A ‘Seamless Enactment’ of Citizenship Education (original) (raw)
Related papers
Curricular transposition in citizenship education
The considerable debate in recent years on the aims of citizenship education has not been accompanied by an equally substantial discussion on the educational processes involved. This article puts forward a theoretical framework, referred to as ‘curricular transposition’, for understanding the complex task of realizing normative ideals of citizenship through education. The framework highlights four stages in the educational process: the ideals and aspirations underlying an initiative; the curricular programme designed to achieve them; the programme’s implementation in practice; and its effects on students. The ‘leaps’ between these stages – involving movement between ends and means and between ideal and real – are highly problematic. These ideas are explored in the context of an empirical case: the Voter of the Future programme in Brazil. Disjunctures are observed at the different stages – in particular, a lack of ‘harmony’ between ends and means, and a lack of teacher ownership of the initiative in the process of implementation – leading to divergence between the initial aims and actual effects. Finally, broader implications of the curricular transposition framework for citizenship education are drawn out.
Encyclopaideia, 2020
Citizenship education is a core topic of all transformative pedagogies. In this article, we build on the phenomenological and critical schools of pedagogical thought in order to highlight some key theoretical issues that remain unaddressed in both the academic discourse and in the educational practices and policies aimed at fostering a new paradigm of citizenship education that can really fit with the political needs of the twenty-first century globalised society. Even the Intercultural and GCE approaches, in fact, fail to highlight the need to develop a critical awareness of the contradictions and unsustainability of today institutional framework with regards to State sovereignty and the peoples’ right to self-determination, two major obstacles to the birth of multiscale citizenship and democracy.
Citizenship Education: The Feasibility of a Participative Approach
Background: European and national policies on citizenship education stimulate the implementation of a participative approach to citizenship education, fostering active citizenship. The reason given for fostering active citizenship is the decline of participation in political and social life jeopardizing democracy. Schools have to implement a participative approach through stimulating participation within school and its direct environment, while fostering a certain kind of political literacy, critical thinking and analysing skills, certain kind of values, attitudes and behaviours. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to problematise the participative approach of citizenship education advocated by policy makers and several researchers (e.g. Bron and Thijs 2011; Geisel et al., 2012; Osler 2011; QCA 1998; Schulz et al. 2008; The Education and Skills Committee 2007). In order to do so, four different categories that citizenship education has to cover will be theoretically and empirically analysed: political knowledge, critical thinking, values, attitudes and behaviours, and active participation. The practical implications for educational practice will be discussed. Source of evidence: Two types of documents have been analysed: The 2005 and 2012 Eurydice reports and the 2009 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) research reports. These documents are exemplary of the mainstream idea of citizenship and citizenship education held by policy makers and many researchers on citizenship education. The Eurydice reports have analysed citizenship education in more than 30 countries while promoting a certain concept of citizenship education, namely active citizenship. The ICCS has researched pupils’ competencies on citizenship education and school practices in 38 countries. It is an interesting source because it had to define and operationalise the different constituents of citizenship education. Main argument: In jurisdictions where citizenship education is compulsory, schools have to implement this participative approach and account for it. We suggest that this educational approach to citizenship education may be problematic because each aspect – political literacy, critical thinking and analysing skills, values, attitudes and behaviours, and active participation presents challenging demands on the curriculum, headteachers and teachers. We argue three kinds of constraints that make the implementation of such a participative approach unrealistic: (1) insufficient specialist knowledge on the part of teachers and headteachers, (2) time and budget constraints and (3) an overcrowded curriculum. We demonstrate that the broad range of themes that political literacy has to cover demand specific knowledge on the part of teachers regarding each of the themes. Then we argue that critical thinking skills are hard to learn and demand continuous practice. Implementing and sustaining active participation structure within school and in the direct environment, again, require specific skills and curricular organisation. The demands made by values, attitudes and behaviours on teachers and pupils could not be explored because of the lack of conceptual clarity in the documentation under scrutiny. Conclusion: The feasibility of a participative approach to citizenship education has been questioned through theoretical and empirical critical analysis. On this basis, we suggest that the scope of the citizenship education curriculum should be reconsidered or that teacher and headteacher should receive the necessary and adequate training, and support to implement such a participatory structure.
Learning for democracy: The politics and practice of citizenship education
British Educational Research Journal , 2018
It is now two decades since the Advisory Group on Citizenship, commissioned by the newly elected Labour government, recommended the introduction of statutory citizenship education. On the twentieth anniversary of the eponymously named ‘Crick Report’, this article presents the findings of a rigorous mixed-methods study of citizenship educators in the UK. This research suggests that teachers continue to lack a shared understanding of citizenship, conceptually and pedagogically, and also reveals an emphasis amongst teachers upon individualistic notions of good citizenship that are reflective of national, and increasingly global, political discourse. The findings are analysed using a new conceptual framework—the declarative–procedural paradigm—which is developed here to understand the relationship between political and normatively driven visions of democratic citizenship and classroom pedagogy. In doing so the article adds, theoretically and substantively, to the specific research pool of citizenship studies and broader debates about political disengagement
Ambiguities of Citizenship. Reframing the Notion of Citizenship Education
Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica – Journal of Theories and Research in Education, 2013
Complex transformations worldwide encompassed by the definition of 'globalisation' push us to rethink the concept of citizenship and its traditional definitions. The article aims to theoretically analyse the rich debate about citizenship from a socio-political point of view and tries to investigate the educational dimension related tod different concepts of citizenship. After having introduced three models for citizenship education (republican, liberal, and moral) and having explored their shortcomings, the authors shall propose a possible overtaking that is rooted on another way to understand the relationship among education and politics.
Citizenship Education for a New Age
1994
This position paper examines the changing focus of citizenship education in Australia over the past 40 years. Citizenship education has not achieved as high a profile in Australia as in the United States and this situation has become a growing concern for many educators and community leaders. An examination is made on how questioning traditional values and changing the international scene have impacted the way Australians and Australian governments have come to see themselves. The changing nature of Australian society in recent years through a series of events, processes, and initiatives is recognized. A call for consensus is made in order to develop a citizenship education program for the Australian students to function in the new era of change. The paper includes the following divisions: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Conflicting Images of Citizenship Education in Australia"; (3) "Issues for Ciitizenship and the School Curriculum"; (4) "Levels of Student Underitanding"; (5) "Student Attitudes"; (6) "Opportunity to Learn"; (7) "Teacher Attitudes"; (8) "Student Participation"; (9) "National Curriculum"; (10 "Curriculum Options"; and (11) "Conclusions." In summary, the level of student understanding of political concepts and processes is an important component of being an effective citizen. The development of citizen education involves not only a reconceptualization of citizenship education, but also a rethinking of how citizenship education might best become a major component of the school curriculum. Contains 28 references. (EH)