What is typical of Saxony? Eierschecke cake, wooden folk art ... and exemplary civil education projects? With the EINFACH GUT GEMACHT (SIMPLY. WELL DONE.) platform, the John-Dewey-Research-Center for Civic Education (JoDDID) demonstrates that Saxony has a lively civic education scene and has developed democratic work from which there is much to learn – in Saxony and beyond.

JoDDID assessed exemplary projects in Saxony according to political-didactic criteria. Selected projects are presented in videos on the “SIMPLY. WELL DONE.” web platform. The launch and first public showing of the videos took place on July 3, 2023, in the presence of the Ministers of State Katja Meier and Petra Köpping in TU Dresden’s Dülferstrasse ballroom.

© Anika Dollmeyer

During the event, the projects honored by “SIMPLY. WELL DONE.” also had the opportunity to present themselves. These lighthouse examples elucidate that Saxony, despite the challenges, has excellent civic education strategies that are also sustainable from an academic perspective.

The presented projects included “We go apart with art,” an eco-festival in Lusatia which was organized using a peer approach; “good gaming – well played democracy,” a project organized by the Amadeu Antonio Foundation which uses a digital streetwork approach in the world of online gaming; “Zusammenspiel – gemeinsam mehr erreichen” (Teamwork – achieving more together), which provides civic education in a daycare center in Hoyerswerda; and “Neue sächsische Demokratietrainer*innen” (New Saxon Democracy Trainers) organized by the Dachverbands Sächsischer Migrant*innenorganisationen, which empowers people with migratory backgrounds to get involved in politics and society.

© Anika Dollmeyer

Prof. Anja Besand, Director of JoDDiD, explains: “With the ‘SIMPLY. WELL DONE.’ project, we want to increase the visibility of exemplary strategies for civic education in order to show how much expertise has been developed in this field in Saxony. ‘SIMPLY. WELL DONE.’ is a platform to provide ideas for new projects and to inspire civic educators.”

Prof. Roswitha Böhm, Vice-Rector University Culture of TU Dresden, highlights: “The John Dewey Research Center for Civic Education’s ‘SIMPLY. WELL DONE.” project is a model example for societal engagement at TU Dresden.’ As an academic institution, we assume our responsibility to promote social cohesion. This project enables stakeholders direct access to academic findings, which is incredibly important in times of growing skepticism towards science and threats to democratic structures.”

Katja Meier, State Minister of Justice and for Democracy, Europe and Equality, emphasizes: “Extracurricular civic education is both diverse and strengthens our democracy since it reaches out to people, helps them get involved and participate in political processes. JoDDiD highlights particularly successful examples. I am very pleased that these are pooled and presented on a central website to the wider public as sources of inspiration and encouragement. This was exactly what we had in mind when the John Dewey Research Center for Civic Education was established almost three years ago – to show which fantastic and effective forms and methods of extracurricular civic education can be found in our state. I would like to thank everyone involved for their commitment to a more solid democracy and strengthening our community in Saxony. I look forward to seeing ‘SIMPLY. WELL DONE. grow with more best practice examples from all regions in Saxony soon.”

Petra Köpping, State Minister of Social Affairs and Social Cohesion, underlines: “We need a lot of strength and impetus to entrench democracy work in all areas of society. Innovative approaches help to reach new target groups with their differing perspectives and can help keep social cohesion strong. I hope the ‘SIMPLY. WELL DONE.’ platform will contribute to making new and unusual project ideas more widely known, and that these projects with also give other people ideas on how they can start initiatives in their communities.”

John Dewey Research Center for Civic Education (JoDDiD)
The John Dewey Research Center for Civic Education was founded in 2020 as an innovation center in the field of civic education. It’s objective is to research, advance and raise awareness of innovative formats, methods and communication concepts. In doing so, it supports citizens of Saxony who are involved in extracurricular education in the preparation, development and reflexive evaluation of civic education programs against the backdrop of a challenging societal situation. Within this context the research unit focuses especially on the area of extracurricular civic education for young people and adults. The perspectives of school-based civic education are pertinent to JoDDiD only when they are related to extracurricular educational institutes. The John Dewey Research Center for Civic Education thus closes the gap between academic infrastructure and pedagogical educational practice in the context of professional discourse in (extracurricular) civic education for young people and adults.

The John Dewey Research Center for Civic Education invites those involved in civic education to reflect on civic education as a field of activity with specific and contemporary challenges in an exciting environment and from an academic perspective.

Links:
SIMPLY. WELL DONE. platform: einfachgutgemacht.joddid.de
Project trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4o6KOn5A0U
John Dewey Research Center for Civic Education: www.joddid.de
JoDDiD Instagram: @joddidforschungsstelle

Contact:
Agnes Scharnetzky, Research Project Coordinator at JoDDiD
Tel.: +49 351 463-41137