NECE festival 2024: a transformative meeting for civic education

From November 14 to 17, the NECE FESTIVAL 2024 took place in Tirana, Albania. Our session titled “Transformative Experiences at the Heart of Civic Education” was a session that brought together 28 participants from different countries in Europe, including Spain, Portugal, Montenegro, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Finland, Turkey, Italy, Moldova, Poland, among others.

During the session, we had notable presentations that offered transformative initiatives for civic education, presented by the protagonists themselves and international experts:

• Andrew Peterson (University of Birmingham) presented NEWS WISE, a transformative initiative for developing critical skills in the digital age. Discover more about this project here.
• Rui Nunes da Silva and Sara Silva from Portugal shared their project UBUNTU, an initiative promoting social inclusion and the strengthening of communities through active youth participation. More details about the project here.
• Jana Feherpataky-Kuzmová from IPAO presented Schools Changing the World, an innovative approach to transforming schools into engines of social change. Learn more about the project here.
• Elvira Hadzibegovic from Forum MNE presented SERVICE LEARNING FOR MORE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES, an approach based on service-learning to foster more inclusive communities. More information here.
• Lola Velarde from EFSE talked to us about YOUNG CIVIC LEADERS, a project focused on the training of young civic leaders who contribute to building a more participatory and equitable society. More information here.

Additionally, Juan Luis Fuentes Gómez-Calcerrada presented the conceptual framework consisting of previous academic work in identifying the cases that are part of the ECEC Network project, a collaborative effort to share good practices in civic education across Europe.

This event has been a unique opportunity to exchange ideas and strengthen the network of professionals committed to advancing civic education in Europe.

We thank all participants for their involvement and look forward to continuing this valuable work in the future.