Citizenship and Lifelong Learning Monitor 2018
Over the last couple of years, the world has witnessed the harsh impact of populist politics. In the European Union, this rise in nationalism and populism has translated into an old member state leaving the Union for good, and “illiberal” countries rising up against civil society which could bring a major overhaul in the European Parliament for the May 2019 elections. Struggling with how to deal with extremist parties and their leaders, the EU has nonetheless attempted to cautiously restrain possible conflicts by peaceful means and promotion of participation of its citizens to bring people together despite far-right challenges ahead of the next European Parliament elections in May 2019.
To counter and prepare citizens to reinforce and strengthen core European democratic values, the Union has pledged to promote citizenship through education after ministers convened in Paris on March 2015 to set up common objectives. Having derived the 2017 report based on three thematic issues directly taken from the declaration’s objectives, this year the monitor aims to go further into understanding the processes and methods for the promotion and delivery of citizenship education in Europe by non-formal education providers.
This Monitor is a contribution to further examine the relationship between citizenship and lifelong learning experiences and policy outcomes in and outside of the classroom in various European countries. Mapping the different approaches that SOLIDAR Foundation members have taken in promoting EU values in relation to citizenship education and lifelong learning for greater democratic participation of citizens, the outcomes will be disseminated towards European and national policy-makers and offers an array of best practices to collect, use and transfer among networks. The SOLIDAR Education and Lifelong Learning Forum will further work on the topic and develop a long term sustainable advocacy strategy for CSOs towards national and EU-wide authorities to influence the debate and revision of national curricula and education systems.
