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A PORTFOLIO FOR TEACHERS FOR CIVIC EDUCATION
O. Bombardelli
The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze a teacher portfolios linked to education for citizenship. It describes briefly the mainlines of an experience carried out with the students of the University of Trento (Italy) in the years 2010-2012.
Recent surveys (s. ICCS 2010, of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement IEA) aimed to investigate the ways in which young people are prepared to undertake their roles as citizens in the 21st century in a range of countries, and demonstrated carences in this field. Already in the year 1999 the IEA CIVED study could find out that teachers don’t feel prepared to educating for citizenship. The Eurydice report 2005 documented that the training of teachers in many countries, doesn’t include civic education (Eurydice, 2005, p.2). The European Parliament Resolution on improving the quality of teacher education 2008 calls for civic education to become a compulsory subject both in teacher training and at schools, so that teachers and pupils have the requisite knowledge of citizens' rights and obligations and of the Union and can analyse and critically assess topical political and social situations and processes (art. 23 of the European Parliament Resolution 23/09/2008). Anyway “You cannot alter people’s deep-seated habits by directive, only they can do it themselves, when they really want to, when they themselves experience a strong need to do so” (Amado and Ambrose 2001 p. xviii), especially in fields like education for citizenship, where there is still a compliance gap between policy and implementation.
A portfolio can support the assessment of ‘softer’ areas such as the affective aspect of being a teacher, as well as academic content and critical thinking, or education for citizenship, and can motivate for improvement. Shulman defines the teacher’s working portfolio as a “structured documentary history of a set of coached or mentored acts of teaching, substantiated by samples of student portfolios, and fully realized only through reflective writing, deliberation, and conversation” (Shulman, 1998, p. 37). In this contribution the portfolio is considered as a tool for professional development, not as evaluation or accreditation measure. The main purpose of this portfolio is to increase the disposition of the pre-service teachers (teachers, and teacher trainers) to be reflective about their own behavior for professional growth, and to feel able to guide pupils in education for citizenship.
It is a short document in extension, but has annexes which are collected documents proving the claims made therein; portfolio entries are: work examples, plans with strategies, resources and summaries of experiences. The use of portfolios and the feedback by the mentores can ensure that competences are met.
I adopt the following definition of the concept of competence offered by the European Tuning project: “Competences represent a dynamic combination of cognitive and metacognitive skills, knowledge and understanding, interpersonal, intellectual and practical skills, and ethical values. Fostering these competences is the object of all educational programmes, which build on the patrimony of knowledge and understanding developed over a period of many centuries.
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Competences are developed in all course units and assessed at different stages of a programme” (Wagenaar, 2008).
Education for Citizenship. Education for citizenship implies cognitive and attitudinal strands, and behavioral aspects (Bombardelli, 1993), it concerns students’ knowledge and conceptual understandings, interests, skills and competences, values and beliefs. The Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council (2006) on key competences for lifelong learning defines Social and civic competences as following: “These include personal, interpersonal and intercultural competence and cover all forms of behaviour that equip individuals to participate in an effective and constructive way in social and working life, and particularly in increasingly diverse societies, and to resolve conflict where necessary. Civic competence equips individuals to fully participate in civic life, based on knowledge of social and political concepts and structures and a commitment to active and democratic participation.” The term ‘citizenship’ can be perceived as related to the knowledge and exercise of rights and responsibilities; it ranges from socio- cultural to political and economic dimension, all closed connected among each other. Aspects of the teaching profession addressed in the portfolio are: (a) knowledge of students, society, the self and the significance of the role of teachers, the goals of education and schools, (b) disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills, (c) interpersonal skills and cooperation, (d) organization and teaching ability, (e) professional development, focussing of the skills and values for a balanced citizenship education.
All subjects and the whole school life include aspects of education for citizenship. The programs of study can highlight the global interdependence, strengthen the awareness and sensitivity to the “problems of the world”, support compliance with the rules of citizenship. It is a difficult task working in the field of citizenship at school, focussing on documentation and critical thinking, and avoiding indoctrination. Civic education should not be neglected in educational policies for initial and in-service training.
The teacher portfolio for citizenship education. While building a Portfolio, future and in service teachers reflect on the skills and knowledge necessary to teach, check their competencies and values, their ability to support students in building a personal development plan of the pupils, develope skills of selfevaluation. I report some examples:
(a) In the area of: ‘knowledge of students, society, the self and his/her ideas on the importance of education for the development of society’, there are items such as: “I’m aware of the challenges of the knowledge society in the global world, and of the importance of education for citizenship at school”; “I think about the significance of the role of teachers, about the goals of education and schools, in a longitudinal view”; “I think about my own social, civic identity and about the identity of the pupils”; “I become aware of my openess to collaboration across borders”; “I’m conscious of my teaching beliefs and of my value system relating to education, diversity and cultural identities, inclusion (ethnic, gender, handicap, religion, language, etc.), in full respect for human rights including equality as a basis for democracy, understanding of differences between value systems, working for intercultural, interreligious dialogue, social inclusion” etc.
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(b) Related to the ‘disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge’, the portfolio records: familiarity with the taught discipline (political science, history, economy, law, etc.), knowledge about the community around the school, being update with current affairs in the own region/ country and abroad, knowledge and understanding of the historical, socio-cultural and ideological contexts. It implies knowledge of the official regulations and the curricula by the National Ministries, and by the Local authorities; information about the Recommendations of the main International bodies like UNESCO, the Council of Europe, etc. Attention to the best researches about teaching the civic topics and guiding pupils to develop civic skills, based on the concepts of democracy, justice, equality, and civil rights is important in promoting the principles and the achievement of objectives of responsible citizenship.
(c) Thinking about ‘interpersonal skills and cooperation’, the portfolio addresses items such as: analyse the human and educational relationship, the dinamic of communication, the social and learning climate in the classroom, in the school, the norms of convivence, discipline, rules of behaviour, empathy, involvement of colleagues (working in team), headmasters, and parents, engagement for preventing conflicts and violence at school etc.
(d) In the field of ‘organization and teaching ability, and in the process of curriculum development’, every student writes items to think at which level: he/she is capable of organizing teaching strategies and instructional settings, can use open, project oriented and pupil centred forms of education; use and product new teaching materials, technologies, multimedia; he/she knows how do students learn best; he/she believes in every child, experiences solidarity with his learning problems. They wonder how much: he/she can guide pupils to the acquisition of decoding methods for a vigilant and responsible citizenship, develope responsibility, solidarity, sense of justice, a sense of belonging to one's locality, country, to Europe and to the world, and a willingness to participate in democratic decision-making, as well as showing understanding of and respect for the shared values that are necessary to ensure community cohesion. This involves critical and creative reflection and constructive participation at school (ex. debate, student council) and in community activities as well, also involves civic activities, support for social diversity and cohesion and sustainable development, and a readiness to respect the values of others, voting. It implies think about how the author of the portfolio can use strategies for successful classroom management, for motivating pupils; whether they can design learning environments, inquire the hidden curriculum, offer learning opportunities appropriate to the age, grade and learning styles of the students, using strategies to work with “at-risk” kids, and with gifted students. Student teachers assess how they can master situations where they give to student groups different assignments in parallel, can adapt strategies, materials relevant to student needs, build links in partnership with the actors of the social environment. They analyse how they are able to assess skills, to monitor progress, adopt process oriented support diagnostics and new forms feedback.
(e) In the context of ‘professional development’, there are items like: I’m confident with meta-competence about my education and teaching practice, can record experiences as a teacher, am aware of my own teaching style. I keep myself informed about the decisions in the school field and give my own
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contribution for the development of the school policy. I participate in public debate on educational topics, am an active member of a teacher professional association etc.; I demonstrate interest in extra learning opportunities and in longlife learning; I know that a teacher acts as role model, and am aware of the professional ethic. The list of items in the portfolio is of course not exaustive, and depend on the learning situation of the authors in their way to accomplish the goals of citizenship education and professional growth.
Conclusive remarks. In this paper I argued that a teacher (and a teacher student, a teacher trainer etc.) should be aware of his/ her competences, values, and beliefs, especially in delicate fields as education for citzenship. A good portfolio can be a tool that empowers the authors, and help them in developing, or reshaping their professional growth, are helpful when they are results of a voluntary process by the authors. It leads to higher levels of observation, metathinking and criticism instead of being passive in waiting for external judgement. Teacher training in the field of citizenship education is concerned with issues of social justice, and with competences that equip individuals to participate in an effective and constructive way in social, political and working life, to become aware of and understand the ethical and political issues. A teaching portfolio can be understood as a premise to foster education for citizenship at school.
References
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2. Bombardelli O.. Educazione civico-politica nella scuola di una societa democratica, La Scuola, Brescia, 1993.
3. European Parliament Resolution on improving the quality of teacher education 23/09/2008.
URL: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P6-TA-2008-
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4. Abs H.J., Veldhuis R. (2006), Indicators on Active Citizenship for Democracy. Paper by order of the Council of Europe for the CRELL-Network on Active Citizenship for Democracy at the European Commission's Joint Research Center Ispra, Italy, 2006. P. 4-5.
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6. Council of Europe, Recommendation 1849 (2008) for the promotion of a culture of democracy and human rights through teacher education, http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta08/EREC1849.htm
7. European Parliament, Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning (2006/962/EC), December 2006, http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc42_en.htm.
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