Project title
Stand up for Europe! Argumentation training against undemocratic slogans: European extension and updating
Project Reference
2023-2-DE04-KA220-YOU-000175190
Lead partner
Akademie Klausenhof gGmbH (Germania)
Programme
Erasmus+ – KA2 Cooperation partnerships in Youth (KA220-YOU), Call for Proposals 2023
Ongoing project
Brief description
The project brings together 6 partners (2 from Germany, 1 from Hungary, 1 from Turkey, 1 from Slovenia and 1 from Italy) to prepare a specific training to respond to antidemocratic slogans and discourse. The training material will be freely accessible through a curriculum, a handbook, and an online self-learning tool (comic self-reflection stories).
The project outputs will be the result of the update of Klaus-Peter Hufer’s method “Argumentationstraining gegen Stammtischparolen” (Argumentation against populist slogans, widely used in Citizenship Education in Germany, Austria and Switzerland) in a European sense: the partners will make a European version of the training, by enriching it with Europe-specific topics, methods and inputs from the European partners. One of the partners is the University of Augsburg, where Klaus-Peter Hufer developed the training.
The project targets groups who are victims of verbal (and physical) attacks through populist, extremist, sexist and stereotypical arguments (migrants, Jews, people with disabilities, women, disadvantaged people, queer people) as well as topics that have become particularly relevant in recent years and are the focus of radical, verbal attacks and hate speech. These topics include: democracy and Europe, gender, climate change, sexual orientation and equality, science/health (vaccination), fake news and migration, war and humanism.
The material will serve as a basis for workshops and trainings conducted in the youth and school context, by educational institutions targeting youth. It will consider situations in the family and among friends, in public spaces and in leisure time, at school, in (political) discussions, in voluntary social or political engagement. There will also be a special focus on discussion forums in online media, especially in social networks.
What is Argumentationstraining gegen Stammtischparolen?
Stammtischparolen are populist statements and slogans with which numerous groups of people (often social minorities, but also representatives of the “elites”) are discriminated against. Usually, they are also directed against “the” European policy. These slogans are dogmatic, rigid and prejudice-based: in these speeches, there are very strict categories (“we” and “they”), which defend their positions aggressively and with an exclusionary attitude.
Professor Dr. Klaus-Peter Hufer is a trainer, a lecturer, an author and scientist. He himself works as an adult educator and as an applied professor. His Argumentation training* teaches effective techniques and tricks for responding to populist slogans in conversations (e.g. with facts, irony, critical inquiries, etc.). In its interactive form, the argumentation training offers the opportunity to try out and experience in exchange with the seminar group how to react appropriately to such slogans.
Hufer’s training have been frequently used in educational work for many years, also in youth education or in training for employees and volunteers of NGOs and other institutions, parties, companies, schools and organizations.
* Klaus-Peter Hufer: Argumentationstraining gegen Stammtischparolen. Materialien und Anleitungen für Bildungsarbeit und Selbstlernen. 10. Auflage 2018, 120 Seiten, Wochenschau-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main
Target groups
The target group of the workshops is primarily politically and socially interested and active young people from 13 to 30, who are to be strengthened in their civil courage in order to take effective action against radical arguments in everyday life online or in personal discussions.
Moreover, the project targets are:
- Teachers/trainers in schools and youth (education) centres
- Politically engaged young people
- Activists and volunteers in youth movements / political parties
- Employees of NGOs, initiatives, civil rights movements, with focus on youth
- Stakeholders, scientists, politicians
- General public
Objectives
- Identifying and implementing core European values
- Development of a training programme (curriculum) to train young people to argue effectively in discussions (offline and online) against anti-European statements.
- Developing methods for raising awareness and communicating European values, through the collection and integration of proven methods for argumentation training and comparable approaches.
- Defending fundamental values and rights.
- Recognising violations of fundamental values, by developing methods to identify anti-European values, especially in oral discussion and dialogue situations and in the digital space.
- Encouraging reflection on one’s own commitment to fundamental values and avoid using stereotypical arguments and behaviour.
- Use stories/scenarios with a high identification potential to question and evaluate one’s own behaviour.
Partnership
Lead Partner: Akademie Klausenhof, Germany (adult/youth education provider)
Other Partners:
University of Augsburg, Germany
InEuropa srl, Italy
KatHaz, Hungary
Doga School, Turkey
Socialna Akademija, Slovenia
Duration
24 months (from 01/03/2023 to 28/02/2026)
EU grant
250,000 total grant