Wooden citizens

In civic education, the focus is on promoting civic skills. But which citizens are meant by this? Active citizens, interventing citizens or responsible citizens? What image of citizens do we have in our heads? Certainly not that of passive, disinterested and immature subjects. It is therefore worth taking a closer look at this aspect. Some time ago, we developed the "Holzbürgerinnen" advisory material to support you.

Many of you are already familiar with our "wooden citizens" and value them as versatile material. Due to the great demand and your feedback, we have decided to further develop the material, which was originally made of wood. We are pleased to be able to present you with an adapted version: Coasters, designed in the design of the wooden citizens, which symbolize the diversity and activity of the citizens and can be ordered from us now.

© Elisa Moser

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

Use in work with multipliers and target groups:
Use the coasters 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 respond to 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:
Hand out the beer mats and let the participants speak from the perspective of the citizen depicted on them. 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.

© Joddid

Information about the order
Ordering and renting materials is free of charge for political educators in Saxony. All relevant information on ordering can be found under "Ordering information".

We are still available for workshops or inputs in which we also use our actual wooden citizens. For inquiries, please contact joddid@tu-dresden.de.