| CODE | EDV5012 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Becoming a Responsible Citizen | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Education Studies | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Active Citizenship has become a buzzword throughout the European Union and beyond. Due to the way the history of our people evolved over the centuries, we come from a tradition of ‘inactive citizenship’ where the Church, a succession of foreign powers and local social elite/intelligentsia, appropriated almost all power. This study-unit is intended to raise awareness, provide justification and offer suggestions for classroom practice in the field of citizenship education. Study-Unit Aims: The study-unit aims to give teachers in the subject the necessary knowledge required to teach democratic citizenship in the curriculum. This requires an adequate understanding of the political nature of democracy, both as a system of government, as a democratic state with its institutions, and, as John Dewey described it, as a ‘form of life’. The unit explores both these political dimensions of the word beginning with the origins of democracy and its history and then focusing on the contemporary model as a liberal representative democracy in our Western world. The nature of the institutions that guarantee liberal freedoms (of expression (free press and media), of association (free parties, trade unions, pressure groups, movements etc.), of lifestyle) will be explored and debated within the Maltese context. The democratic virtue of active participation in public life and in the institutions of the state and in civic society will be examined together with other virtues like respect for law and for due process, respect for persons, tolerance, equality of consideration, open-mindedness, etc. These will be the virtues promoted by teachers in the classroom. The impediments to full active participation; the issues raised by difference, a multi-cultural society, gender equality, and sexuality will be addressed and discussed with the students. The unit also seeks to explore the Deweyan idea of democracy as a form of life, and the question how it can be taught in this sense. It will pass on to examine the Deweyan thesis that education into democratic citizenship requires immersion in a democratic environment, and to discuss the question, evidently in the Maltese context, whether this means that it can only succeed in democratic schools and classrooms, or if it can also be learnt through other things like school councils. If the former how teachers can render their classrooms democratic. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - describe the meaning of being an active participant of a multicultural society; - compare the individual and society outlining the tensions that exist in getting these two components to work together; - demonstrate that they are able to use promote active citizenship in the classroom and school; - introduce students to some important feminist perspectives through an inclusion of women's representations of their own selves and their lives and see the relevance to the PSCD teacher; - acquaint students with important aspects of feminist pedagogies and give them examples of how they are actualized in class; - encourage students to think about how they can develop feminist pedagogies within the PSCD classroom. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - engage with a set of readings and think about them critically; - observe the social forces at work that make up active citizenship; - use a variety of pedagogical skills. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: View reading list |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Louise Chircop Simone Galea (Co-ord.) Michael Grech |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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