Given the economic, social and historical changes of recent years, education today needs a re-thinking of its methodologies and goals. This book presents an innovative approach to language and culture teaching and learning in a context of full-immersion: EUFICCS (European Use of Full-Immersion, Culture, Content and Service) . Only thanks to a comprehensive and holistic way of conceiving the educational path, based on the practice of reflection, can students be empowered with those intercultural and democratic competences necessary to function as future global citizens. The EUFICCS approach offers some guidelines that can be applicable in several educational contexts, all around the globe. This publication is specifically addressed to educators, language and content teachers and all education practitioners, but it also discusses more general issues, such as interculturality, relations with the other, and service in the community.

Given the economic, social and historical changes of recent years, education today needs a re-thinking of its methodologies and goals. This book presents an innovative approach to language and culture teaching and learning in a context of full-immersion: EUFICCS (European Use of Full-Immersion, Culture, Content and Service) . Only thanks to a comprehensive and holistic way of conceiving the educational path, based on the practice of reflection, can students be empowered with those intercultural and democratic competences necessary to function as future global citizens. The EUFICCS approach offers some guidelines that can be applicable in several educational contexts, all around the globe. This publication is specifically addressed to educators, language and content teachers and all education practitioners, but it also discusses more general issues, such as interculturality, relations with the other, and service in the community.

A new Council of Europe reference framework of competences for democratic culture! Contemporary societies within Europe face many challenges, including declining levels of voter turnout in elections, increased distrust of politicians, high levels of hate crime, intolerance and prejudice towards minority ethnic and religious groups, and increasing levels of support for violent extremism. These challenges threaten the legitimacy of democratic institutions and peaceful co-existence within Europe. Formal education is a vital tool that can be used to tackle these challenges. Appropriate educational input and practices can boost democratic engagement, reduce intolerance and prejudice, and decrease support for violent extremism. However, to achieve these goals, educationists need a clear understanding of the democratic competences that should be targeted by the curriculum. This book presents a new conceptual model of the competences which citizens require to participate in democratic culture and live peacefully together with others in culturally diverse societies. The model is the product of intensive work over a two-year period, and has been strongly endorsed in an international consultation with leading educational experts. The book describes the competence model in detail, together with the methods used to develop it. The model provides a robust conceptual foundation for the future development of curricula, pedagogies and assessments in democratic citizenship and human rights education. Its application will enable educational systems to be harnessed effectively for the preparation of students for life as engaged and tolerant democratic citizens. The book forms the first component of a new Council of Europe reference framework of competences for democratic culture. It is vital reading for all educational policy makers and practitioners who work in the fields of education for democratic citizenship, human rights education and intercultural education.

Underscoring the complex relationship between civic engagement and education at all stages of life, this innovative Handbook identifies the contemporary challenges and best approaches and practices to encourage civic engagement within education.

The contributors to this volume have collaborated to present their work on introducing competences in intercultural communication and citizenship into foreign language education. The book examines how learners and teachers think about citizenship and interculturality, and shows how teachers and researchers from primary to university education can work together across continents to develop new curricula and pedagogy. This involves the creation of a new theory of intercultural citizenship and a procedure for implementation. The book is written by teacher researchers who aim to help other teachers, and concludes with reflections on the lessons they have learnt which will help others to implement these ideas in their own practice. The book is essential reading for foreign language educators and researchers, students in pre-service teacher training and teachers in in-service training.

This collection of essays and reflections starts from an analysis of the purposes of foreign language teaching and argues that this should include educational objectives which are ultimately similar to those of education for citizenship. It does so by a journey through reflections on what is possible and desirable in the classroom and how language teaching has a specific role in education systems which have long had, and often still have, the purpose of encouraging young people to identify with the nation-state. Foreign language education can break through this framework to introduce a critical internationalism. In a ‘globalised’ and ‘internationalised’ world, the importance of identification with people beyond the national borders is crucial. Combined with education for citizenship, foreign language education can offer an education for ‘intercultural citizenship’.