engleski

The Attitudes of Students and Teachers Towards Civic Education and Human Rights

Schools and education are one of the most sensitive and important issues for the transmission of cultural knowledge and development of attitudes towards one’ s own and other groups, as well as towards civil society, human rights and public life in general. Historically, school and family have been used to promote dominant values, beliefs and ways of life. In this way, education for civil society and human rights can and should be thought continuously through school life and not only through specific curriculum. Education for civil society and human rights is therefore an essential element which should be interwoven into all areas of learning and life. The aim of this study was to examine the attitudes and opinions of primary and high school students and their teachers towards civic education at school, family environment and local community. The sample comprised 208 primary school students, 106 high school students and 111 teachers. The values like rights, obligations, responsibilities, democracy, freedom and peace were examined in relation to subjects’ gender, age and level of school (primary and high). The results show the statistically significant difference in the freedom of decision-making in local community between female and male students of primary and high school. Regarding school level, there is statistically significant difference between primary and high school students. Primary school students show higher degree in freedom to make decisions at school than high school students. Teachers of primary schools have more positive attitudes towards introducing human rights and civic education in teaching curriculum than teacher of high schools. Moreover, there is a statistically significant difference in the level of attitudes towards introducing human rights and civic education in teaching curriculum in relation to age: younger teachers have more positive attitudes toward those values than their older colleague’ s.

civic education; human rights; rights; obligations; responsibilities; democracy; freedom; peace.

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