UNIT 2: RESPONSIBILITY

Upper secondary level

Introduction for teachers

Taking responsibility – a perspective that affects everything

We permanently make decisions, both big ones and small ones. What shall we have for lunch today? Will we take the car, or the bus? What party will I vote for? What do I want to do after finishing school?

In every decision that we make, we pick certain options and turn down others. And whether we are aware of it or not, our decisions affect others. Whatever we decide and do can be questioned, as there are alternatives that we could have chosen.

Taking responsibility means considering these alternatives, and the consequences of our decisions. In this respect, taking responsibility is a perspective that literally affects everything we do in life – in our personal sphere, in our relationships and links to our family, friends, colleagues, and the com­munity as a whole.

Taking responsibility – a human right and a challenge

When we make decisions, we exercise our human right to liberty. Liberty carries responsibility, but we can and must decide for ourselves what principles and guidelines we want to follow. Liberty means that we are alone in our decision, and therefore taking responsibility can be very difficult. To a certain extent, there are skills involved that can be trained, and this is what the students will do in this unit.

The students will communicate with each other what in practice we often have to decide on our own – attempting to understand dilemmas of varying complexity, making choices, and defining priorities.

A constructivist concept of responsibility

Taking responsibility is best learnt and understood in concrete situations that demand a decision to be made. Dilemmas are particularly interesting in this respect, as they require particularly careful consideration of the consequences of a decision.

In an open, secular and pluralist society, we cannot take for granted that there is a framework of values that everyone will immediately agree to – but for the stability of a community, such a frame­work is essential. We must therefore communicate and negotiate the basic principles that we share in taking responsibility.

Taking responsibility is a challenge, and a permanent process of learning; in this respect, this unit adopts a constructivist concept of responsibility.

Traps in teaching responsibility – and how they are to be avoided

There are two traps in teaching responsibility – abstract moralising and indoctrination.

Moralising means talking about being “a good citizen” without looking at a concrete issue. The students are given the message that taking responsibility is only a matter of wanting to or not. They never learn how difficult this task can be, and how important it is to share their reasons for making a choice.

The trap of indoctrination refers to teachers who attempt to impose a certain set of values. They have no mandate to do so, and whatever set of values they choose, it can be questioned and deconstructed.

To avoid these traps, this unit is designed around a key task that gives the students the opportunity to make decisions on their own. The teacher is their coach and facilitator.

The students discuss how to solve dilemmas. The case stories refer to the students’ everyday experi-ence, which puts the students in the role of experts.

Preparation of the unit

We recommend that the teacher perform the same task as the students (see student handouts 2.1-2.4, and materials for teachers 2.1-2.3). In this way, the teacher will best understand the learn-ing opportunities and become aware of the difficulties for his/her students. The result itself – the decision how to solve a dilemma – is not the “right” answer, as there is a strong element of subjec-tive choice involved that the students may, or may not share.

Competence development: links to other units in this volume What this table shows

The title of this manual, Taking part in democracy, focuses on the competences of the active citizen in democracy. This matrix shows the potential for synergy effects between the units in this manual. The matrix shows what competences are developed in unit 2 (the shaded row in the table). The strongly framed column shows the competences of political decision making and action – strongly framed because of their close links to taking part in democracy. The rows below indicate links to other units in this manual: what competences are developed in these units that support the students in unit 2?

How this matrix can be used

Teachers can use this matrix as a tool for planning their EDC/HRE classes in different ways.

• This matrix helps teachers who have only a few lessons to devote to EDC/HRE: a teacher can select only this unit and omit the others, as he/she knows that some key competences are also developed, to a certain extent, in this unit – for example, analysis, reflexive use of the media, and responsibility.
• The matrix helps teachers make use of the synergy effects that help the students to be trained in important competences repeatedly, in different contexts that are linked in many ways. In this case the teacher selects and combines several units.

UNIT 2: Taking part, taking responsibility

Liberty carries responsibilities