Felisa Tibbitts: A Primer for Selecting Democratic and Human Rights Education Teaching Materials
| Critical Choices for Hungary:
Issue Materials for Social Science Curricula was developed by The Joint Eastern Europe
Center for Democratic Education and Governance (Hungary) for use in social science
classrooms. The materials include a student text and a teacher's guide,
and are designed for students aged 14 and older. Using the original Hungarian text as a
model, similar issue materials have been developed, or were planned at the time of this
writing, for Poland, Slovakia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Serbia. Critical Choices is not a textbook, but a resource for public discussion and debate on policy issues. These materials, and the discussions that are engendered, are intended to foster public discourse and citizen involvement. Although more oriented towards citizenship education rather than human rights education, this approach clearly fosters knowledge of one 's rights and citizen action.Each national version presents a half dozen topics, such as unemployment, crime and national security. For each topic, a research-based introduction is given to the problem, followed by three differing opinions on possible solutions. The teacher 's guide offers suggestions for organizing 'classroom forums' or discussions on the issues, for guiding and enriching the discussion, finding solutions, and for organizing follow-up activities.The Critical Choices series offers a strong model for focusing on discussion and civic deliberation. The authors encourage the organization of public forums, with results reported to the media and politicians. However, the materials may also be used more modestly as the basis of classroom discussion and debate. In addition to the model of public discourse that it promotes, Critical Choices materials enable in-depth analysis of policy issues, drawing heavily on national data and perspectives. This attention to current issues helps to bring complex policy matters alive in social science classrooms. The excerpt presented comes from the chapter "Poverty in Hungary." This topic is of special interest within the transitional democracies because of the social and economic dislocations that have taken place.Title: Critical Choices for Hungary: Issue Materials for Social Science CurriculaEditor: Ferenc Hammer Publisher: The Joint Eastern Europe Center for Democratic Education and Governance Place and date of publication: Budapest, 1995 Languages: Hungarian, English, Russian, Polish, Slovakian, Slovenian and Serbian. Total pages: student material -- 105 teacher's guide -- 36 Form: 19 cm x 14 cm books Address: The Joint Center, Pf. 701-316, 1399 Budapest HUNGARY Available in full-text in HREA's Electronic Resource Center: http://erc.hrea.org/Library/secondary/critical-choices.html |