"Democracy for $500, please"...

"Give a water-tight definition for citizenship!"
I guess for a candidate in a quiz this question would be impossible to answer. There is not one single unchallenged definition for "citizenship". It is an essentially contested concept but what different approaches have in common is that citizenship is more than just knowing about rights and duties. It is also about identity and feelings of belonging.
But why is that important for us? I think that was the question most of us had in mind when we went to the citizenship and globalisation course on Friday. The answers to that questions were not easy to find. I will just try to summarize at least some of the attempts to find a solution:
During the last 25 years the EU had to face huge waves of immigrants coming to the European countries. This in combination with a decreasing knowledge about democracy among young people lead to a widespread discourse about the topic. In some countries this academic discourse resulted in the change of educational curricula or in the development of new school subjects. Central aims were in all cases to arouse an interest in the students to deal with the topic of citizenship. In the first place democratic values should be protected and no longer be seen as perpetually given. Democracy is a fragile concept and it is put to the test these days by migration, individualization and globalization. It implies not only a passive (signing a document, possessing a passport, ...) but also an active (raise one's voice, take part in society) role. As future teachers it will be our task to continue that discourse.

the clock and the pendulum...

Wednesday was all about using body and voice in many different ways. Topics were body language, voice, singing, acting, painting. I thought it was great fun making up little presentations in groups or painting the atmosphere of two music tracks. Regardless I'm not that much into dancing I liked our little dance performance and I had a great time singing songs and canons. And by the way, I think we did a brilliant job suggesting a very mysterious atmosphere like taken from an Edgar Allen Poe tale...

the rest of Tuesday...

Our first Danish lesson with Sheila and Lejf was more a repitition for me than learning new things for I attended a crash course in Danish before coming here. One little funny story was that the copies we were given are from the same book we used during the crash course in Germany. But nevertheless there was at least one thing I learned in the two hours: the pronunciation of Danish words is difficult for all of us, but it might be more difficult for people with one linguistic background than for those with another. I will keep an eye on that... ;-)
In the afternoon we met with other European students to discuss the topic: "Language and identity". We had to colour an empty template and produce a so called language portrait. The colours were symbolizing laguages that are important for us. The underlying idea of the task was the integration of the aesthetic dimension into the cognitive learning process. I was very sceptical at the beginning because I associated the task with some kind of a kindergarten atmosphere. But in the course of the discussion it became clear that colours can be used as a possibility to transmit feelings (for example about languages). We also had to make up an "elfchen", a poem consisting of eleven words, about one of the colours we chose. In the end I was pretty satisfied with the results of our discussions and our creative working periods. What do you think???

Green
endless fields
the land of green
I am part of
eternity