About The Centre for Democracy in Education

…Democracy is not what we have. It is what we do.

MISSION STATEMENT

CEDU was established in 2008 by GEMINI, a Prague-based NGO engaged in providing outdoor and cultural activities to children and youth with the tradition going back to 1979. GEMINI is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-partisan organization.

The Center for Democracy in Education (CEDU) is the first Czech organization with the mission to develop and support the civic education in the environment of Czech primary and secondary schools. CEDU aims to be the main hub for systematic and sustainable cooperation and discussion of non-governmental, governmental, academic and corporate institutions in the area of democratic education and responsible citizenship.

Our projects are focused on support for teachers regarding the development of self-government procedures, especially school councils. The main goals are to increase the quality of democracy and citizenship education, and to support the development of the educational systems in the areas of democracy and self-government at schools. CEDU also contributes to the formation of the educational policies in the Czech Republic by positive lobbying in governmental institutions.

The CEDU´s approach, activities and projects are based on the field and long-term experince with teaching in Czech schools. We receive very valuable inspiration and information also from our partner schools and foreign organizations. Our target groups are mostly pupils and students at primary, secondary and high schools, university students of the educational disciplines, teachers, decision and policy makers, representatives of the public administration and parents.

More details about our current  activities are mentioned below.

BACKGROUND

The Czech Republic entered the new phase of its history in 1989, when the communist rule was defeated by the "Velvet revolution", led by students and democratic underground movements. The Czech society acustommed to the new conditions quite soon, especially in the level of economic development, building the democratic institutions and participation in the international institutions such as European Union, NATO etc.

On the other side, the fast progress in the mentioned areas was not connected with people´s will to participate in emerging civic institutions, so the people of the Czech Republic are still learning how to involve in civic initiatives, how to be more responsible to the democratic values and how to teach children about their importance.

As we in CEDU believe, the school is, besides the family, one of the most important environments, where young people grow and live. The school should present the main principles of democracy and civic responsibility to the children. This should be one of the main goals, especially at primary schools.

CURRENTLY ONGOING PROJECTS

Respectful School Councils

The main goal of the project is to support the process of implementing school councils at primary and secondary schools. During the project, school councils are encouraged to support an active, respectful, intercultural and sociocultural approach among students at their school. Teachers are being supplied by trainings, methodology and other means of support, regarding the area of school democracy and self-government.

School Councils SOS

The project supports the establishment of school councils, especially at primary schools. We closely cooperate with our partner schools on guiding the children to participate in important affairs, discussions and decision making.

Creative Democratic School

The project is focused on schools´ participation in the community life and development. Another goal is to support the education in the area of democracy and citizenship, which is one of the cross-curricular issues in the new educational system of the Czech republic.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

• Long-term consultancy for teachers and university students through trainings, lectures and workshops.

• Public awareness activities in the area of democracy and citizenship education.
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• Team building trainings for different groups (classes, school councils, etc.)
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• Methodological support and consultancy for teachers involved in the development and administration of self-government assets.
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• Support for teachers working with the educational materials which were created during the Politeia project.

OUR PARTNERS

Sdružení Tereza o.s. (Czech Republic), Projekt Odyssea o.s. (Czech Republic), Centrum občanského vzdělávání COV (Czech Republic), Kritické myšlení o.s. (Czech Republic), Nadácia pre deti Slovenska (Slovakia), School Councils (UK), Involver (UK), Varianty (Czech Republic), Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej (Poland), Association for Citizenship Teaching (UK)