Global challenge of modern world is the development of democratic citizenship. Democratic citizenship includes
the unity of effective rights and freedoms, law-obedience, certain emotional attachment to democracy and necessary skills
for active membership of democratic society. The urgency of the research in Georgia is conditioned by authoritarianism,
centralized management and improper knowledge/application of contemporary pedagogical approaches inherited and
preserved from soviet education system. Receptive knowledge is considered as a priority task of teaching by majority of
teachers, leading to the delay of critical, independent and creative thinking development in students. The outdated
teaching model creates a barrier for democratic citizenship development in school space.
Civic society development in Post-Soviet Georgia is also hampered by the following: Intolerant attitude to cultural
diversity; Deficiency of civic identity and civic activity; Existence of pseudo markers of national identity characteristic of
post-soviet society and skeptic attitude to western democratic values.
In education, the essence of democratic citizenship is based on longstanding practical experience, scientific
researches and educational platforms. In the context of Georgia, democratic citizenship in secondary school is less studied.
Measurement of student competences for democratic citizenship, identification of factors affecting them, development of
formal and informal educational models - are the scientific novelty of this very research.
As a result of the research:
a) Authentic model of secondary school student competences for democratic citizenship (CDC) will be created;
b) Target group competences for democratic citizenship and their relation to student civic activity will be
determined; pedagogical approaches for formal and informal education promoting student CDC and civic activity will be
developed and introduced;
c) Methodical textbook and a monograph reflecting research results will be published.