article by Uladzimir Rouda
Any transitional society in which new democratic political and economic institutes are being formed faces the problem of political culture transformation, i.e. purposeful change of knowledge, skills, relations, value orientations, and behavioral models of the citizenry. Without this democratic political institutes can find themselves in a hostile social environment and even perish in the course of time.
For this reason in most transitional states governments pay a greatest attention to the processes of socialization and re-socialization, dedicated to overcome the dangerous barrier between the democratic political institutes of the society and the non-democratic political culture of the citizens. The key role in these processes belongs to civic education.
In its broad meaning, civic education is a system of educating people aimed at teaching them to live and act in the conditions of a democratic political system and market economy. Civic education has such tasks as transferring of society-related knowledge, assisting people in forming an independent civil position, and promoting the development of skills of responsible participation in political and social life.
Civic education supported by the democratic state played a tremendous role in the transition towards democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1940-1950s and in the Eastern Lands of the FRG in 1990s. In the USA, Canada, Australia, and Israel it fostered immigrants' adaptation to democratic values and norms. In Scandinavia, France, and Great Britain the system of educating people in democratic values affected the rising level of responsible political participation. Civic education in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former USSR has helped and still helps governments to solve the extremely difficult tasks of transforming political and economic systems in the conditions of relative political stability.
Swedish experience of civic education, which is distributed through divaricated network of "study circles", witnesses that adult education in this country is used as a peculiar form of existence and development of civil society in this country. In October 2003 the representatives of Belarusian Association for Civic Education (ACE) with the help of one of the biggest and most well-known organizations in Sweden got acquainted with the activity of numerous study circles in Stockholm and in regions of Sweden. This study visit gave us a possibility to see that study circles allows educational organizations to base their activity mostly on initiative from below, to satisfy the needs of various groups of population in educational services, to build a real partnership between local authorities and educational initiatives of citizens.
Peculiarities of civic education in Belarus
What is happening in civic education in Belarus? To answer this question, we need to answer the other ones before: is Belarus a democratic country? Is Belarusian government interested in forming a democratic political culture among its citizens? Unfortunately, the answer is "no". Since 1994 Belarus has refused from democracy as a goal of its development. In spite of the fact that in current Constitution the Republic of Belarus is called a democratic state with rule of law, in practice it is an authoritarian state or, in terms of political science, authoritarian regime of personal nature. Evidently, Belarus doesn't belong to so-called "transition countries". It is the last dictatorship in Europe. Due to this fact the Belarusian government does not just refuse to promote civic education in this country, it does its best to use the system of state-supported educational institutions and other bodies for reproducing, extending and intensifying anti-democratic ideas in the public consciousness, fostering its de-politicization and forming loyal attitudes and apathy among the population.
Other peculiarities of civic education in Belarus are connected with this:
First of all, education of Belarusian population in democratic principles and norms is developed by enthusiasts from NGOs, political parties, and non-governmental trade unions.
Secondly, civic education in Belarus faces much more tasks than in other countries. For instance, only our educational NGOs have to make their audience aware of their true national identity, promote people's communication to the Belarusian language and culture, teach Belarusian history, and do it all in the spirit of patriotism. Belarus is a unique country where the Government opposes development of culture of the title nation and hinders education in the Belarusian language. That is why civic education activists have to do the job that state officials fail to do.
Thirdly, civic education programs in this country are realized with inner sources of funding absent at all or extremely scarce. The state, as mentioned above, doesn't give them any assistance and creates barriers for them. Private businesses are very weak and largely dependent on the state. Thus, funding from international donor organizations is the most important source of financing educational projects. This has both advantages and disadvantages.
There are contradictory opinions about the mission of civic education in Belarus. On one hand, some politicians believe in it much, hoping to change the mentality of the population, which will later vote for representatives of democratic countries, only with the help of it. On the other hand, some non-governmental organizations and donors appeal for the total depolitization of civic education in Belarus.
Probably, the truth is half way along. The stake on civic education as the only way for the victory of democracy is erroneous . Democratic parties and institutions can't compete with the state in the field of socialization and re-socialization. It is no less erroneous to strive for de-politicizing educational programs and turning civic education into a narrow elitist sphere, something like a social gathering for the elite, separated from the citizenry and their needs.
Organizations dealing with civic education can expand their activity by working with the most active and potentially democratically oriented population groups, thus assisting democratic political parties in coming to power. On the other hand, political parties themselves should understand that their strategic purpose is not conduction of seminars and trainings for confederates but a daily work with the population and, finally, democratic victory. The task for opposition is not educational but a political one. Only after solving this task it is possible to start a wide-scale re-socialization of Belarusian society with the help of both NGOs and democratic state.
In spite of the current hard times for organizations dealing with civic education in Belarus and democratic "the third sector" in general, there are some factors which help them to find effective answers to internal and external challenges. The necessary experience has been accumulated, there are highly qualified experts, and cooperation between the organizations working in this sphere is in process.
The example of effective cooperation of Belarusian educational NGOs is Association for Civic Education (ACE). It was founded in January 2000 as a result of agreement among several Minsk and regional NGOs of the same profile. At present moment the members of ACE are such known Belarusian NGOs, as Open Society Foundation (Minsk), Center for Social Innovations (Minsk), Educational Center 'POST' (Minsk), "Chasenia" (Zaslavl), Association for Young Scientists "VIT" (Grodno), Center "Supolnast" (Minsk), Lev Sapieha Foundation (Minsk), Information and Analytical Center for NGOs (Minsk), "Ecohome" (Minsk), Women's Independent Democratic Movement (Minsk). The creation of ACE was extensively influenced by realization of Belarusian-Swedish educational project in 1999-2001, which was directed to assistance to Belarusian regional NGOs in their management. The partners in the project were Informational and Analytical Center for NGOs and The Open Society Foundation from Belarusian side and Forum Syd from Swedish.
All organizations-members of ACE regularly make informational exchange, as well as exchanges of trainers teams, scientific and methodic literature, they also work out and conduct joint educational programs. Members of ACE meet regularly to discuss the plans of joint activity, new methods, experiences, co-operation with foreign partners. In 2002 the Agreement on Cooperation among organizations-members of ACE was signed.
Each of organizations specializes in its sphere of civic education and gives services to its specific target groups. In our opinion, it is a strong feature of ACE, because its members fill up each other. For example, The Open Society Foundation and Informational and Analytical Center for NGOs deal with political education; women's independent Democratic Movement deals with gender issues, Center for Social Innovations and "POST" provide knowledge in the sphere of teaching methods and public management; "VIT" Association is well-known for its legal schools, the Lev Sapega Foundation is famous for its workshops in local self-government, "Supolnasts" - for its cultural and elucidative events, and "Ecohome" - for ecological programs.
Step by step the target groups of ACE broaden. If earlier the accent was made on work with members and activists of NGO, now more and more often the seminars and trainings are attended by non-engaged in NGOs and political parties citizens. Center for Social Innovations gives educational services to jobless people, "Chazenia" and Center "POST" conduct interesting trainings for teenagers, Association "VIT" works with students closely. The Open Society Foundation and Informational and Analytical Center for NGOs assist teachers in their further education.
Belarusian-Swedish project became the first program of Association for Civic Education. In 2003 the Association has started the realization of the second Belarusian-Swedish project together with SV-Stockholm. The result of the project is conduction of 80 study circles for 800 participants. The Association is also going to participate in Belarusian-Danish in the sphere of Community Development.
Certainly, Association for Civic Education meets difficulties and problems in its activity. Not all of them are of external nature. We recognize the necessity to widen out activity, to give main services to non-engaged people, to work more actively in Belarusian regions and to raise the quality level of education. But the presence of current effective forms of cooperation guarantees that ACE will be able to cope with these problems.
Study circles in Belarus
One of the most perspective directions of ACE's activity in current conditions in using the method of Swedish study circles in Belarus. The main advantage of this method is that with the help of it we can break the artificial barrier, which is built by authoritarian powers between Belarusian people and democratic forces. Democratic parties and organizations got used to such a situation. It is much more comfortable to work with co-thinkers than with non-engaged population. Study circles, in their turn, are first of all educational initiatives of different citizens: retired, students, teachers, workers, who self-organize to get knowledge and spend free time.
It is possible to attract through study circles into democratic movement new activists, interesting people, who will be able later to become leaders of their own study circles, to create non-governmental organizations or suggest new interesting ideas for all democratic movement in the country.
Study circles are very flexible form of non-formal education, which doesn't require the official registration and attraction of a huge amount of people and large material resources. In modern Belarus, where the non-governmental organizations are closed and authorities try to control the activity of all active NGOs the study circles, the participants of which can regularly meet at private flats without any license for educational activity, give the possibility the educational organizations not only continue their work but also to make it more effective.
Study circles in Belarus can become a real school of democracy because they refuse from authoritarian style of education, they envisage the active forms of the participation of citizens, exchange of opinions, discussion, choosing topics and joint creation of study materials by leaders and participants of study circles. As Swedish practice and our modest experience show, study circle is a small model of democratic community, in which both leader and participants work out the "rules of the game", which they learn to follow.
Acquaintance with Swedish experience of study circles, which happened in October 2003 due to study visit of Belarusian delegation, organized by SV-Stockholm, gave us a possibility to see different study circles and realize a big diversity of this form of adult education in Sweden. Even though the forms of their existence are different, the most important in their activity is satisfaction of needs which are formed in the society by its most active representatives. This is common for Sweden and Belarus. Current Belarusian society feels the necessity in democratic changes, which can be achieved only through self-organization, efforts in getting knowledge and new democratic practice.