Russian Community Education Development Centre - Russia

RCEDC's strategies are informed by its philosophy of civic education, which is based on community engagement in addressing local problems. Individuals and organisations at the local level are considered equal partners in their own development. For instance, volunteerism in seen as central to the process of educating people about how to resolve local challenges. The school is understood as a potential site for the sharing of information and resources with the local community, in part through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs).

More concretely, RCEDC guides communities by, first, searching for financial resources to support educational projects at the local level. Second, it collaborates with local educational institutions, offering guidance in developing models of school management. Third, it provides information and training, in part through resources available at the RCEDC Resource Centre in Saint-Petersburg. These resources include:

• Distribution of hard-copy materials. RCEDC has translated foreign publications focussing on problems related to civic education, as well as published books and methodological materials. These materials may be accessed in the Resource Centre library, which is specific to the field of education.
• Organisation of conferences, seminars, and training programmes - some of which are held at the Resource Centre. A team of local trainers visits schools to guide students and teachers in various initiatives related to the field of civic education. Workshops conducted in Saint-Petersburg schools, for example, led to the planning of conferences in that city as well as in Petrozavodsk, Karelia. At the Saint-Petersburg "Democracy Schools: the ways of civil society development in Russia" event (in October, 2001), sessions were held for student leaders and school teachers on topics like the school as a resource centre for the local community, new information technologies for the civil education of students, lessons of peace and tolerance, and citizen skills. Each workshop integrated different communication techniques including debate, role-plays, and both guided and open discussions. The second day was dedicated to an organisational activity/game called "How to build a democracy in secondary and high school". Experts in the field of civic education and democratisation of education judged the individual small-group proposals; they then provided suggestions to the winning group, asking them to rewrite the project in application form and submit it to RCEDC for funding. Participants also opted to establish the Regional Network of the Democracy Schools in Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad region, electing a Steering Committee.
• Creation of a free-access Internet hall at the Resource Centre, which offers access to resources on the problems of education in local communities for Russian and foreign specialists. The RCEDC site, available in English and Russian, offers methodological information and analytical materials for teachers, students, and administrators on the problems of education in Russia. The site includes news, directories, links to publications and web-based resources in various topical areas related to education
• Design and performance of independent studies on the problems of education specific to different regions of Russia

Development Issues
Education, Community Participation, Technology, Children, Youth.

Organisers are motivated by their observation that, in the industrial era, it was possible to get good education and to built one's career on that basis. In contrast, today many people find that their education is insufficient in the constantly changing modern world. For the first time in history, they claim, a lot of highly educated people suffer from the same difficulties that illiterate people do. They constantly must acquire new knowledge and skills.