Citizenship education
Learning at school and in society

The Urban Education Workshops in schools

Brussels, Belgium

The Urban Education Workshops in schools are young people's actions/projects within the school network aimed at sensitizing them (as well as their parents and teachers) to respect their urban environment. The first pedagogical urban experience has been applied to one thousand poor and/or foreign-born children in Brussels. The project came out of the desire of a group of teachers, artists, architects and city planners to develop in the Belgian youths the notion of European urbanity, that is to say to get to know "how to live together" in the city.

The project, modeled by a namesake association, tries to promote the notion of urban citizenship and "living together" within youngsters in an urban millieu. Its approach lies upon a method through which children and youths can express themselves spontaneously and practically and involve themselves in respect of their built environment. They are taught the history of the European cities heritage, their specific features and common characteristics. The program is mainly oriented toward children of 8-12 years of age and consists of an accompaniment of several weeks.
The pedagogical tools used in the experience are original, created specially for the association and experienced people before more than one thousand children, teachers and specialized observers in the field of city planning.

In a conscious step different from the classical official primary teaching, the projects uses interactive and audiovisual practices whose aim is to enrich and stimulate intellectual, emotional and esthetic curiosity of youths toward the city in which they live. For the project makers, the essential elements for the education of children citizenship are: the young people's awareness of the European cultural heritage as a decisive citizenship factor, the transversal reading of the historical facts which determine the development of Europe since the Middle Ages and the interactive education to enhance the value of official teaching networks.

Diane Hennebert
Urban Teaching Workshop Association
Avenue Ducpétiaux 121 B - 1060 Bruxelles
Tel : +32 02 534 60 85
Fax :+32 02 537 43 24

Ministry of Education and Culture of
Belgium Several Belgian and European associations and foundations
European Commission

The project started in 1997

Internal evaluations are regularly organized and allow to respond to all the concerns the actors of these interactions might have.