Wooden citizens

Civic education is about promoting civic skills. But which citizens are meant by this? Active citizens, intervention citizens, responsible citizens? And if so, which citizens are we talking about? Do we imagine the people we work with as passive, disinterested and immature subjects? Of course not! But it is definitely worth taking a closer look at this context. To support this, we have developed a new advisory material. It is called "Wooden Citizens" and can be used in different ways.

Possible uses
Self-reflection:
Use the material to question and reflect on your own ideas about citizenship and engagement.

Use in work with multipliers and target groups:
Use the wooden citizens in interactive workshops to initiate discussions and reflections on citizenship models.

Approaches and goals
Accessibility of the educational offers:
Ask yourself and your participants how accessible your offers are. Who do you want to address with it? Who does it actually appeal to? Who are you not reaching? How should the offer be designed to be as accessible as possible for everyone?

Reflect on target perspectives:
Use the material to reflect on the goals and perspectives of your educational offerings. Which civic competencies are important? How do they show themselves? How do you want participants to leave your event? How do you see yourself afterwards? Who do you understand?

Reflect on your own projections:
With the help of the wooden citizens, reflect on how you perceive (potential) participants in your events. What do you see and what do you possibly overlook? Which attributions may be based on your own projections or prejudices? How can this be counteracted?

Playing styles
Assign characteristics:
Have people write down characteristics and assign them to the wooden citizens. Then discuss which characteristics are particularly relevant for maturity, for example, as a central concept of political education, and how these could be promoted. Also discuss the positive functions that seemingly negative characteristics can have. Reflect on the downsides of positively connoted characteristics. Think about what this means for your own political education.

Create a contact ad or profile:
Have a profile or contact ad created for the wooden citizens. What needs, hopes and challenges in the context of political education can be derived from the contact ads? Discuss how educational offers should be designed to address the diverse needs and challenges expressed in the personals. What could an appealing design of your educational offers look like in this regard?

Change roles:
Distribute the wooden citizens and let the participants speak from the perspective of the respective citizen. For example, ask why this person would attend or stay away from an event, what their needs and expectations are and why their perspective would be important for a particular thematic debate.

Ordering Information 
Unfortunately, for logistical reasons, we will no longer be able to lend out the wooden citizens in the future. However, we have transferred the wooden figures into a material that you are very welcome to order from us. Have a look here.
We are still available for workshops or inputs, in which we also work together with the wooden citizens. Please send your inquiries to joddid@tu-dresden.de.