The NACE team hold the third edition of the CEC by the end of 2018 (03-07 December) in Casablanca, Morocco. The conference gathered 200 participants from the MENA region, Europe and other regions in order to ensure geographical diversity involving various backgrounds (Civil society, Academia, Media, Corporate institutions and Governmental bodies). The conference was preceded by a stakeholder meeting from 3 to 5 December that gathered Civic Education key stakeholders (experts and practitioners) who developed the previous recommendations in order to draft the key milestones of a common road map, along with informal parallel sessions about different national experiences. Adopting a functional approach in the different sessions contributed in building on the CEC I & II recommendations and most importantly in strengthening the cooperation between the potential Civic Education actors. Civic Education was the main conference topic that was treated from different functional angles: Institutionalization, content, advocacy, and communication.
Pre-Conference Events : 3 – 4 December 2018:
Parallel Event 1: Stakeholder Meeting
Parallel Event 2: Goethe Institut Civic Education Training
Program Pre-Conference
Meeting facilitation: Nelly Corbel, NACE Secretary-General & Executive Board
Monday: 3 December 2018
10:00 am – 12:00 am Arrival & Registration
12:00 am – 12:30 am Welcome & Opening remarks ¦ Introduction
12:30 am – 12:45 am Presentation of NACE
12:45 am – 01:30 pm From Alexandria to Casablanca: Moving civic education forward
01:30 pm – 01:45 pm Coffee Break
01:45 pm – 2: 30 pm Parallel sessions Part I
A. CONTENT facilitated by Susanne Ulrich, NACE (Germany)
Marinko Banjac, NACE (Slovenia) & Amany Elhediny, University Cairo (Egypt)
B. ADVOCACY facilitated by Jacob Erle, NACE (Denmark)
Igor Folvarochnyi, EENCE (Ukraine) & Dina Fouad, GIZ (Egypt) & Petr Cap, Civic Education Center (Czech Republic)
C. INSTITUTIONALISATION facilitated by Louisa Slavkova, NACE (Bulgaria)
Akram Mistiri (Tunisia) & Gray Kalindekafe, NICE (Malawi)
D. COMMUNICATING facilitated by Elhossien Mahmoud, NACE (Egypt)
Anja Besand, Technical University Dresden (Germany) & Mohammed Ben Aissa, ONERDH (Morocco)
**further details in Annex I
02:30 pm – 03:30 pm Lunch Break
03:30 pm – 06:30 pm Parallel Sessions Part II
06:30 pm – 07:00 pm Reporting back ¦ Plenary
08:00 pm – 09:00 pm Reception
Tuesday: 4 December 2018
09:00 am – 09:30 am Opening of the day ¦ Introduction
09:30 am – 12:30 am Parallel sessions Part III
12:30 pm – 02:00 pm Lunch Break
02:00 pm – 03:30 pm World Café for workshops recommendations (facilitated by Ahmed Naguib) in parallel Preparation meeting for the workshop Facilitators (facilitated by Rana Gaber)
03:30 pm – 04:00 pm Coffee Break
04:00 pm – 05:30 pm Reporting back ¦ Plenary
05:30 pm – 05:45 pm Statement Ondrej Liska, Regional Director of CEE/ MENAT, Former Minister of Education (Czech Republic)
05:45 pm – 06:00 pm Concluding remarks
Program Main Conference
Wednesday: 5 December 2018
Conference facilitation: Ahmed Naguib, NACE Advisory Board (Egypt)
9:00 am – 12:00 am Arrival and Registration ¦ Introduction facilitated by Rana Gaber & Ahmed Naguib
12:00 am – 02:00 am Welcome
Interactive Introduction
Networking I
NACE Community (Including presentation of the Database)
02:00 pm – 03:00 pm Lunch Break
03:00 pm – 04:30 pm Civic Education for Resilient Societies
facilitated by Nelly Corbel, NACE Secretary-General
Roundtable
Grace Maingi, Uraia Trust, Kenya
Elke Kaschl-Mohni, Goethe-Institut
Moez Ali / Youssef Seddik, Tunisia
Loubna Rai, Morocco
04:30 pm – 05:00 pm Coffee Break
05:00 pm – 05:45 pm Tell your Story about Civic Education by Emad Karim, UN Women (Egypt)
05:45 pm -07:00 pm Project Market ¦ Elevator Pitch
Networking II
07:00 pm – 09:00 pm Reception ¦ Dinner
Thursday: 6 December 2018
9:00 am – 10:00 am Check-in
Stories of Civic Education from the Participants
Welcome to Day II by Thomas Krüger, Director of the Federal Agency for Civic Education, Germany
Keynote Speech Measuring Life Skills and Citizenship Education to enhance Active Citizenship and Social Cohesion by Bryony Hoskins, University of Roehampton, UK
10:00 am – 10:45 am Short Interviews by NACE representatives with selected experts from the pre-conference:
Main topics, challenges, findings
Presentation of Outcome of Experts meeting and Intro Workshops
10:45 pm – 11:15 pm Coffee Break
11:15 am – 01:15 pm The role of civic education for social cohesion ¦ 10 Parallel workshops Part I
Human Rights-Based Approaches to Civic Education: Facilitated by Georges Ghali, ALEF (Lebanon): Sherouk Ali, Suez Canal University (Egypt), Amro Ali, Sydney Democracy Network (Egypt/ Australia), Omar Fassatoui, UNHCR (Tunisia)
Civic Education in the Digital Era: Facilitated by Haytham Mones: Pamela Brandt, Federal Agency for Civic Education (Germany), Amr Sobhy, PushBots (Egypt), Ismail Ilsouk, Simsim (Morocco), Karolin Schwarz, Hoaxmap (Germany)
The impact of “Countering Violent Extremism” on Civic Education: Facilitated by Noufal Abboud, The Nordic Center (Morocco): Sami Kallel, Psychologist (Tunisia), Amir Alexander Fahim, TGD Deutschland (Germany), Sebastian Boussois (Belgium)
Civic Education Reshaped by Migration and Refugees influx:Facilitated by Eya Jrad, Consultant and Professor (Tunisia): Kais Mnasri, OFII (Tunisia), Esraa Elsafty, Lamyaa Abdellateef
Youth in Civic Education: Facilitated by Mohamed Yassien, collective routes (Egypt): Amin Barkallah, UTIL (Tunisia), Yassine Bazzaz, Prometheus Institute (Morocco), Daham El Daham, Public Authority for Youth (Kuwait)
Mainstreaming Gender in CE Programming: Facilitated by Sally Zohney, GIZ Egypt (Egypt): Wiem Melki, Global Shapers (Tunisia), Emad Karim, UN Women (Egypt)
Challenges and Opportunities Social Entrepreneurship offers to CE: Facilitated by Ziad Haddara, HedoHumaniac (Lebanon): Lobna Saidi, Shanti (Tunisia), Ziad Barouni, Consultant (Jordan)
Exploring the relationship between Religion and Civic Education: Facilitated by Samy Charchira, University Osnabrueck (Germany): Youssef Seddik, Philosopher and Anthropologist (Tunisia), Farook Mullah, Darul Arqam (UK)
Challenges and Opportunities Media/Journalism offer to Civic Education: Facilitated by Hassan Hamali, NACE (Tunisia): Abdessalam Harchi, Writer and journalist (Tunisia), Arafat Hassan Al Majid, Journalist (Saudi Arabia), Asma Laabidi, Journalist (Tunisia), Hafez Al Mirazy, Journalist (Egypt)
The influence of Arts and Culture on Civic Education: Facilitated by Seifeddine Jelassi, Fanni raghman anni (Tunisia): Mohamed Fawzi, Anja Besand, Technical University Dresden (Germany), Naceur Sardi, Cinema Critics (Tunisia), Zienelabdine Fouad, Poet and performer (Lebanon)
01:15 pm – 02:45 pm Lunch Break
02:45 pm – 04:15 pm The role of civic education for social cohesion ¦ 10 Parallel workshops Part II
04:15 pm – 04:45 pm Coffee Break
04:45 pm – 06:45 pm The role of civic education for social cohesion ¦ 10 Parallel workshops Part III
Drafting Conclusions
06:45 pm – 07:15 pm Check out in Plenary
08:00 pm Cultural Event
Friday: 7 December 2018
9:00 am – 09:30 am Check in
More Civic Education Stories
09:30 am – 11:00 am World Café ¦ based on the conclusions of the 10 Workshops
11:00 pm – 12:30 pm Open Space and NACE desk
Networking III
12:30 pm – 01:30 pm Lunch Break
01:30 pm – 03:30 pm Discussion and voting on the conference resolution ¦ Plenary
Closing remarks
Additional Information
Descriptions of the Stakeholder meeting topics
A. Content
This thematic will look at ‘what we teach in civic education and how’. Contents can greatly vary in terms of methodologies, thematics, strategies, and evaluation, not only from one country to the other but also from one stakeholder to the next. This track will give a chance to participants to look into their respective tools and strategies in formal and informal settings to highlight the dilemmas, blind spots, and hot issues in terms of content and in light of previous recommendations (a set of examples below).
CEC I recommendations:
- The curriculum needs to be multilateral and levels based according to the target groups and geographical areas. The normative core should remain the same but the example and methodologies need to be adapted to the target.
- Civic education should be based on tolerance, interdependence/solidarity, self-responsibility, acceptance of diversity, accountability, and non-violence. These principles are the normative core of civic education.
- Develop a glossary to provide alternative words for common hate speech expressions
CEC II recommendations:
- Design civic education programs with a compulsory component of project-based learning activities while encouraging voluntary implementation (71%)
- Introduce intercultural perspectives through including exchange programs in education curricula (75%)
B. Advocacy
From improving legislation to social awareness, it is widely agreed upon in the field that advocacy sits at the core of civic education. It is only through improved collaboration across different types of actors that advocacy can take its roots for sustainability. The track will present, explore models and cases to give a chance to participants to share experience, engage in peer learning and potentially find cooperations. This will also be a chance to highlight the dilemmas, blind spots, and hot issues in terms of content and in light of previous recommendations (a set of examples below).
CEC I recommendations:
- Forming pressure groups among members in NGOs to modify legislations
- Developing civic education actors’ responsibility to lead by example and offer the best practices
CEC II recommendations:
- Advocate for educational legislation and identify a precise process for monitoring the respect for diversity in educational institutions (58%)
- Increase public awareness of the importance of inclusion and the benefits of diversity within the state, media, civil society, and the people. (75%)
- Stakeholders should set up advocacy training courses for youth organizations and marginalized groups and enhance the capacity of journalists to use terminology and principles of rule law (75%)
C. Institutionalization
This track is double folded looking at how to institutionalize civic education in the region to improve its reach and ensure its sustainability. Firstly, institutionalising in terms of supporting organizations working in the field the gain the needed capacities whether professionally, legally, or financially amongst others. Secondly, institutionalising in terms of getting a civic education curriculum at the national level through cross-sectoral partnership.
During the two days, experts and civic education practitioners will collaborate in showcasing different case studies and lessons learned in order to highlight the dilemmas, blind spots, and hot issues in terms of content and in light of previous recommendations (a set of examples below).
CEC I recommendations:
- Enhancing civil society management and creating space for dialogue amongst institutions and increasing cooperation and communication among them.
- Developing capacity building programs for NGOs in financial sustainability
- Ensuring transparency among NGOs in setting clear civic education programs and submitting them to the government
- The above results should then be validated through academia and advocated to the government
CEC II recommendations:
- Implement capacity building programs for civil society agents and teacher (85%)
D. Communicating
Civic education and social change in general is often criticized for remaining within its own community and needing to get out of it to reach out to the wider society. This track will therefore look at ‘How to we burst our own information and influence zone?’ From arts and culture to digital transformation, the means are multiple; these sessions will allow participants to explore them by sharing experience, methods and lessons learnt in order to highlight the dilemmas, blind spots and hot issues in terms of content and in light of previous recommendations (a set of examples below).
CEC I recommendations:
– Engaging civil society in a process of learning how to communicate with local communities
– Developing a critical approach towards what is taken for granted in our tools and methods in civic education
– Working on enhancing the image of civil society through advocacy campaigns
CEC II recommendations:
– Create cultural spaces and facilitate their use and accessibility to the public (actual and virtual spaces) (80%)
Workshops Briefs
Human Rights Based Approaches to Civic Education can be options to go beyond Civic Education that is based mostly on national legal frameworks. While exploring these approaches, some important questions are inevitable to explore:
- How relevant is the Human Rights based approach to Civic Education?
- What challenges and opportunities do educators working with these approaches face while working in and across different national contexts?
- What tools proved to be successful in promoting human rights for various target groups in the context of civic education?
Civic Education in the Digital Era
We are living in a digitalized world where new trends are coming up every day. How civic education is coping with the digitalization trends became an important area to explore. While unpacking this relationship, some important questions are inevitable to explore:
- How are existing technologies contributing to Civic Education?
- What is the untapped potential of new technologies to creating tools that empower citizens?
- What kind of risks can arise from using the new trends within digitalization in Civic Education?
The impact of “Countering Violent Extremism” on Civic Education
The concept of violent extremism has been gaining more and more attention in the world we live in. Its relevance to Civic education is highly debated within the scope of countering violent extremism (CVE). In this workshop the debatable nature of the topic is to be unfolded by tackling the below questions:
- How does the Security Paradigm impact Civic Education when it comes to CVE?
- What kind of impact does the call for quick responses to violent extremism have on Civic Education?
- How can Civic Education contribute to building resilient communities as an alternative to CVE?
Civic Education Reshaped by Migration and Refugees influx
Migration and refugees are a reality. In the last years countries in the Arab world have been receiving as well as sending migrants and refugees. The questions set forward to explore are:
- How migration and integration policies are affecting Civic Education?
- How are migrants and refugees presented in Civic Education?
In societies where migrants and refugees are present, how do Civic Educators work with “othering” and other challenges that arise?
Youth in Civic Education
Youth represent the majority of the population in terms of numbers today in the Arab region. They have also proven to be a driving force behind social and political change in recent years. However, youth are not represented properly and are still marginalised. In Civic Education, youth are both the main target audience of activities and programs as well as content creators and actors themselves. This workshops addressed these questions:
- How does CE answer to marginalization of Youth?
- How Youth contribute to reshaping CE?
What successful youth led projects/programmes/ initiatives exist?
Mainstreaming Gender in CE Programming
Amidst the international and regional focus on Gender issues, It is vital to examine the practices and implementation of Gender related issues in the field of Civic Education. This focus addresses both behavioral change on the individual level as well as institutional change. Within this scope, the below questions become important to answer:
- What are the efforts made to institutionalize Gender mainstreaming, operationally and structurally in civil society organizations in general and CE programs in specific?
- How consistent are CE programs to the values it promotes within Gender mainstreaming?
Challenges and Opportunities Social Entrepreneurship offers to CE
Social Entrepreneurship has been introduced to the field of CE to offer unconventional approaches. Using entrepreneurial models to achieve social impact offers numerous challenges as well as opportunities. In this workshop, those challenges and opportunities are discussed based on the following notions:
- What successful models or experiences exist within the realm of social entrepreneurship that had an impact on CE? (Case studies highlighting the different theories of change. )
- What new knowledge and solutions SE offers to CE?
Exploring the relationship between Religion and Civic Education
The sensitivity that arises when talking about religion and civic education needs to be addressed. This workshop aims at exploring this sensitivity while working with the below questions:
- What role do religious institutions play regarding Civic education?
- How are religious identities and personal faiths represented in Civic Education?
- How can civic education promote social cohesion in societies where religiosities and non religiosities play a role?
Challenges and Opportunities Media/Journalism offer to Civic Education
Media are an important resource for CE. Media literacy is thus a crucial competence. The workshop seeks to explore approaches and best practices for critical media education while also tackling the role of media in shaping decision-making processes and to examine the role of journalists as partners in CE.
The influence of Arts and Culture on Civic Education:
Arts and culture mirror and transcend social realities while providing critical and provocative approaches to them. How these approaches are influencing Civic Education is the overarching question of this workshop. While homing in on this question, some important aspects need to be addressed:
- How does the history of art and culture shape CE?
- How can Art contribute to Civic Education in terms of tools and approaches?
In what ways can artists be partners in CE? - How transnational experiences within the arts and culture field are shaping CE?
