Protecting democracy, resolving social conflicts, encouraging people to participate: They are supposed to do all of this. But who actually looks after those who teach us democracy? A new study by the Technical University of Dresden provides answers to this question.
David Jugel and Stefan Breuer from the John Dewey Research Center for the Didactics of Democracy (JoDDiD) at the TU Dresden have investigated how people in political education understand their profession and what they need to be able to do it well. Their conclusion is clear. The expectations of these people are huge. The support is not.
Hardly any offers for training and further education
If you want to become a doctor, you study medicine. If you want to become a teacher, you go through a regulated course of study. However, there are still only a few clearly structured qualification and further training courses for extracurricular political education. "Professionalism in extracurricular civic education is primarily understood as a reflective, continuous process," summarizes David Jugel. "At the same time, individual demands for professionalism repeatedly come up against structural limits."
On the basis of 16 interviews and a joint workshop discussion with people from the field, the authors derive clear recommendations for action: create more further training opportunities, make funding more reliable and develop better training and further education paths for political education work. Prof. Anja Besand, Director of JoDDiD, formulates it clearly: "Anyone who strives for good democratic education must also address the question of how those active in this field can be supported in their qualifications."
Original publication:
The recommendations and the complete study can be found here.
