1.1 Aims and Objectives of SOCCER project

Democracy is not an everlasting achievement. It has to be “learned” continually. Democratic education is far more difficult with and for deprived youngsters than it is in a secondary school.   The general aim of the SOCCER project was to contribute to a higher level of democracy through action research and data gathering and to bring together and to improve examples of good practice.

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Objectives:

• To develop an on-line database of good practice
• To develop a ”White Book on civic attitudes written by youngsters
• To develop a “booklet” on civic education with deprived youngsters
• To develop a “Booklet” on “evidencing, measuring, accrediting”
• To establish  a “mobile team” to train pedagogical teams on the spot
• To look  for innovative ways of evidencing (e-portfolio), measuring progress in attitudes and finding a form of formal recognition.  

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1.2   Target group of SOCCER project  

The target group of the SOCCER project were disadvantaged groups who had multiple difficulties or faced multiple barriers to social inclusion. These groups included:

• Disaffected young people who did not succeed at the first chance school
• Ethnic or racial groups (including gypsies, travellers, immigrants)
• Unemployed adults
• People living in rural areas

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1.3 Summary of Activities of SOCCER project  

The approach or methodology used by the partners was” Learning by doing”. Following active research and data gathering, partners identified examples of good practice. This research was supported by two scientific researchers whose roles were to identify what “Citizenship” means within the project, criteria for measuring social and citizenship competence and also criteria for identifying what constitutes good practice. Examples of good practice were presented at transnational meetings and then partners would try out the methods (modules, games, tools, e-portfolio) in their own pedagogical setting. A flexible database of good practice was set up and partners were invited to upload examples of good practice in evidencing, measuring and recognising social and citizenship competences. Partners were invited to comment on their experiences with piloting the examples. Following discussions at transnational meetings the partners identified the examples of good practice to be put on the SOCCER website.The research to find good practice for evidencing, measuring and recognising competence also looked at the development of e-portfolios for recording, as well as a “White Book” for young people’s comments on what citizenship means to them.This new website was developed to showcase the final outputs of the SOCCER project.