Cards for Democracy for All: what are they and how to use them

Except from the interview Cards for Democracy for All: what are they and how to use them

On today’s post, we’re going to introduce you the Interview named “Cards for Democracy for All: What are they and how to use them”.

The interview is hosted by Cinzia Billa, French teacher in Italy and Learn 2 Change’s member since 2015, and the interviewed is Pascale Mompoint Gaillard, researcher and facilitator and co-founder of Learn to Change.

The main topic of the interview is the Cards for Democracy which is one of the latest products that Learn to Change launched. They have been created by the active members of the Association. It’s also inspired by other tools that developed with the Pestalozzi Program.

In this article we will summarize some of the main topics that Cinzia and Pascale talked about. You can also find the full video at the end of the article!

What are cards for democracy?

Cards for Democracy are a set of 60 cards intended for people from age 7 to any age.

They can be used individually and in groups. They can be used on their own or they can be combined with any other pedagogical or training approach or methodology that you use.

The cards help us reflect on our intention and help us improve our attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to better contribute to creating democratic spaces around us and to improve our practice and behaviors for constructing a more just and happy society.

With Cards for Democracy, we can reflect on our interior conditions for creating deeper and kinder interpersonal relationships for a democratic culture.

We can learn how to show up in the world with democratic values in mind and, for teachers, it’s about learning how to shop in the world of education with the democratic values in mind.

And therefore, we also have a second project called Cards for Democracy – Teacher’s Edition that is geared towards professional development of educators and facilitators of learning.

The cards are colorful, versatile, easy to handle, and each one is a behavior that is observable.

It’s a component of a competent action for democratic culture, and they are all in the form of AI statements. So it is easy to reflect on what we’re doing or not doing. Concerning a particular statement, the 60 cards describes 60 observable actions that we can engage with to improve our democratic culture, the democratic culture around us, and our lives with others, the people we interact with.

With the cards, for example, we can reflect on what are my values? Are they democratic? Do I practice my values or am I live in contradiction? What are the democratic values that are identified as important by others around me? Are there practices, actions and behaviors of actors in my community that are in line with these values? Or not? And how so? And what needs to be done to change any of these inconsistencies and contradictions?

Those questions are all important, and with cards for democracy, we can engage with them quite informally, conversationally.

When and where can the cards be used?

Cards can be used in many different settings. 

They can be used from students in state schools, but what we have discovered is that they are very adaptable: for example, I know that they’ve been used in out of school activities, they’re also being used from managers in the businesses sector when they are dealing with the issues of management or a team cooperation. So as you can see, they can be used in many different settings as they are very versatile.

As anticipated above, cards can be used on their own or combined with other pedagogical or training approach or methodology that are already known. 

For example, the TASKs book – Transversal attitude skills and knowledge for education for democracy can be a good partner for cards for democracy. TASKs for Democracy in formed by 60 activities to learn and assess transversal attitudes, skills and knowledge. 

This book was created to support teachers in their efforts to promote democracy through and in education. It is meant as a handbook for practitioners in formal and non-formal educational settings.

A book to support teachers in their efforts to promote democracy through and in education developed within the Pestalozzi Programme Community of Practice. This book is meant as a handbook for practitioners in formal and non-formal educational settings.