Lessons Learned from ... Romania:
Preliminary Findings from Longitudinal Study Reveals Impact of Alternative Human Rights-Related Curriculum

The preliminary results are in from an intensive, classroom-based study in Romania, where teachers experimented with an alternative civics curriculum based on human rights themes and using non-traditional methods of instruction. The experimental civic culture texts for the 7th and 8th Forms were developed by Dakmara Georgescu of the Institute of Educational Sciences. The books were developed within a Netherlands Helsinki Committee-organized program on human rights education.

The texts were designed for the Civics Culture classes, which schools are required to offer one hour a week at the upper primary school level. The texts were unique for Romania at the time they were introduced, including an instructional methodology that emphasized dialogue, critical reflection, and individual and group work. Fundamental democratic values and practices, human rights, and the right of the child were key themes for the materials. Students were encouraged to learn not only concepts, but to analyze their social and political worlds, and to prepare to become active members of their communities. The cooperating teachers in the experimental classrooms participated in three, two-and-a half-day trainings focusing on interactive methodologies and the teaching of citizenship and human rights education.

An impact study was conducted in the 1994-5 and 1995-6 school years with a single cohort of Romanian students (n=109) who used an experimental civic texts in the 7th and then the 8th Forms. The text emphasized critical thinking, dialogue and participatory methods of instruction. In addition to these "treatment" classrooms, comparison classroom students (attending the same school but receiving civics instruction using the official Ministry textbook) were administered the student questionnaire.

One aspect of the study involved the administration of a questionnaire to students. Closed-ended questions asked students to rate the importance of a series of proposed characteristics of a good citizen, as well as the importance of individual human rights listed in the survey. The two-page questionnaire included an open-ended question about what the students considered to be characteristics of a good citizen. Data from nearly 900 surveys were collected over the course of the study.

For the treatment class, students demonstrated a statistically significant gain in their rating of those citizenship characteristics that might be considered "participatory":

voting in most elections (F=14.05, p<.0001)

trying to influence government decisions and policies (F=21.87, p<.0001)

Gains were significantly higher for females in the voting category. There were no statistically significant gains in these categories for students in the comparison classrooms. The coding of the open-ended questions for the treatment classrooms confirmed the increased valuing of the group for the participatory categories of "voting" and "trying to influence government/being active in the community."

Students in both the treatment and control classrooms consistently rated very high the importance of obeying the law, honoring one’s country and not bringing dishonor to one’s country. The coded question concerning students self-definition of a good citizen showed an increase of over 37% for both the control and treatment groups over the course of two years, in the number of students mentioning "respect for the law" as a quality of a good citizen. Both the experimental and Ministry textbooks used followed the content guideline of the official curriculum, thus devoting a substantial portion of the materials to the Romanian political system, norms and laws, and formal concepts of democracy.

The study appears to confirm the results of others that have shown a clear link between instructional methodology and the development of participatory attitudes, or "civic behavior" in students. This relationship is evident even at such an early time in the post-totalitarian period. However, two years and considerable teacher support was necessary for this result. It would be interesting and important to see if these attitudes are sustained, and if students’ participation in school and community life was actually demonstrated.

The study also shows that students in this age group generally become more aware of the role and rule of law, expanding their notions of citizenship beyond that of civility and good manners. This may well be a reflection both of the emphasis of the Romanian civic culture texts, as well as the emerging ability of students to grasp abstract concepts related to the State and governance.

The full text of the study can be found in the on-line Human Rights Education Library: http://www.hrea.org/erc/Library/research/RPaper_4-991.html.

For more information, contact Felisa Tibbitts, Human Rights Education Associates (HREA), P.O. Box 382396, Cambridge, MA 02238-2396, USA, (tel) +1 617 625 0278, (fax) +1 617 249 0278, (e-mail) ftibbitts@hrea.org.