Training of Trainers as Multipliers
In cooperation with the Center for Applied Policy Research (C A P) of the Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, the Goethe-Institut Cairo launched a training-of-trainers programme on civic education in 2014. Held annually, it initially addressed actors of Egypt’s civil society who had received their certification as trainers under the Civic Education project. In 2017, the programme was made available to civil society actors already working as trainers, and expanded to Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia, enabling representatives of civic education institutions to connect on a regional level.
Tolerance, social diversity, human rights, and democracy are key concepts of the training, which participants are encouraged to explore and evaluate using different methods. The training sessions follow a participatory approach, which creates a realistic experience of the challenges and opportunities of applying democratic principles in decision-making processes and conflict situations within a group context.
More than 70 women and men have already completed the programme and certified as trainers. They receive varied follow-up support in the context of the project: The Goethe-Institut Cairo provides alumni with funds to implement workshops, trainings, or project ideas of their own. The project further offers them the possibility to make use of experienced local coaches in order to advance their own professional development. They may also participate in regular Goethe alumni events to connect and exchange ideas with alumni from other projects.
Civic Education “Open Source”
Based on the training-of-trainers programme, four manuals have been developed that detail and explain the approaches, methods and tools tested in the programme. They serve trainers of the MENA region and beyond as a reference when implementing seminars and workshops on civic education. The materials are available in Arabic and English, open-source, and therefore free to download:
Civic Education Conferences I-III
The Goethe-Institut and partners planned and implemented two Civic Education Conferences (CEC), which took place in 2013, in Egypt (Alexandria), and 2016, in Tunisia (Hammamet). The conferences brought together more than 200 actors from Europe and the Arab region to draft recommendations for action to support civil society in the MENA region.
The third Civic Education Conference will take place in December 2018, in Morocco (Casablanca). The organisation of this year’s conference will be the responsibility of Networking Arab Citizenship Education (hereinafter “the NACE Network”), in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Cairo, the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), and the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute (DEDI).
Networking and Consolidation
Regional networking events aim at strengthening and expanding civil society networks on regional as well as national levels in order to tie together competencies and resources, and to provide lasting support to individuals and institutions of the MENA region working in the field of civic education. The Goethe alumni and their networks are systematically included in considerations for all national and regional networking activities.
The Goethe-Institut Cairo is a member of the NACE network, which was initiated by the bpb and officially introduced at the CEC 2016 in Tunisia. As a platform for civic education actors and institutions from the MENA region, NACE aims at strengthening and promoting civic education in the region, on the one hand, while seeking the exchange with existing networks in Europe, on the other. The Goethe-Institut Cairo, as a member and with its own networks in mind, intends to make use of synergies in its regional networking efforts. It can capitalise on its local expertise and network of relationships on the ground.
In this context, the Goethe-Institut Cairo, in cooperation with Haus am Maiberg – Academy for Political and Social education of the Diocese of Mainz, organised a one-week study trip to Germany in 2017. This gave training multipliers of the NACE Network the opportunity to delve into the history, approaches, and challenges of civic education in Germany, and to connect and exchange ideas with German colleagues in the field.
A project of the Goethe-Institut and supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.
