CSTL Children’s Participation Framework: Mainstreaming children’s civic responsibilities and rights in and through educationA guide for mainstreaming children’s civic responsibilities and rights in and through education through 21st century oriented CSTL planningDecember 2018

What is the CSTL participation framework?

Title and Content Layout with Chart

▪ Tool to enrich SADC CSTL Policy Framework

▪ To better achieve CSTL objectives across SADC▪ To ensure all children, especially the most

vulnerable, realize their right to education by ensuring schools are inclusive centres of learning, care and support and provide quality education

▪ By defining quality education in the 21st

century to include the empowerment of children to participate as engaged citizens-that is – mainstreaming their agency

▪ Mandating and providing direction on reforms required across essential elements of CSTL to improve quality by mainstreaming children’s civic responsibilities and rights through whole-curriculum reform

Children’s civic responsibilities and rights in and through education

The rationale

The rationale for a CSTL Children’s Participation Framework: realising the quality imperative

Education’s purpose is transformative and must prepare children for participation – as holders of responsibilities and rights – as engaged citizens

▪ African and global rights and development instruments require education to transform society by developing children to be drivers of rights-based sustainable development

▪ To prepare children to fulfil their responsibilities and be active and engaged citizens in social, economic, political, and cultural life

▪ Not just in the future – but now and in the future

▪ To engage in solving developmental problems

▪ To be drivers of sustained prosperity, peace and social cohesion depends on all children, especially the most marginalised,

being active contributors to the economy, political life, social and cultural life

The rationale for a CSTL Children’s Participation Framework: realising the quality imperative

▪ CSTL requires quality education = that achieves the aim of education

▪ The aim of education is to prepare all children and youth to participate as engaged citizens

▪ Sustainable development depends on economic prosperity, social cohesion, peaceful and democratic societies, good governance and environmental sustainability

▪ Moving forward, children are the custodians of this vision. They are the ones that will have to drive inclusive development, economic prosperity, social justice, peace and good governance, and sustainable environments

▪ If they don’t: the SDGs will not be achieved

▪ Whether it happens depends on the quality of education. It depends on the capacity of children to lead and participate as citizens in all aspects of modern life and fulfil their civic responsibilities

▪ Requires the education system to prepare them to be active and engaged citizens with the skills, capacities and knowledge assume their responsibilities as

▪ Drivers of economic prosperity▪ Leaders, role models, and practitioners of social cohesion and inclusion▪ Leaders and participants of peaceful and democratic societies – peace and security▪ Leaders in tolerance and diversity▪ Leaders and practitioners of environmentally sustainable living

Inclusive development

Prepare children to be engaged

citizens

Providing quality

teaching and learning

Preparing children to be engaged and active citizens

▪ To be engaged requires that children, especially the most marginalised be

▪ Enabled

▪ Empowered; and

▪ Capacitated

▪ Especially those historically excluded from social, economic, cultural and political life

▪ They must be empowered through education to know and practice their civic responsibilities

▪ Therefore they need to know and exercise their civil and political rights in and through education

Children’s civil and political rights necessary to participate as engaged citizens

▪ Right to express own views and be heard in all matters affecting them

▪ Right to express views without fear or prejudice

▪ Right to hold own views and practice religion of choice

▪ Right to join groups or associations for expressing common or shared viewpoints

▪ Right to protection from interference with their privacy

▪ Right to access information which is socially and culturally relevant through diversity of sources, including the media

Children’s civic responsibilities and rights in and through 21st

century education

The how

How? By driving improvements in the quality of education through 21st-century focused CSTL planning

▪ CSTL policy framework is SADC initiative, adopted by all education ministers

▪ All ministries have committed to address barriers to quality education that will drive rights-based development in the region

▪ A critical barrier – the poor/outdated quality of education

▪ Responsibility implicit in CSTL is to improve the quality of education so that it is▪ relevant; and ▪ provides children with knowledge, skills and capacities they need to participate in

all aspects of life

▪ CSTL Policy Framework provides an authoritative mandate to improve quality of education to achieve its transformational goals

▪ As it currently is framed, it provides only limited guidance on measures necessary to do so

Achieving CSTL transformational goals through 21st century learning planning

▪ The guidance we need is to be found in the 21st

century learning framework

▪ 21st century learning is a planning framework that calls for transformation of whole education system across same pillars as CSTL

▪ With objective of ensuring children have knowledge, skills and capacities they need to be active and engaged citizens prosperous, peaceful and democratic 21st century society

▪ The 21st century learning framework▪ Makes explicit the quality imperatives of CSTL

▪ Provides a vehicle for driving changes – competency-based curriculum reform

CSTL transformational and 21st century competencies: One and the same

CSTL transformational capacities

▪ Knowledge of rights and responsibilities▪ Knowledge of 21st century development challenges and

solutions▪ Knowledge of how society and political arrangements

work▪ Ability to access to information from a diversity of sources▪ Ability to use information effectively to identify and solve

problems and participate in decision-making processes▪ Ability to reason critically ▪ Ability to manage conflict ▪ Ability to make rational or reasoned choices, and

understand the consequences of choices▪ Tolerance of difference▪ Communication skills▪ Rhetoric skills

21st century competencies to be achieved through competency-based curriculum

▪ Critical thinking, problem solving, reasoning, analysis, interpretation, synthesizing information

▪ Research skills and practices▪ Creativity and innovation – problem solving▪ Self-direction, planning, self-discipline, initiative▪ Oral and written communication, public speaking and

presenting, listening skills▪ Leadership, teamwork, collaboration, cooperation▪ ICT literacy, media and internet literacy, data

interpretation and analysis, computer programming▪ Civic, ethical, and social-justice skills and knolwedge▪ Economic and financial literacy, entrepreneurialism▪ Global awareness, multicultural literacy,

humanitarianism▪ Scientific literacy and reasoning, the scientific method▪ Environmental and conservation literacy▪ Health and wellness literacy

The CPF brings together CSTL and 21st century learning: as mutually supportive planning tools

▪ The CSTL Participation framework requires improvements in the quality of education to achieve 21st century transformational learning outcomes

▪ Provides clarity and direction on quality outcomes that CSTL-planning should advance

▪ Drawing on 21st century learning the framework provides direction on how to strengthen quality of education and realise children’s agency

▪ It directs a process of CSTL-sensitive curriculum reform across pillars to secure mainstreaming of children’s civil and political responsibilities and rights:

▪ Curriculum content ▪ Infrastructure & teaching and learning resources▪ Educator support ▪ Relationships with community▪ Leadership and governance

CSTL Participation Framework vision and goal

Vision

All education systems in the SADC region provide 21st century teaching and learning which empowers and enables all children to know and exercise their civic and political responsibilities and rights

Special measures will ensure the inclusion and empowerment of the most vulnerable and marginalised, so that they may be engaged citizens with the agency to drive inclusive development.

Goal

To ensure that all SADC Ministries of Education apply the CSTL Policy Framework to strengthen the quality of education.

Specifically that a CSTL-sensitive 21st

century curriculum develops the capacities, knowledge, skills, values and attitudes of learners, necessary for them to fulfil their responsibilities as active and engaged citizens in the 21st century.

Objectives of the CSTL Participation Framework

▪ To secure agreement amongst SADC Ministries of Education on:▪ The transformational aim of education; and ▪ That whole system reform is required to develop

civic and political capacities and competencies of learners to achieve the developmental aims of education

▪ To foster an understanding of the relationship between quality education, 21st century learning outcomes and CSTL

▪ To foster an understanding of what is required under each of the pillars of the essential package of care and support to achieve the requiredcurriculumoutcomes

▪ To provide policy statements to develop and deliver an enabling learning environment that promotes the competencies children require as engaged citizens, including their civil and political competencies

▪ To provide benchmarks against which Member States can measure progress in realising the defined reforms and outcomes

▪ To define the role of the education and other sectors

▪ To serve as an advocacy tool to strengthen realisation of children’s civil and political rights, notably their right to participate in all decisions that affect them, in and through the education system.

CSTL Policy Framework and Guidelines: Curriculum support

Curriculum support policy statement

Every Member State shall develop or review its Curriculum Framework to identify the developmental and rights-based aims of education.

▪ The Curriculum Framework should:▪ Define the aim of the education system to prepare all children to be

engaged and active citizens in a 21st

▪ Enable and empower them to lead and participate in economic, social, cultural and political life, as well as good governance in a constructive, peaceful and meaningful way

▪ Describe defining features of the various components of the education system so that they may be planned, implemented and monitored to work synergistically to realise the civic and political aims of education.

▪ The guidelines provide further detailed guidance

CSTL Policy Framework and Guidelines: Infrastructure

Infrastructure policy statement

Ministries of Education must develop and adopt policies and programmes to create an enabling teaching and learning environment made up of appropriate infrastructure and teaching and learning materials that will:

• Support realisation of children’s civil and political responsibilities and rights

• Create opportunities for developing the skills and capacities to effectively exercise their responsibilities and rights

The guidelines indicate what this would look like. For example, infrastructure policies and programmes should:

▪ Secure a rich mix of media and devices, varied cultures, and virtual and real-life relationships

▪ Support open dialogue and access to relevant information; facilitate connections with broader social and political dialogue spaces

▪ Foster learning spaces that “promote interaction and a sense of community [that] enable formal and informal learning.”

▪ Support professional learning communities that enable educators to collaborate, share best practices, and integrate 21st century skills into classroom practice

CSTL Policy Framework and Guidelines: Teacher development and support

Teacher development and support policy statement

Ministries of Education are required to support teachers to be 21st

century educators and:

▪ Provide the holistic and diverse teaching children need to know and exercise their civil and political rights.

▪ Develop child-centered, participatory and practice-oriented teaching practices and attitudes.

▪ Encourage, and be tolerant of a diversity of views and opinions and actively seek these out in the process of teaching.

▪ This should be done through:▪ Pre- and in-service training & continuing professional development ▪ The development of schools as hubs of learning supported by

effective networks of educators outside of the formal education system to

▪ Monitoring and ongoing mentoring and support▪ Providing access to supportive teaching and learning resources

CSTL Policy Framework and Guidelines: Community involvement

Community involvement policy statement

Ministries of Education must support schools to become facilitators of teaching and learning

They should do this by establishing them as eco-systems of learning

Schools must be supported by collaborative partnerships that secure sharing of information through schools necessary for children to know, understand and practice their civil and political responsibilities and rights.

This will require building of partnerships and opening of schools to partnerships with external role players such as:

▪ The media▪ Electoral commissions▪ Political parties and politicians▪ NGOs▪ Child-led organisations▪ Human rights organisations and institutes.

CSTL Policy Framework and Guidelines: Governance, leadership and structures

Governance, leadership and structures policy statement

Ministries of Education should:

▪ Lead transformation of education systems by reviewing and revising the CSTL national model to include goals, policy aspirations and outcomes envisaged in this framework

▪ Review and revise school governance laws, policies and institutions to ▪ Ensure governance structures include children ▪ Define and prescribe children’s roles and mandates as well as role and mandate of

extended community of learning

▪ Strengthen the NCU through:▪ Ensuring representation by the extended learning community and children▪ Make curriculum the co-chair

▪ Strengthen leadership to align with education’s core mandate▪ Mandate co-CSTL focal person within curriculum

▪ Identify and embed 21st century learning indicators in CSTL MER at SADC and MS levels

▪ Build partnerships and encourage children’s participation advocacy groups to adopt CSTL as an advocacy vehicle for the cause

Applying our minds to some challenges

Questions for consideration by panelists and participants

Possible road blocks

There is a common view that civil and political rights are a problem for governments and adults generally in the African region and this makes it difficult to advance these rights?

Do you think this view really reflects how governments and adults view these rights for children?

If yes, why do you think governments and adults are uncomfortable with these rights?

Questions continued

▪ Dou think that the education systems and reformed curricula are preparing children adequately to take up their civil and political responsibilities?

▪ Are these responsibilities given as much attention as their economic and social responsibilities?

▪ What can be done to make education systems better prepare children for their civil and political responsibilities in a climate of concern and tension around their civil and political rights?

Thank you