Reform the Educational System
With cultural, political, and scientific development in all areas of life, current methods of education have remained disappointingly rigid. Ineffective generalised education attempting to teach a very diverse group of individuals with the limited methods of traditional academia is failing to adapt to the challenges of an Open Society and leaves individuals unprepared. Therefore, we demand a reform of education through the remodelling of teaching methods and broadening of non-traditional learning methods to dynamically reach the diverse individuals wanting and needing to take part in an Open Society.
Solution: Democracy in education
Many individuals do not participate in democratic procedures, not because of lacking engagement, but because they feel that their voices are not being considered. To foster a democratic mentality and increase engagement in political happenings, students should not only learn about, but perform democracy at every level of education.
Practical democratic workshops
We propose practical workshops on democratic topics to be part of the educational curriculum to complement traditional teaching methods and transform Open Society values into something tangible. We argue that such practical democratic workshops can be realised within an hour of consistent lecture time per week, potentially in the form of democratic games where students represent a country and negotiate a given topic to arrive at a common solution, following the examples of MUN or MEP. General guidelines should be to centre the current, theoretical approaches into practical measures, so that the content can be related to the values of an Open Society and students are provided with a positive experience of the democratic process.
Mandatory Student Government Body
To expand on voluntary student governments present in some schools – who are often excluded from actual decision making – we propose a mandatory inclusion of student governments in all areas of primary and secondary education. This entails including student representatives as voting members on school boards. Additionally, participation in the student government body should be mandated, in order to encourage non-typical students to participate in democratic processes within the school. This could mean mandatory voting for student representatives as well as allowing time within the curriculum – such as hours of general assembly in regular time frames (e.g., once a semester) – for a full assembly of students to discuss and vote on issues affecting the entire student body, in addition to more frequent meetings of a smaller, voluntary, more dedicated group.
We believe this to be especially important to provide early positive experiences with democracy, which of course entails understanding the often-long-winded processes of democracy, but also recognising these efforts can have an impact and are not determined to fail because the administration ultimately disregards their conclusions.
Thematisation of political happenings
Currently, democracy, political systems, agenda of national parties, and potentially country- specific voting processes are only included in school curricula as graded, academic content. This does not differentiate learning about democratic issues from learning contents of other curriculum subjects, such as history or science.
In order to connect this theory to actual life and point out the relevance of democratic processes to everyday life and decisions concerning each individual, we propose in-depth thematisation of political happenings in school. This would mean not only discussing elections or controversial topics in current affairs, but also inviting politician panels to schools to host discussions with students. Such panels should be happening in close proximity in time to surrounding elections and should be student led (with potential faculty moderation). This will allow students to question and discuss political contents in light of the various stances of political parties, helping them to form independent opinions and consider a variety of arguments.
Democratic determination of sub-topics in the curriculum
Students are often paralysed in passive reception of educational content, since currently these are prescribed from above, without necessarily making connections clear to students. This leads to disengagement and indifference toward education. Genuine interests and curiosities about a subject that fall outside of the curriculum are generally brushed aside and labelled as irrelevant or not within the time or curriculum constraints.
Inspired by the democratic school system, we therefore propose including options within curricula that students can vote on in order to provide them with agency over their own education. This would mean that within a certain subject (e.g., Biology) and potentially a sub- topic (e.g., an ecosystem), there would be different options (marine ecosystem, desert ecosystem, tropic ecosystem, etc.) that students within a class (or potentially within a school) could vote upon.
Solution: Adapting dynamically to changing media and technology
In order for education to be critical and relevant, it must face the evolving challenges to an Open Society as they emerge. Therefore, dynamic and flexible education is especially important.
Education about artificial intelligence and media literacy
As technology and applications of artificial intelligence are continuously changing and increasing, we find that there is a considerable knowledge gap in the general public. It is important for citizens to have an understanding of the automated decision processes that are operating within social media platforms, the technological devices they own, and many other applications of daily life.
Additionally, with the increasing presence of journalistic media online, on social media platforms, and on poorly or unmoderated platforms, judging whether content or a profile is fake is a crucial skill to be taught throughout the educational system in order to have conscious and active users of the Internet.
Therefore, we propose more thorough coverage of AI theories, automated decision processes and its applications, as well as theories of media literacy, visual literacy, and conscious internet usage in primary and further education. This goes hand-in-hand with data coding literacy as an emerging important skill in the digitalised world. To reach those outside the classical educational sphere, it is important to provide such teaching through workplaces of all income brackets, as well as providing publicly organised sessions available for the general public.
Mandatory training in software and hardware skills for teachers
As it is right now, many teachers and staff working in the administration of educational institutions do not have the necessary knowledge – neither about available software (such as
dynamic online teaching tools, mindmap drawing, interactive learning platforms) nor of facilitating hardware (e.g., smart whiteboards) – that is available for teaching. Often, students have greater knowledge about technologies in general (but not teaching technology specifically) than teachers, which may intimidate them to incorporate technologies over traditional pen-and-paper teaching methods.
Therefore, we propose mandatory regular training for teachers and administrative staff in educational institutions of all levels to make them aware of available technologies and give them confidence in using them. Incorporating teaching-supporting technologies into academic institutions should not mean using them wherever possible, but rather wherever necessary, and where their use can provide an advantage over traditional teaching methods. Being able to recognise where such applications are appropriate is another important point of training for teaching staff.
Solution: Broaden internationally oriented learning
Since an Open Society naturally reaches further than national borders and requires increased international understanding and awareness, we see it as a crucial point to actively incorporate intercultural and internationally oriented learning into education.
Therefore, all learning processes should focus on internationalism through specific practices, cultivating an international mindset from a young age. One example could be the creation of an international platform among schools. On such a platform, students from different countries could communicate, play games, or even assist each other with different topics in an educational context as part of the curriculum. Thus, all students would have the opportunity not only to be exposed to different cultures and mindsets, but also to improve their language skills (as the working language can be one other than English).
Moreover, to improve the orientation of education to a more international level, we need a more international and universal point of view when it comes to subjects such as history, economics, and politics – not focusing solely on national or European topics. Pupils should acquire international knowledge – even from an early age – in order to escape their national bubble and start developing a unified and all-embracing mentality, both of which are crucial aspects of an Open Society.
Open Questions
In order to implement the proposed changes to education, there must be a detailed assessment on a case-by-case basis of how they can be integrated into the specific curricula of different countries: How much leeway can we give to allow for this? Where do we need to define rigid guidelines to ensure an actual impact? Should such education be developed within the EU framework, or through lower-level cooperation between countries?