Role of civic education in strengthening social cohesion

Straipsnyje apžvelgiama švietimo integracinė funkcija, išryškinamas pilietinės edukacijos vaidmuo stiprinant visuomenės socialinę sanglaudą. Analizuojami tarptautiniai pilietinės edukacijos tyrimai, pristatoma Lietuvos jaunuolių socialiai orientuoto piliečio samprata.The article deals with the role of education and particularly the role of Civic Education in strengthening social inclusion. Establishing stronger cohesion within and among communities and nations is necessary precondition for peace and stability, as s for sustainable social and economic development. It is now widely established that education system often contribute to perpetuating social disparities and inequalities. Education has to enhance social inclusion through measures at the levels of policy, management, curricula content, etc. The short history of Civic Education in Lithuania based on the research work of M. Lukšienė (1985) is presented in the article. Civic education did play a strong role during the historical developments of Lithuanian educational system as it was showed by researcher. The post sovietic educational developments are reflecting on these experiences and on the international ideas coming from democratic states. The first ideas of rebuilding Civic education was developed already in 1988 when the educational reform did start. The process of changing concepts of civic education is showed: from civic education "as political socialisation" to civic education as "mean of ensuring continuity and stability through the inculcation of principles of obedience and compliance to existing social order". On the other hand, in cases of rapid political transition, civic education may be framed within a more progressive forward-looking vision accompanying processes of social and political change. The author presents the one part of the results of IEA (International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement) Civic Education Study (CivEd) which was run in 1996-2001. Lithuania was one of the 28 countries participating in this International Study. National Research coordinator Irena Zaleskienė deals with some results coming from this Study. Guidelines for the International Test included three Domains: Democracy (what does democracy means and what are its associated institutions and practises?); National Identity (how can sense of national identity or national loyalty among young people be described and how it relate with their orientation to other countries?), Social Cohesion and Diversity (what do issues of social cohesion and diversity mean to young people, and how do they view discrimination?). The attitudes of teenagers towards concepts of citizenship (conventional and social-related-movement) are analysed. According the data, Lithuanian results are on the first part of the scale. Social-related-movement - citizenship activities arc especially important in Colombia, Cyprus and Greece. Other countries with mean significantly above the international mean are Chile, Italy, Lithuania, and Portugal. In contrast, conventional political activity receives law ratings for importance to citizenship in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and England. Students are more likely to think of societal items rather than economic items as the government's responsibility. The results of Lithuanian students showed that they would like the government to take most of the social responsibilities like guarantee a job, keep prices under control, support industries, reduce income difference, etc. The conclusions are based on literature analyses and presented research data