Learning citizenship for the new society in Europe. From theory to practice in the university qualification of teachers in service

In Italy, citizenship education and civil coexistence was a training subject for teachers in service, who had returned to the university to obtain a formal teaching qualification. The subject was proposed during the course of Child and Pre-adolescent Pedagogy at the Università Roma Tre (2005-2006). The purpose of the course was to have teachers think about the already known concept of citizenship, laboratory practice as a direct new experience of learning citizenship and introducing citizenship into school educational programmes.The main reference environment is schools, closely observed and evaluated by society. In this context, the idea and practice of citizenship must be reassessed according to new analytical, conceptual and critical perspectives. Teachers, who return to university for a higher qualification, come into contact with new learning situations and develop thinking processes, which they may be able to adapt to their lessons. The aims of teachers’ training are: -