent in advance) at the very beginning, which is the lesson learned from the collaboration. The bilateral partner specialized in nursery teacher education, hence seemed ideal for its role of conducting 2 trainings (live and online) and delivering a speech at a conference. However, during the course of the collaboration, it turned out that the bilateral partner was not interested in learning anything from the Polish side. In addition, the financial and formal side of the cooperation posed many challenges. On the plus/positive side of the cooperation - it turned out that the teachers of the largest public kindergarten in Wroclaw had never participated in international training, so the foreign partner brought a lot of prestige to the project and the workshop itself, and cultural differences came out - for example, in Norway the status of the profession of kindergarten teacher is higher than in Poland, which also started an important discussion in the project. In general, bilateral cooperation gave a lot of clues on how to start and conduct such cooperation, what works and what definitely does not.