In this paper, I will discuss how the “Council of Europe Charter for Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human rights Education” (CHARTER) and the Council of Europe selection of methodological manuals, related to the same charter (COMPASS), can be implemented in secondary school in Norway.  Similar competences are outlined in the general curriculum for the Norwegian educational system (year 1-13), but there is little emphasis on a methodological approach to devloping these skills in a school context.

 I will present the charter and discuss to what extent it is possible to use the methodological approach undertaken in The Council of Europe Pestalozi program in order to implement the Charter in primary and secondary school. I will model lesson plans developed within the framework of the Pestalozzi program  and Compass, the Council of Europe manual for CECED/HRE teaching in school, and I will evaluate the motivational impact of such plans on students and teachers.

My objective in this research, is twofold:  first, to establish a methodological approach to working with the Charter and to introduce the result to teachers and teacher trainers in a workshop, and second, to carry out a case study with some of the same teachers, where collaborative learning shapes the methodological approach to value-based competence development in an educational context. The overall aim of this research is to safeguard and build our common future in line with the Council of Europe Charter through the educational system.

 The theoretical framework is based on the Council of Europe Charter (CECEDC/HRE) and the Council of Europe Pestalozzi program (Huber og Mompoint-Gaillard, 2011). Central concepts taken from education and other relevant fields of study will be theorized,  and among these are: intercultural, multicultural, dialogic approach to culture and literature (Osler, 2011, Kramsch, 1996, Tornberg, 2004) discrimination (Hubert & Mompoint-Gaillard, 2011), reflection and value (Barton og Shepherd, 2009, Vetlesen, 2011). These concepts will be described as change agents in an educational context. Concepts are defined and internalized through collaborative learning in a socio-cultural context (Arsenejeva mfl., 2012). As a teacher, teacher trainer and researcher, my theoretical approach is theory informed and experience based.

Council of Europe. (2010). The Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human rights Education. Strasbourg: COE Arsenejeva, J., Borbély-Nagy, É., Chupina, K., Clayton, H., Schneider, A. og Tóth, G. (2012) Compass. Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing. [internett] Accessible from: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/eycb/default_EN.asp Barton, G. og Shepherd, C. (2009) Developing reflective Practice in Student Teacher Candidates through Online Threaded Discussion. NSSA National Social Science Association, 32(1). Bernstein, B. (1977) Class codes and control. London, Routledge&Kegan Paul. Huber, J. og Mompoint-Gaillard, P. (2011) Teacher education for change - The theory behind the Council of Europe Pestalozzi Programme. Strasbourg, Council of Europe. Kramsch, C. (1996) The Cultural Component of Language Teaching. Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht [Online], 1(2), 13 pp. Tornberg, U. (2004) “Multiculturalism” – a dead end inconceptualizing difference, or an open-ended approach to facilitatingdemocratic experiencesin the foreign language classroom? Utbildning & Demokrati 13(3), s. 127-143. Vetlesen, A. J. (2011) Can Forgiveness be Morally Wrong? I: Fricke, C. (red.) The Ethics of Forgiveness: A Collection of Essays. Routledge. Osler, A. ( 2005) Teachers, Human Rights and DIversity. London. Trentham Books LTD. More references will be added later.