From SYNAPSES project towards a reform of national curriculum:
‘Actions for Active  Citizenship’

Organisation: IEP

The SYNAPSES project (2024) establishes a learning ecology which integrates sustainability and citizenship towards a development of a curriculum which is oriented to action-related Knowledge. Such an education encourages students to become agents of change, capable of transforming their local environments while maintaining a global perspective on environmental, social, and economic challenges.

In alignment with these principles, the new Greek national curriculum ‘Actions for Active citizenship’ (Government Gazette 6048/2024, Issue B), accompanied by Teachers’ Guide for actions of active citizenship, develop an educational environment as an ecosocial system which is simultaneously a material and a social-semiotic system (Lemke, 2001). In this system sustainability and citizenship are complementary, sustainability presupposes active citizenship and at the same time actions of active citizens refer to sustainability as it is described in the 17 SDGs. Ideally, the new national curriculum promotes the idea that you cannot think about sustainability without actions of active citizenship and vice versa. This approach underscores the interdependencies between social structures and environmental sustainability, encouraging a holistic understanding of sustainability challenges.

For the first time since the beginning of environmental education there is the strong political will to get both education for sustainability and citizenship in the educational system with the same obligatory status as language and mathematics. Teachers’ are obliged to do a minimum of teaching hours in particular subjects in terms of actions promoting the 17 SDGs. In particular, since the 1st of November 2024 the New Greek National Curriculum “Actions for Active Citizenship” provides guidelines for the implementation of action plans towards the accomplishment of the 17 goals of sustainable development. Each thematic unit of the Curriculum is focused on one of the targets of sustainable development. The attainment targets of each thematic unit are grouped in four age groups: a) nursery and lower primary education, b) upper primary education, c) lower secondary education and d) upper secondary education. The range of actions according to age groups varies from school community and neighborhood up to the national state and global scale also with the use of digital world. The Teachers’ Guide for Active Citizenship consists of examples of 24 complete structured action plans, 6 action plans for each age group and additionally 48 proposals for action plans. Each action plan is focused on certain attainment targets in accordance with the 17 SDGs.

The methodological approach of each action plan has five stages (Westheimer et al, 2004):

Inquiry: students’ decision of what they want to do in order to resolve problems and respond to challenges, presuppose their collaboration for decision making.

Design: the design of action’s implementation means that students curry on research in order to decide the most relevant and effective action plan and conceptualize the issue from different points of view depending on the various stakeholders and groups of interest.

Action: the action itself which has to be done as an intervention to the real world and not as a ‘think as if…’ practice.

Dissemination: the dissemination of the action and its outcomes to the entire educational and local community.

Reflection: teachers’ and students’ reflection on the entire process.

In terms of the way (platforms, networks, etc.) curriculum materials are accessible to those who are interesting: educators, students, stakeholders, etc., it is anticipated that available resources will be accessible in the most efficient, productive and convenient way, avoiding mistakes, irrelevant information, repetitions and time-consuming efforts via a new digital platform: https://act.digitalschool.gov.gr/.

References

Lemke, J. (2001) “Articulating communities: Socio-cultural perspectives on science education”, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(3), 296–316.

SYNAPSES Training Framework, 2024, (ed.) Sofoklis Sotiriou (EA).

Westheimer, J. & Kahne, J. (2004) What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy, American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237-269.