The Civic Education Working Group is a team that deals with all the plans of AEGEE’s Action Agenda related to Civic Edication, such as being present in Network Meetings and defining AEGEE’s position on civic education for the policy paper. We have spoken with Joanna Pankowska, who told us about the main aims and tasks of her Working Group and how an AEGEE member can get involved in CEWG.
The Civic Education Working Group (CEWG) has got the same aim as that of AEGEE in general, namely achieving the objectives of the Action Agenda. Its Focus Area is a bit more tricky because the members have two big aims (in opposition to one for each of the other Working Groups). One of their aims is focused on the non-formal aspect of civic education and particularly AEGEEans, while the other one is about formal education and so trying to lobby for more civic education in schools. In order to achieve it the CEWG has to convince politicians it’s a good idea.
The team consists of six members (Andrea, David, Joanna, Jorge, Paul and Sien) who started working in August and will finish their term next year in August. Also, a task force is working on starting the European Citizens’ Initiative.
This team consists of ten people (Domen, Esther, Joanna, Kabir, Matthijs, Pablo, Paul, Richard, Stefania and Tessa) and their work will surpass the term of the working group. In the Working Group there are also the Policy Officer and the Coordinator. The Policy Officer, Jorge, supports their work in many aspects (often with his academic knowledge) but he focuses his energy mostly on policy work. Very soon he will release the survey which will be the basis for the policy paper on civic education which will be voted during the Agora Bergamo. Paul coordinates their work, but he is also the representative towards external partners, besides being the IT amateur-expert when it comes to ECI servers.
The main subject of the Working Group, Civic Education, includes gainig the competencies, i.e. skills, knowledge and attitudes, required to be an active, democratic and responsible citizen. Its ultimate goal is to educate the population on democratic citizenship and make them aware of their rights and responsibilities, but this is a very Eurocentric definition and civic education can have many other meanings in different parts of the world. Joanna appreciates the challenge of being the first generation of Working Groups in the new format. “The framework developed by previous Comité Directeur was quite clear and it did not cost us much time to figure out our place in the organisation. But, because we do not want to be the new kids in the block, getting much attention now but being forgotten very soon, we put extra effort in making sure that there will be a next generation of Working Group members”.
About the contribution in organising SUs, Joanna says: “We did actively seek locals willing to cooperate with us in organising a SU that matters. Many emails and informal talks later we have ten locals who are formally cooperating with us and with which we are in touch, but the total of the locals which chose one of the four topics (Human Rights, Environmental Sustainability, Active Citizenship, or Intercultural Communication) is 19! It is still too early to open up the champagne because we still have to make sure that the topics are to be properly executed during the Summer University but we think it is safe to say that the ten percent will be more than achieved. Note that the content of Summer University “Get Civic, Get Educated” in Warszawa will be 100% done by us and is a perfect place to be for future working group members”.
Paul Smits’ Working Group choose a “C” with an hand 
as official symbol but there was not a real reason for that choice. The idea was to look for something that symbolises active, democratic and responsible citizen and raising the hands is a good start. The logo has been created by Gerardo García Díaz.
Every AEGEE member can get involved in CEWG by signing up for its monthly newsletter to stay updated with all the possibilities to contribute, like organising a discussion about civic education matters in their local. In some of the NWMs, there will be a session about civic education. Every person can also fill in and help to distribute the survey for the policy paper. Moreover, everybody can also participate in the online discussion which we organise regularly in Skype or Google Hangouts. But the best possible way is to candidate for the next CEWG coordinator position on the upcoming Agora or to apply as a member of the WG around next June.
Written by Matteo Lai, AEGEE-Cagliari.