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Specialized program for Civic Education

Civic Initiatives in cooperation with the Faculty of Political Sciences (FPS) from Belgrade, organized specialized pilot program for teachers of Civic Education in high schools in Serbia. Overall aim of the program is improvement in quality of teaching Civic Education. Implementation of the program is supported by the US Embassy in Belgrade.

Specialized pilot program was composed of eight modules, a combination of teaching and workshops. Each module deals with one of the following areas: Citizens in complex societies, Citizens and the State, Human rights, Media, Economic Policy, Social Policy, Moral and cultural assumptions of citizens and European Integrations.

In order for this program to respond to the real needs of those involved, representatives of Civic Initiatives and the Faculty of Political Sciences were involved in its creation. They were part of the team working on developing the existing programs for civic education in high schools. Participants of the pilot program had an opportunity to go over the themes with our leading experts in given fields. In addition, through interactive group work lead by chosen trainers, specific themes were covered through experiential learning.

Participant (professors from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade) who took part in implemented the program - Milan Podunavac, Vukašin Pavlović, Đorđe Pavićević, Slaviša Orlović, Zoran Stoiljković, Vladimir Pavićević, Vesna Knežević Predić, Snježana Milivojević, Rade Veljanovski, Drenka Vuković, Miroslav Brkić, Čedomir Čupić, Milica Delević Đilas, Tanja Miščević, from the Faculty of Law - Miodrag Jovanović, from Teachers Faculty - Nada Korać, from Philosophy Faculty - Dubravka Stojanović, as well as Nataša Rašić, Canadian program for the Judicial reform in Serbia, Vladan Jovanović, Social Innovations Fund, Ivan Čolović, XX century library , Vladimir M. Pavlović, Belgrade Open School, Zoran Lučić, Miloš Hrnjaz, Miloš Mojsilović - CeSID, Tamara Skrozza - Vreme, Miša Brkić - Economist, Vidan Hadži Vidanović, Belgrade center for human rights, Slavenko Đokić, IRD Serbia, Zorica Savić i Zlatomir Stefanović, Youth Entrepreneurship program, as well as Team TRI trainers (Branka Pavlović, Biljana Maletin, Milenko Anđelković, Snežana Stojanović).

In the final segment of each module participants created thematic workshops for students. The role of participants was to try out in between the two modules in practise what was created. Once the program is completed, each workshop created by participants would be published.

Implementation of the program took part in the period between 2 nd December 2006 and 18 th March 2007. Twenty two Civic Education teachers from Belgrade, Loznica, Ljig, Knic, Uba, Zajecar, Valjevo, Sabac, Novi Sad, Krusevac, Futog, Subotica, Kikinda, Sombor, Uzice and Nis completed the pilot program.

On the last day, participants were awarded certificates of completion of specialized course for Civic Education teachers issued by the Faculty of Political Science and Civic Initiatives. For that occasion, Milan Podunavac, dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences from Belgrade and Miljenko Dereta, executive director of Civic Initiatives addressed the participants.

Currently taking place is the evaluation of the pilot program based on which the adaption will be made to the future specialized program. Over 200 teachers who applied and showed interest in participating in the pilot program, confirmed that there is a great need for CE teachers to have this form of academic specialized training. Civic Education as a multidisciplinary subject requires very serious knowledge and skills for its implementation, and is therefore very significant that these specialized program teachers who participated evaluated it as the real step towards improving the quality of teaching this subject.