Democracy Education in Elementary School

I have been working in teachers education for over ten years now. I have always been trying to teach my classes increasingly critical of power dynamics and discrimination, and to create a learning environment in which my students can experience democracy education at university. Democracy education for elementary school education is also a content of some of my classes. Furthermore I want to initiate a 'Lernwerkstatt' for democracy education at the HU Berlin. In my teaching I try to introduce formats that further my students critical understanding of social structures in their and their students life and to create moments of self-efficacy for them. I am thrilled to have learned about the teaching social action approach as it seems highly compatible with my aims of not only teaching democracy education in theory, but also through experience. Being able to teach this way would take my work to a next level. I'd also like to be able to implement this kind of approach to my 'Lernwerkstatt', a democracy lab, where people can find a supportive learning environment where they learn in a hands-on, self-directed, and exploratory way about democracy and human rights.

At the outset of the seminar, students engage with the theoretical foundations of democracy education in primary education and develop a systematic overview of key concepts and approaches. In parallel, the seminar offers short input sessions through which students acquire foundational knowledge of societal structures and forms of civic participation. Building on this knowledge, students currently identify areas of interest and, working in small groups, develop didactic approaches for the pedagogical treatment of these topics in classroom practice. Teaching social action could be well integrated into this course. Students could run campaigns instead of their current group work assignments.

Aylin Jordan

Education (Erziehungswissenschaft)

Humboldt-University Berlin