INTERNATIONAL DIMENSIONS OF
CIVICS EDUCATION
Module 4
Civics education is most often thought of only in a national context. The development of international human rights, international courts of justice, and the emergence of democracies around the world illustrate that thinking of civic participation in strictly national terms is a limited perspective.
How do you teach about civics now? Do you consider the international dimensions of civics in your current teaching? How so?
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Take a few minutes to write about this in your Civics Journal #16. |
Explore these links for more information about each topic and additional assignments for your civics journal:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Global Perspectives on Human Rights
Civitas-Partnership for Emerging Democracies
International Court of Justice
The development of international law has also led to the creation of an International Court of Justice. Visit their website and explore some of the interesting aspects of the Court. Respond in your Civics Journal:
How many justices preside ove rthe ICJ, how are they appointed, and what is their term?
How is the ICJ similar to and different from the Supreme Court of the United States?
What are some of the pending cases on the ICJ docket? What do you know about these casese already? What have you learned from exploring the site?
Listen to National Public Radio's March 12, 2002 broadcast of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic at the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
The United Nations updates trial transcripts of Milosevic on a weekly basis. Visit the International Court of Justice site and explore the briefs submitted by the prosecution along with the transcripts in this groundbreaking case.
The emergence of international law, as illustrated by the Milosevic case, is complex. This powerpoint presentation on international law will provide additional resources, cases, and ways of thinking about this phenomenon.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Global Perspectives on Human Rights
Civitas-Partnership for Emerging Democracies
Global Perspectives on Human Rights
John J. Patrick (1998) offers a global view about human rights and democracy that provides a useful overview of the relationship.
Read Patrick's A Global Perspective
on Human Rights Education 
| and respond in
your Civics Journal #17: |
How is the notion of natural rights been interpreted as human rights in the 20th Century?
What is the difference between positive and negative rights?
What are some problems and controversies surrounding global human rights?
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Global Perspectives on Human Rights
Civitas-Partnership for Emerging Democracies
Civitas
Partnerships for Emerging Democracy
CIVITAS International, a world-wide non-governmental organization for civic education, aims to strengthen effective education for informed and responsible citizenship in new and established democracies around the world. CIVITAS International is composed of individuals, non-governmental associations, and governmental institutions from many countries as well as international organizations.
CIVITAS was inaugurated at an international conference of civic educators held in Prague in June 1995. More than 450 civic educators from 52 countries met at CIVITAS@Prague.1995 to discuss the importance of civic culture to the successful development and maintenance of democratic governance. They explored the central role of civic educators in cultivating a democratic culture and pledged to continue their joint efforts to raise the visibility of civic education on the international agenda and leverage their resources through cooperative efforts.
At the close of the Prague conference, participants from the 52 nations adopted and signed the following declaration:
Visit the CIVITAS International website to learn more about these projects.
As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, what effect might these global trends have on the viability of democracy throughout the world?
Was Winston Churchill correct in saying that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all of the others?
If so, is democracy appropriate for all human societies?
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Take a few minutes to respond to these questions based upon what you know of CIVITAS in your Civics Journal #18. |
The
Center for Civic Education posted an international framework for education in
democracy called Res
Publica in December of 2003. It is a lengthy and comprehensive document
but the authors invite feedback on this draft document. If you read the document
and would like to offer feedback to the authors you can send them an email at
cce@civiced.org.
Develop a piece of found poetry using the Civitas Declaration (instructions on how to develop found poetry are included in the link).
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Global Perspectives on Human Rights
Civitas-Partnership for Emerging Democracies
Civitas in Hungary
One initiative of the Civitas program has been an emerging partnership with Hungary. Partners in Florida, Texas, and Mississippi have been active in working with Hungarian educators to promote effective civic teaching and learning. You can read more about this particular effort by reading some recent annual reports
Annual Report of the Civitas Hungary Project 2002
Annual Report of the Civitas Hungary Project 2003
Hungary has experienced wide efforts to promote democratic citizenship since since 1989. Here are a variety of interesting lesson plans developed for U.S. teachers to engage students in issues related to Hungary's democratic movement.
ANALYZING THE HUNGARIAN CONSTITUTION
REVOLUTION AND
FREEDOM: THE REVOLUTION OF 1956
and the DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION OF 1989-90
ECONOMIC TRANSITION:A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Global Perspectives on Human Rights
Civitas-Partnership for Emerging Democracies
Democracy in Africa
Democracy has a lengthy tradition of democratic principles operating in community life and governance. African nations have been plagued since the end of colonialism, however, with rife corruption, coup d'etats, assasinations, and revolutions. Explore some of the possibilities and problems associated with democracy on the continent of Africa.
Read a recent article that calls Africans back to their democratic roots in Benin conference urges democratic consolidation from the online journal, African Recovery.
Read a few other articles about Africa and democracy and discuss them with a colleague.
Listen to an excellent discussion from NPR on Africa and Democracy.
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Once you have explored this section, respond to these questions in your Civics Journal #19: |
What are some of the arguments in favor of democracy in Africa? Against?
What interest does the U.S. and other nations have in Africa's political stability?
What happened in February, 2002 in Zimbabwe and why did it garner so much attention internationally?
What are some of the obstacles for promoting democracy in Africa today?
Mission Accomplished!
Now that you have completed the entire professional development module, please critique what you found here around the following questions in Civics Journal #20:
(1) What most surprised you in this module?
(2) What new ideas did you encounter?
(3) How would you rate the utility of this module in your teaching practice (scale of 1-10)?
(4) What would you change about this module?
(5) Additional comments/thoughts...
Thanks for your contributions to this project!