Voter Education

Civic Education

Civic education can be broadly defined in ways that clearly take it outside the realm of electoral politics and the election administrator. It is possible that a person responsible for voter education may also be involved in a broader civic education enterprise. Indeed, there is something to suggest that voter education is really an amalgam of voter information and certain aspects of a civic education programme, that is, those dealing with elections.

Civic education is largely conducted in informal adult education settings, although there are aspects of formal education in schools. This section suggests that civic education in a democracy is best learned and taught in the heat of the struggle to establish and sustain that democracy.

Introduction to civic education

For the purpose of this topic area, the term civic education is used to cover the larger job of educating citizens so that they can take responsibility for their roles and responsibilities within democratic states and exercize their rights as free human beings.

'Civic education' has gained favour as a description of this empowering and freeing process, but it retains some tinges of a civilizing and urbanizing mission with which astute educators operating in varied contexts will want to grapple.

It is these varied contexts which form the basis of the following sections of the topic area. While there are core themes involved in civic education, the contexts within which these are explored and developed have become more diverse. And as the role of education in taming (or civilizing) these contexts and making them fit for citizens - and citizens fit for them - has become more important, so it is necessary for educators to pay attention to their differences and trajectories.

These themes are those of vision, virtue, habit and practice.

Explorations of civic education invariably start with explorations of democracy and the related terms of citizenship and civil society. Those engaged in civic education have a vision of empowered citizens voluntarily organizing themselves for self-reliance and political impact in societies where representative and participatory democracy produces peace, prosperity and personal liberation. All of these are contested concepts. However, although the 1990’s with their belief in the triumph of democracy as a regime of government, when civic education received renewed impetus, have given way to the more cautious years in which war and terror have re-emerged as tools of state building and power projection, any civic education programme must place a vision before educators and learners.

Vision

Civic virtue has become a stock theme in a number of curriculum innovations and projects designed to shift the focus of education from merely a knowledge and information activity – learning about the politics of particular countries, or the history of the development of a constitution and the manner in which that constitution has been used or abused – to a consideration of the personal responsibility of the individual learner to behave well in relation to the democratic society in which he or she lives. Lists of virtues have been created which are assumed to be particularly appropriate to this form of living. They include respect for others, co-responsibility for the community, commitment to constitutionalism and human rights, peace and friendship in local and national affairs.

Virtue

In some educator typologies virtues and habits intersect with one another and with the separately defined civic skills. But all agree that civic education must inculcate behaviours which enable people to construct a democratic way of life, irrespective of the particular regime under which they find themselves. Amongst these habits are the simple ones of non-violent conflict management; shaping, expressing and promoting interests and needs so that competing interests and needs can be identified and resolved; voting; being a public as well as private person and so on.

Habit

Societies are always complex – and democratic societies have to establish, on the basis of their particular histories and balance of forces, practices which enable them to meet the bare minima (see Meaning of Democracy) which form the bedrock of such a society. Having constructed these practices and procedures – and in the process of renewing and reforming them to meet contemporary demands – societies seek to educate their citizens in making use of and participating in them.

Practice

At its heart then, civic education seeks to make people powerful and capable of participating to the fullest in a democratic society, or to create that democratic society. But contexts differ, and the challenges facing educators therefore also differ.

It is important that decisions taken in developing programmes, looking for models and materials, seeking support from other practitioners and empowering people take account of these differences. Is the civic educator involved in preserving and renewing a democratic state (see Civic Education in Established Democracies), building or re-building after war or civil conflict (see Post war reconstruction), tending the emergence of democracy (see Civic Education in Emerging Democracies), or transforming societies (see Authoritarian Regimes and Fragile States)? Or is the educator part of a team addressing a much more unstable crisis in which the concept of state is irrelevant to the immediate emergency (see Civic Education During Emergencies)?

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OSCE Election Observation Mission to Kyrgyzstan, presidential elections 2009 by mcaton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License.

Authoritarian Regimes and Fragile States

Education for democracy does not require a democratic state. Indeed some of the most innovative non-formal educational initiatives have taken place in authoritarian states. As noted in the introduction, civic education is often a feature of authoritarian states seeking to build social consensus amongst their subjects. Certain societies are indeed guided by the belief that an authoritarian regime, whether established through traditional leadership, in response to crises of war or failed development, or through generally accepted ideological or religious views, is an appropriate way to govern the state. This is not the place for that discussion, but the topic area does not speak to this form of civic education, although many of the programme elements can be used in such static situations.

Fragile or failing and failed states do present particular problems because they introduce levels of personal insecurity and sometimes terror and war which make it difficult to attend to educational programmes. Nevertheless, people living in these circumstances deserve every assistance in managing their lives and in rebuilding their countries. In some cases this effort must wait until there is a level of security stabilization, but if educators are excluded from the planning during this period, institutions and processes could be established which undermine their later attempts.

Civic educators committed to building democratic states will find opportunities for education within those organizations which are allowed to exist or which carve out space for themselves. Such institutions may be faith based, voluntary relief associations, self-helps and cooperatives, or even house bound discussion groups. In some cases, such groups may be present outside the country concerned.

Such educational programmes inevitably co-exist with political action, even if constrained by the context, and this makes them particularly powerful.

Youth programmes are particularly important under these conditions. In some cases, they provide a safe space for youth who would otherwise be prey to the state. But even where youth are involved in some form of direct action against the state, or in some or other civil conflict, education can inform the quality of their life and action and make it more likely that there will be a democratic outcome to these conflictual situations.

Post war reconstruction

In Afghanistan traditional assemblies have been recreated with young people in order to encourage citizenship and motivate people to participate in local government elections as candidates.

In Iraq, tremendous work was being done with women’s groups in exposing them to constitutional debates and enabling them to visit other countries in the run up to their postwar constitution, referenda and elections.

In Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the focus was largely on elections, but some constitutional education was also undertaken.

In Bosnia Civitas established a school based civic education programme using local co-ordinators.

Postwar societies which have been able to develop an international or domestically supported reconstruction programme are able to introduce a range of educational programmes.

These are often linked, as in Angola, with civil society strengthening programmes – where domestic organizations start to take up the space that has been created by a peace agreement or ceasefire. In some, they are linked with the creation of new election management bodies or statutory institutions. And of course it is essential that civic education programmes are a part of any demobilization activities, especially but not only for child soldiers.

All these programmes battle against the conditions in the country after the war – damaged people and infrastructure, embryonic institutions, and inevitably unresolved fighting in certain regions. These conditions were no different after the World War II, and there are lessons to be gained by looking at Europe and Japan in the early days after this particular war – whether for educational interventions, constitutional debates and processes, or for developing visions of hope in societies which are perhaps closer to their immediate conflicts.

Education will often focus on the peace arrangements and peace treaties, on building tolerance between previously warring factions, and on the proposed transitional arrangements. Often these include waves of elections and referenda – on timetables necessary to keep a treaty alive but invariably under strain which adds to citizen confusion and insecurity.

Civic Education in Emerging Democracies

Formal civic education programmes introduced into existing state schools have been particularly important in eastern Europe in providing a point of reference for allowing these countries to deepen the democracies that were created in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent break up of states held together by their reliance on the USSR.

In some countries, these programmes were as important in establishing the need for further education of teachers and for reform in the curriculum and the schooling systems. In addition, they often operate in the aftermath of more non-formal education driven by civil society organizations in the run up to and through the democratic transition.

During the early years after a democratic transition, finding funds and resources for civic education outside the normal revenue available to countries is relatively easy. As democratic success establishes routine politics, the motivation for it diminishes. So, early institutionalization is important, but that institutionalization is often hampered by weaknesses in key institutions such as schools, legislatures, and civic organizations. Therefore civic educators must pay attention to building up the strength of local institutions – to their management, administration, and intellectual capacity, and to the working skills and procedures which are taken for granted in more established democracies.

Curricula will often be concerned with issues of nation building and may even seek to demobilize civil society formations that have been involved in democratic agitation. These are natural but short sighted approaches to an extended democracy and development policy in which citizen agency is essential. It is possible to develop a middle road in which democratic agitation can be converted into a concern for citizenship in a democratic state.

Civic Education in Established Democracies

After many years in which the established democracies have relied entirely on entrenched habits and institutions to sustain democratic citizenship, more recent fears about emerging anti-democratic tendencies, alienated groups and apathetic voters have caused a much more concerted debate about additional efforts, some of them educational and some of them through experimentation with electoral reform, party re-invigoration and direct democracy.

It is sometimes forgotten that established democracies do have their own histories of conflict and stress. A number of the institutions, practices and procedures which do exist emerged from those moments of stress and come into their own at future times when similar problems arise. Other problems faced by these societies may indeed be new and require new institutions.

In the United States of America, civic education curricula have been developed for use in public schools, and such a programme has also been underway in the United Kingdom. Both emerged outside the official state system and relied on lobbying, advocacy and work with individual schools and teachers to motivate for their more universal adoption.

In Germany, the foundations and lay academies that emerged in the early 1950’s after the war to revive citizenship and ensure that there was reconciliation and rehabilitation continue to operate within a political formation framework supported by both federal and provincial government agencies.

As Europe has expanded and integrated, European Union educational programmes, both of a more informative nature and with a deeper educational purpose have been established – the network under the Grundtvig/Socrates project provides information and best practice. The emergence of some incipient transnational citizenship roles suggests a new challenge for educators.

Of course in such highly complex societies as emerge with development and long established democratic practice, it is hard for educators to contemplate universal programmes, and few of these exist. Those seeking to develop such programmes for particular democratic moments will find assistance in the sections on alignment and strategy. Instead educators are working with new migrants, excluded groups, strengthening political parties, promoting human rights campaigns and development education.

Some countries, especially those with missionary or colonial pasts, have used development education to arouse their own citizens to domestic action and international solidarity and compassion. The techniques used in these campaigns need to be finely judged to ensure that they do not just create social mobilization of a short term nature without a concomitant long term commitment to democracy and active citizenship.

Civic Education During Emergencies

International action in times of emergencies is now well established. The lessons of the post-tsunami relief in the first six months of 2005 are now recorded.

Unsurprisingly the demands of these relief efforts, whether protecting refugees, distributing food or medical attention, or rebuilding damaged property and societies, have obscured the various educational needs which arise and the attempts by organizations to meet these needs.

As displaced communities are forced to settle for more extended periods in makeshift communities and makeshift premises, their social and educational needs grow. New political arrangements (at a community level and in relations with local authorities and any emergency organizations), gaps in community leadership, coping with disrupted socialization processes, especially amongst young people and children, will all need to be attended to by communities and matters can be made much easier by educational programmes.

In some cases, where displaced communities are in a state of limbo, education can provide some purpose to otherwise long periods of apparent dependency.

Educators seeking to be of assistance have to consider questions of entrance and access and relevance. Curricula may initially focus on simple adjustments such as obtaining paper work, on grief and trauma work, and on rebuilding community. If communities are forced to remain for extended periods in temporary circumstances, more long term concerns of personal development, civic skills, and vocational training or skill honing may all be possible. Given the importance of community building, educators may choose to use peer education techniques and self-governance processes.

However, education programmes of any depth require time in planning, premises, and personnel – and a too heavy investment in these may solidify the circumstances of people who would rather return to previous homes, or may have their own opinions about how best reconstruction and reinvestment should be done.

Relationship Between General and Civic Education

There is a relationship between general and civic education, but it is not a simple relationship.

Universal Education as a Necessity for Democracy

One of the great twentieth century educational theorists, John Dewey, produced a treatise on education entitled Democracy and Education. This book, and others like it, argued for universal state-supported education in order to ensure that democracy was sustained. The vital nature of general education would ensure the survival of the democratic experiment, which would otherwise be overcome by alternative forms of social government.

As the twentieth century progressed, it became apparent however that, while universal education may be conducted on a liberal and pluralist basis, with a respect for personal experience and for the development of knowledge, it does not automatically ensure that people can participate actively in the democracies which now exist. Indeed, there is some nostalgia for the civic spirit and virtue of earlier ages and the idealism of those who first argued for and promoted democracy and, over time, universal franchise.

Civic Education as a Supplement

As a result of this, education has come to be seen as a general activity which must be supplemented by some form of innovative curriculum or additional syllabus known as "civic education." This can be done either across a curriculum - typically the discussion revolves around the formal educational institutions at primary and secondary level - or by adding a subject to a curriculum. The latter results in the isolation of civic education from other life concerns, and in crowded curricula it also has to compete with other demands. Even this says nothing about the comparative value placed on various subjects by the demands of higher education and external examinations.

On the other hand, cross-curricula interventions fail because of their complexity, requiring an educational flexibility not always present in schools and an educational facility not always available on the faculty. So, because such interventions are the province of all, they become the province of none.

Experiments are Continuing

Civic education in schools is, therefore, an enterprise in the making. Informal approaches linked to community life and social organising seem to be making more progress, as are those linked to elections when democracy is alive in people's minds. As informal education deals with matters that are either ignored, segregated, or beyond the province of a school, civic education becomes an integral form of education that draws together the general life skills provided by general education and places them at the disposal of adults trying to participate fully in society.

Universal Education Lays a Foundation of Necessary Skills

In this sense, it may be possible to consider ways in which general education can form the basis of civic education, and how the skills of the citizen can draw their sustenance from formal education where this is available.

Institutionalising Civic Education

If it is true that people learn from experience, and if large numbers of people participate in political life - both in democracies and, despite the personal cost, undemocratic societies - without having had the benefit of "civic education", then there must be other ways in which people are being educated. And indeed there are. The primary educational medium for civic education has been and remains the social process. Where this process is a vital one, and where those engaged in it are reflective of the philosophy behind their struggles and the practice in it, leaders are developed, citizens become active, and organizations increase in strength.

Educators may not be able to replicate the social conditions that lead to union organising, community civic organisation, and politics conducted in democratic ways. But they can engage these social processes in ways that make it more likely that people will learn and develop. This can only be done if educators are connected in some way to the hurly-burly of political life. Organizations that combine political activism with educational services, or educational organizations that have a relationship with those involved in social affairs, or even educators employed primarily as trainers within organizations, have more chance of ensuring that civic education takes place within and through the engagement with public affairs and social change that are the best of all possible schools for democracy.

It is possible that such schools can be created through the judicious development of public fora, associational life, and communal activity. While these may emerge apparently spontaneously, those in the business of civic education can also stimulate these as part of their own programme. Public debates about issues, for example, can provide an opportunity for people to learn about freedom of opinion, rules of debate, management of controversy, and rituals for decision making despite the fact that no educational purpose is perceived by those who attend.

Participation as Education

In the first place, educators will rejoice in the fact that citizens participate in public and communal life, no matter what the issue that motivates them. Participation alone can hone people's understanding of political life, but without a reflective and educational component to their activism, these understandings can be limited and can even be inaccurate. The role of the educator vis-a-vis participation in political or civic activities is twofold:

to increase people's ability to engage in that political or civic activity
to develop ways in which these same people can reflect on and learn from the experience of the political or civic activity

Of course, there is no guarantee that the outcome of citizens' participation will be a constructive one. There seem to be a number of cases in which people have become disillusioned and have taken to violent and undemocratic ways of obtaining their political ends. In other cases, people have merely capitulated. Yet the evidence does suggest that it is possible for people to commit themselves to the principles of democracy and, even in circumstances where there is no societal support for this commitment, engage in activity that increases their effectiveness over time.

This has certainly been the case in many countries where social movements have, through a confluence of forces not entirely of their own making, established cultures of democracy and public participation that are generally admired. These cultures, however, are not necessarily transportable, and the lessons learned in one society about how to achieve democracy may not always sit comfortably in a country in which there is a democratic constitution but good governance is more the issue.

The principle of encouraging people to work together, to build support for their cause amongst a disparate group of potential partners, with this inclusive group to develop codes of decision making and behaviour that are fundamentally democratic, and then to engage those who may support or inhibit the achievement of their intended social goals, continues to develop both civic virtue and civic activism.

Public Education Campaigns

Most countries conduct public education campaigns that deal with health or gender issues, water safety and use, environmental matters, city cleanliness, smoking, and so forth. These campaigns sometimes use the principles outlined in Public Education Principles. But they do not intend at the outset to promote civic education per se.

It is difficult to see, however, how a public education campaign cannot support civic education. When it is involved in coordinating and aligning large groups of citizens, civil society organizations, or educators, it is in the business of developing civic skills. When it is preparing its messages, it cannot avoid dealing with questions of civic virtue and citizen responsibility. When it is establishing its case, it cannot but deal with social questions and with social organizing.

Educators committed to programmes in support of democracy will make use of public education campaigns to carry civic messages and to ensure that these campaigns do adopt a broader view of their work. At the very least, they will engage them to ensure that the budgets of those programmes can be geared in such a way as to reduce the load on a purely civic education budget.

So educators will want to identify such campaigns and negotiate with them ways in which they can do the work of civic education. In order to do this, the insights of the civic educator regarding the importance of public participation for the success of public education, and the importance of political understanding and political skills for developing an environment within which the campaign can succeed, will be useful.

Transitional Moments

There are moments in the history of a country when change is apparent. At such times, people are more receptive to discussions of public life and political participation. They are likely to be involved, or at least to be concerned, and they are likely to express needs for education, awareness or information. Such moments are rare, but when they occur, they provide the educator with a real opportunity.

Perhaps the most regular transitional moment in any democracy is the election, especially the election in which it appears likely that there will be a change in government. Such moments are perhaps the main reason why voter education as opposed to civic education appears to have the lion's share of international and domestic attention and support. But actually, what is happening is that the election is providing an excuse (albeit a good one) for civic education. The issues of the election and the choices that have to be made are more stark, the public discourse is greater, and the opportunities for education, especially at a informal level, more patent.

There are other moments, however, and educators will want to acknowledge and make use of these. In large countries, where the national question of constitutional democracy has been solved, these moments may more readily be sought in local circumstances. And it is no surprise that civic education is being increasingly tied to questions of local democracy and local government. On the other hand, it may be that, in addition to local government, regional government or economic associations provide the next frontier of transition for many countries.

Public Work

There is an increasing number of experiments, particularly in universities but also in some schooling systems and individual schools, to develop service learning programmes. These are normally designed as a combination of class room teaching and voluntary activity in existing service and welfare organizations. Because those involved are full time students and are drive by the needs of the educational year, the service offered and from which it is intended that lessons will be learnt tends to be sporadic and periodic, organized not by the students but by the educational institution and the receiving institution.

With the increasing mobility of young people, especially in the north, voluntarism during vacations has become a large scale activity, and these intern, volunteer and fellowship programmes go further in plunging young people into development and service work, often but not always in a developing country.

The value of this is limited in scope – very few people can participate – and the level of learning is limited by the commitment of the individual and the sending and receiving institutions.

But a movement has begun which recruits groups of young people with an adult guarantor to engage in public work – the co-operative effort to improve their own society by focusing on real problems through designing and implementing real solutions. This is done by structuring social analysis, transferring organizational and political skills during the problem solving process, and encouraging young people to take constructive action over a fixed period of time.

Typically such public work groups, now operational in the USA, South Africa and Ireland, will meet during leisure time, select problems in their own communities, engage with those such as local governments who have resources and power, and build alliances with other groups in the community who have a common interest in solving the particular problem. It is not just an action group, because while in action, young people are learning how the world works and how to change it; and in the process developing a civic understanding which can be transferred to other parts of their life and society.

National Curricula for Civic Education

There are a number of attempts to create a national curriculum or syllabus for civic education. These are developed within the prevailing education philosophy and terminology of particular education systems – establishing standards, specified outcomes, content based syllabi and text books, and, in some more limited cases, examination standards.

Those choosing to institutionalize civic education through determination of curriculum by the educational authority must consider the issues related to introduction of curriculum: the intended outcomes, the material to be taught, the teachers, the sites in which it is to be delivered, support materials and teacher and learner support, and evaluation.

They have to consider whether this curriculum is an incorporation into existing subject areas or whether it will stand alone, and if the latter, how it will relate to the various existing subject areas given the possible overlaps and duplications.

The major hindrances to the development of a national curriculum are not related to the subject, although there are a number of challenges in this regard outlined in other sections. They are rather to be found in finding time and space, in training and supporting educators, and in evaluation of learners.

Formal Education

There is a direct link between the extension of universal basic education and democratization. Some have argued that numerate, literate and generally educated people are drivers for increased democracy. Others have looked at the sustainability of democracy and have insisted that this can only happen if those who have achieved universal suffrage also receive a standardized basic education.

Historically, it has been assumed that, with the exception of a variety of optional subjects designed to induct pupils into the existing social and political structures, the very act of education is by definition civic education. In some highly publicized experimental schools, micro-societies were created to ensure that people learnt both from the classroom and the self-governing institution itself.

But in general as schools became more institutionalized, as the syllabus became fuller and more specialized and as society was perceived to be more complex, civic education or a variation on this term became a subject competing for space in the school day.

Most of these subjects have become degraded and discredited, not necessarily because of their content, although an increasing mismatch between this content and the student experience of life has an impact, but rather because such subjects are perceived by teachers and students alike as less important than the hard subjects at the centre of the curriculum – languages, mathematics and science, and other core subjects.

To counter this, civic education has been mainstreamed into the life of the school through extra-curricular activities such as student elections, self-management of extra-mural societies, and parent-teacher-student boards. Subject specialists have been encouraged to introduce civic education concepts into their subjects, identifying and introducing these through history, languages, arts and drama, sociology and economics, business management and life skills.

There is some controversy about the role of the school in civic education. It can be seen as too political and therefore likely to lead to conflict and partisanship. Alternatively communities may not want schools run by the state to interfere in the political formation of their children, fearing it will be a form of propaganda or socialization at odds with the values and commitments of that community.

In this regard civic education does have some parallels with the ongoing debates about the role of religion or religious education in schools. However, in democratic societies where citizens have established and fund through their taxes a national school system, there is an expectation that, as was originally envisioned when universal education was being promoted, schools develop responsible and responsive citizens.

Considerable work has been done in the United States of America recently in developing a standardized curriculum and in attempting to get it taught – sometimes as an alternative module to more general political science. In summary they have focused on three components and one methodological imperative:

Essential civic knowledge, including the development of constitutional democracy and its principles
Essential civic skills, including intellectual and participatory skills and their practice, and
Essential civic virtues, such as the traits of responsibility and respect for others.

An imperative for this is the democratic teacher, imbued with a commitment to a classroom environment compatible with the theory and practice of democracy and freedom.

In South Africa, an extensive Values and Education programme has been developed and institutionalized in the national department of education to preserve, promote and extend the constitutional democracy established in 1994.

In the transition of the Eastern European states to independence, democracy and, in many cases, accession to the European Union, civic education through the existing schooling system or through parallel non-formal processes and institutions was one of the early forms of democratic support by the international community.

Nonformal education

A number of countries have introduced national curricula for civic education which are delivered nationally using non-formal educational methods. Through a process of consultation or direction by an election management board or similar institution, a wide range of existing organizations and institutions have agreed to deliver a common curriculum.

Kenya is a particularly good example of this. Its published curriculum was prepared and delivered in the period prior to the national elections of 2002.

The curriculum was prepared after a national baseline study of citizen attitudes and educational needs. It was delivered by a coalition of some 70 non-governmental organizations co-ordinated by a small project management office, and funded by international development funds through a form of joint funding. Evaluations of this programme have encouraged its funders and participants to plan for a second round. Delays in the finalization of the reform constitution, whose drafting provided impetus to round one, has had an impact on this – and is a good example of how national civic education programmes can be trapped by exigencies outside their control.

Malawi has also operated a national curriculum driven, appropriately for Malawi, by a programme with the acronymn, NICE – National Initiate for Civic Education. This programme has relied on community educators and community libraries organized by NICE itself rather than a coalition as in Kenya.

In both cases, the curriculum has received national and statutory support although it was established by a combined effort of the international donor community and the non-governmental community. It is hard to know whether a different curriculum would have been created, or whether the initiative would have been attempted at all, if money had merely been made available to the national education system.

Those developing such a non-formal nationally delivered curriculum face a number of problems in regard to programme development and programme ownership.

In Kenya these were overcome by the baseline study and the development of formally printed and published materials in advance of the roll out of the programme. In addition, the programme was delivered as a time bound campaign in a particularly propitious political climate, rather than being developed as a standardized curriculum which would stand over a period of time.

In Uganda such a curriculum was developed by the election management board in the early 1990’s and it was intended that any wanting to do civic education would follow this curriculum.

Some countries accredit agencies, making available materials. Others accredit agencies and allow them thereafter to develop their own materials merely following certain guidelines.

In Germany, the development of theoretical material and curriculum support materials, while not mandatory, acts as an informal regulator by encouraging others to make use of what already exists rather than do their own costly development.

Non-formal education is by its nature conducted in a range of settings (raising problems of language, adaptation of materials and audio-visual supports, timing and the levels of entrance and interest of the learners. It is delivered by a range of educators and facilitators, and, despite the possibility of short term cascade based training, it is inevitable that they will approach the programme with their own styles and teaching skills. And finally, non-formal education is often done at short notice, reducing the possibility that already prepared materials will be to hand.

The costs of nationally produced curricula, whether of the limited nature tried in some countries or the comprehensive nature used in Kenya, are high, and wastage can be considerable. The risk that materials will quickly lose their ‘fit’ and be replaced by locally produced courses adds to the possible wastage.

Responsibility of Civic Education Among National Institutions

The responsibility for civic education has variously been given to departments of education, election management bodies and statutory institutions. Such national institutions may have the mandate as part of a more general mandate in regard to human rights, constitutional affairs, or social development.

There have also been some national multi-sectoral councils or forums established through statutory provision or voluntary association.

And finally, there are domestic manifestations of international organizations and associations.

Each of these has its merits and challenges.

If a country is going to encourage and promote civic education then it is essential that there should be some nodal champion capable of drawing in other stakeholders. This requires that it be able to exert some power and influence – through legislative primacy, budgetary provision, or intellectual leadership. In the absence of this primacy, civic education is going to remain fragmented even if it follows the German model – see below. This may not be seen as a problem, and may even be seen as appropriate to a democratic society encouraging multiple voices and multiple institutions to interact in ways which strengthen the society – but it does introduce a level of institutional inertia which makes innovation during times of crisis difficult.

The German model

Germany has established a federal institution for politische bildung which obtains federal funds which it uses for its own programmes and which it disburses through a chain of foundations, regional centres, and non-governmental organizations. By developing educational materials and through the incentives and controls which grant making allows, it has a nationally funded, democratically aligned and effective domestic civic education system in which formal education, non-formal education, state institutions and civil society play a role. This is a system that has become so deeply entrenched over half a century of existence that it is barely remarked upon in the country and is unremarked by those developing civic education models. It deserves more attention than it gets.

Nodal institutions

The choice as to the nodal institution – a department of state, a statutory institution such as an election management body or human rights commission, a university or group of universities or a national forum on civic education – is going to be determined by individual countries. In some cases, such institutions may emerge as a result of a particular set of circumstances. However it happens, that institution needs the resources to at the very least engage other stakeholders and develop some form of national programme.

Election management bodies are not necessarily the appropriate organizations: they have the demands of elections, limited between election staff, and the need to be vigorously non-partisan. Human Rights Commissions face some of the same problems, although they are more used to being ‘politicized’ and to managing this. In South Africa the Constitutional Court is developing an educational mandate and its site has attracted and will continue to attract those engaged in democracy promotion and civic education.

Because of the importance for civic education of not being seen merely as an activity designed to protect a state and benefit an incumbent government but rather to support a democratic system, nodal organizations in the state may be viewed with some suspicion even under the best of circumstances. Some form of state/non-state partnership may be preferable, and so national councils should be considered.

Popular education

Around the world, popular education movements linked to democratization or community life have been established with their own autonomous and indigenous curricula. They have often been run on a master-student basis, where the masters are people of particular standing in the community. They vary from what are called ‘initiation schools’ in parts of Africa, through religious schools now seen most often in Jewish and Islamic communities, and onward to schools associated with the labour unions and particular social or political movements. More recently, civil society organizations have developed ways of consolidating their various short term educational programmes into more extensive residential components believing that there is longer term impact from such investments.

A number of these recent developments look back to a particular movement which its protagonists consider to have had a significant impact on the development of democracy in the Scandanavian countries. There is a continuing promotion of these ideas and the popular institutions which support it in developing countries. It is useful therefore to look at perhaps the longest standing and most institutionalized of all popular education models associated directly with democracy.

The first folk school opened in Denmark in 1844 at the instigation of Nikolaj Grundtvig, and these ‘schools for life’ organized around a single teacher, a home and a small community of live-in learners quickly became part of the democratic life of the Nordic countries.

There are now schools which are firmly based on the Grundtvigian principles in many countries, and others which, while still retaining the name of folk school or folk high school, have evolved largely as vocational institutions with some attention to the political nature of work and to a firm relationship with the government in the town or region where they find themselves.

In their earliest manifestation there was a direct relationship between the democratization of the Nordic societies and the folk school. They were intended to “enliven and to enlighten, but first and foremost to enliven” (Christen Kold, 1866), and they insisted on control of their own curriculum at a time when more general formal education was slowly, and without immediate impact on working and farming classes, extending its reach.

Over time, the folk high school developed a particular societal niche at moments when individuals were finding their feet, exploring a new role in society, wanting to develop a new skill, or entering a new phase of life. There is a special interest in people with special educational needs and in immigrant communities. Different folk schools have different specialities and interests, but all of them operate according to an ethos described recently by the principal of the Alma Folk High School in Sweden as:

a free adult and liberal education
voluntary and non-formal although delivered through a formal institution
institutions which operate on the belief that all citizens are free and independent and have a right to participate in all aspects of democratic society
creating the conditions within which people freely pursue knowledge
stimulating curiosity and critical thinking

Early folk schools encouraged singing, the use of the common language, and an understanding of politics and public life. This education is useful in the greater sense, but not utility focused in the sense of merely focusing on job skills or the passing of examinations. Very soon these principals were adopted by labour movement schools as well, and the folk school movement today still has broad social acceptance and support despite universal formal education.

Linked to this movement is the study circles movement, which makes use of animator organized self-education groups of adults who meet regularly to learn a skill or study an issue or subject. These study circles encourage self- management, life-long learning and particular learning from others in a collaborative and equal relationship. Study circles therefore provide remarkably effective and low cost opportunities for adult education and the development of social capital.

A number of developing countries (amongst them Tanzania and South Africa) are experimenting with study circles and folk schools because of the evident impact these have had on the quality of life and democracy in the Nordic countries.

Social Processes