Social Literacy for the European Citizenship

Report on the International Seminar held in Brussels on 11th December 2013 on Social Literacy for European Citizenship


Prof. R. Carneiro, President CEPCEP, opened the seminar and spoke of the objectives of the
meeting namely that of:
• Getting input for the international conference on Social Literacy being planned for January
16th-17th  January, 2014 in Lisbon;
• Sharing results of some initiatives in the field of social literacy;
• Drafting of a dynamic action plan on how Social Literacy can facilitate Life Long Learning and
how it provides for increased confidence in becoming active European citizens.
Prof. Carneiro spoke of the essence of universal values, ethical and democratic values, respect
for one another, solidarity and love, and how important it is that these values are ingrained in our
education system.
L. Carvalho, the President of ILIDH, spoke of the qualitative and quantitative research carried
out in the field of Social literacy in Portugal and how the LED programme is based on the values
highlighted by Prof. Carneiro. LED commenced as a research project in 2007 and was later
developed into a programme. More information on LED on Values can be obtained by accessing
www.ledonvalues.org
The DAVID system was explained by Silvia Francario, researcher at MENON. The LED on Values,
through the Luso-LLLyrian Institute for Human Development, led this project as from 2011. The
established database, the certification and recognition processes and the overall strategy concerning
social literacy interventions were explained in some detail and discussed with participants. More
information can be obtained through http://www.menon.org/projects/david-review-system-and-
atabase-for-civic-citizenship-and-values-education/
Other initiatives were presented by The European Students Forum. Luis Alvarado Martinez,
AEGEE-Europe, spoke of the Y Vote project carried out in 2008 and its outcomes. The Y Vote 2014
project was launched with the aim of empowering young people to make an informed choice on the
European Parliament elections by undertaking actions both on a European and a local level. More
information can be obtained from http://www.aegee.org/aegee-europe-launches-y-vote-2014/
The presentation from the European Teachers EU, was the final one and focused amongst other on
the FaceIT project (2012-2015), which was awarded the DAVID award, reviewed by LED, the Voices
network project and the ET Size project aimed at the experienced teacher. The experience of the
teacher training courses on international studies, at the University of Applied Sciences/Saxion, in the
Netherlands, was another matter brought up. The internationalisation aspect within the curricula and
the importance of introducing this concept from the early years at school and in teacher training was
emphasized as it would enable more cohension between European citizens. More information can
be viewed at http://www.european-teachers.eu/
In conclusion, parental and teachers involvement in such initiatives was solicited, as IT clearly
emerged as a major influence on tomorrow’s citizens, in the light of their unique roles.

Doreen Camilleri
Representative on behalf of EPA