Original scientific paper
Learning Democracy and Democratic Competence of Future Preschool- and School Teachers
Damir Velički
; Učiteljski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Ana Šenjug
orcid.org/0000-0003-4137-3682
; Učiteljski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Abstract
The survival and development of democracy requires both normative principles and democratic citizenship, which requires tolerance in the sense of accepting ethnic differences and being capable of critical judgement, or, in other words, being acquainted with the roles of political institutions and the processes of making political decisions. The authors start from the thesis that democracy should be understood as a form of life and that children should be taught democracy and respecting differences from pre-school age and early primary school age. Pre-school and primary school teachers have an important role in this process, as they are the ones who should encourage a climate of tolerance, which implies that they possess democratic competences. With regard to this, the authors conducted an investigation with students attending the Faculty of Teacher Education in order to find out to what extent the attitudes of future pre-school and primary school teachers are undemocratic, or how close they are to right extremist views. The research also intended to find out how well students at the Faculty of Teacher Education are acquainted with the functioning of a democratic state, political institutions and processes. Results have shown that greater importance should be given to education for democratic citizenship and the development of democratic culture when teaching students at this faculty.
Keywords
democracy; democratic competence; pre-school teachers; teachers; non-democratic attitudes
Hrčak ID:
82715
URI
Publication date:
15.10.2010.
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