Professor Allan B. de Guzman, PhD of the Research Center for Social Sciences and Education joined experts from more than twenty countries in the March 17-19, 2022 鈥淓ducating for democracy in a fragmented world鈥� conference organized by the Gravissimus Educationis Foundation, established in 2015 to help implement the provisions of the Second Vatican Council.
During the conference, de Guzman presented the findings of three studies that elaborated on the role of social studies teachers in teaching democratic principles and civic engagement. The studies involved are the following:
a) Social studies teachers鈥� ability to integrate social problems and issues and civic engagement in students鈥� learning;
b) Teaches鈥� knowledge of 21st-century democracy holds the key for their delivery of promoting civic engagement in classroom settings; and
c) Teachers鈥� abilities to exercise practical-evaluative teaching methods and to contain their risk-taking behavior may help enrich school curricula鈥檚 integration of civic engagement by students.
All these three smaller studies form part of the UST-led Local Antenna Team鈥檚 project, headed by de Guzman, who is joined by RCSSED Director Belinda D.V. de Castro, PhD and RCSSED Research Associate Joel L. Adamos, EdD. The Philippine study is part of a multi-country research project handled by Fondazione Gravissimus Educationis, the education-oriented of the Pontifical Council for Catholic Education formed in October 2015.
UST is the local antenna university (or local implementor) of Gravissimus Educationis鈥� project titled Democracy: an educational urgency in pluricultural and pluri-religious contexts.
UST-RCSSED as the Philippine antenna not only produced three studies. The Center also staged international webinars and a certificate program for various public school teachers of social studies nationwide. The Center also launched a project , titled ADVOCATUS: Championing Democracy through Education, for parties to see details about the Gravissimus Educationis-funded project in the Philippines.
Fondazione Gravissimus Educationis鈥� three-day conference was held at Libera Universit脿 Maria Santissima Assunta. Foundation Secretary-General Msgr. Guy-R茅al Thivierge spearheaded the organizing of the event.
In an interview with Fausta Speranza published in the Vatican News website, de Guzman emphasized his and the team鈥檚 belief in 鈥渢he power of education because we believe that schooling will lead to democracy.鈥� De Guzman added that teachers have a unique role to play in helping Filipino learners look at the problems surrounding them and the Filipino society.
The conference brought together experts from 14 universities representing 13 countries. It provided a venue to localize democracy issues to different contexts and view these from angles such as academic, economic, and spiritual.
The 13 other partner Catholic universities include the Universidade Cat贸lica de Mo莽ambique, (Mozambique), the Universit茅 Catholique d鈥橝frique de l鈥橭uest (Cote d’Ivoire); the Pontificia Universidad Cat贸lica de Chile (Chile); Universidad Anahuac (Mexico); the Pontificia Universidad Cat贸lica del Per煤 (Peru); the Pontificia Universidade Cat贸lica do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil); The Catholic University of America (USA); Christ University (India); the Ukrainian Catholic University (Ukraine); the Instituto Universitario de Investigaci贸n Ortega y Gasset (Spain); the Libera Universit脿 Maria Santissima Assunta (Italy); the Universit脿 Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy); and Universit茅 Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth (Lebanon).
