Competences for Democratic Culture - Questionnaire for Education Professionals Version 8

The Education Department of the Council of Europe is currently developing a new framework of reference for democratic citizenship and intercultural competence (building on existing competence models developed by the Council of Europe and by other organisations). This framework is intended for use in educational planning and teaching. We would appreciate your assistance with this work by completing the following questionnaire. We estimate that it will take you less than 1 hour.

The theoretical model includes values, attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding that are required for democratic citizenship and intercultural competence. The model proposes 20 distinct components that need to be acquired by learners:

Values
1. Valuing other human beings, human dignity and human rights
2. Valuing cultural diversity and cultural otherness
3. Valuing democracy, justice, fairness, equality and the rule of law

Attitudes
4. Openness to cultural otherness and to other beliefs, world views and practices
5. Respect for and tolerance of other people, beliefs, world views and practices
6. Civic-mindedness
7. Responsibility
8. Self-efficacy
9. Tolerance for ambiguity

Skills
10. Autonomous learning skills
11. Analytical and critical thinking skills
12. Skills of listening and observing
13. Empathy
14. Flexibility and adaptability
15. Linguistic, communicative and plurilingual skills
16. Cooperation skills
17. Conflict-resolution skills

Knowledge and critical understanding
18. Knowledge and critical understanding of the self
19. Knowledge and critical understanding of language and communication
20. Knowledge and critical understanding of the world (including politics, law, human rights, culture, cultures, religions, history, media, economies, the environment and sustainability)

We are now in the process of developing descriptors that can be used to assess the extent to which a learner has acquired these components. A descriptor is a statement or a description of something that a learner is able to do if they have acquired a particular component. For example, if a learner has acquired cooperation skills, a possible descriptor might be “When working as a member of a group, consistently works well with other people to accomplish group goals”; if a learner has acquired a sense of responsibility, a possible descriptor might be “Shows that he/she takes responsibility for own mistakes”. We would like your help in establishing the usefulness of 30 of the draft descriptors. This involves you answering two types of questions for each descriptor.