Κριτική προσέγγιση ζητημάτων της Κοινωνικής και Πολιτικής Αγωγής στο Δημοτικό μέσω έργων τέχνης

Abstract

The subject of Social and Political Education in Primary Education contributes to the cultivation of skills for managing and dealing with social and moral problems of life and pupils’ social environment. The development of these skills presupposes the cultivation of pupils’ soft skills, such as thoughtful thinking, creativity, initiative, cooperation, empathy and especially critical reflection, in the sense of re-evaluating the dysfunctional points of view which pupils may express for specific issues they have experience. This is because pupils, in order to be able to manage and deal with social and moral problems of their lives and their social environment, often need to make a qualitative change in their way of thinking and behavior, which lays the foundations for the gradual development of a more emancipatory way of thinking, until they reach the stage of adulthood. This article attempts to highlight the importance of utilizing important works of art in the subject of Social and Political Education in Primary School for approaching critically social issues which are raised in the current Curriculum. Firstly, the importance of cultivating lifelong learning skills from Primary Education is mentioned, so as pupils to avoid cultivating an one-dimensional way of thinking. In order to achieve this, it is necessary for the pupils not only to develop their thoughtful thinking, which includes the interpretation, documentation, analysis and evaluation of a situation, but to cultivate aspects of their critical reflection. Critical reflection includes all the elements of thoughtful thinking, but also the re-evaluation of one’s deeply rooted beliefs, checking the validity of the arguments on which these beliefs are based and investigating their consequences, with the ultimate goal of transforming dysfunctional points of view which may be expressed for an issue being studied. Afterwards, the utilization of art as a means of activating the critical reflection of the students is mentioned. Then, the way art could be utilized in Primary Education according to the current Curriculum for Social and Political Education is highlighted. After that, two indicative didactic interventions in a specific chapter by the subject of Social and Political Education of the Fifth Grade are presented, in which works of art are utilized as a means of developing aspects of pupils’ critical reflection. At the end there is a discussion and drawing conclusions. Throughout this article, one gender is used, for the sake of economy of speech, without referring to any discrimination based on gender.