A framework to explore lifelong learning: the case of the civic education of civics teachers

This study investigates learning about civics and citizenship throughout individuals' lives (lifelong) and across various pedagogical settings (lifewide). A basic hypothesis is that civics teachers, among all social actors, are particularly well positioned for engaging in this type of introspective exercise because they are both familiar with civics and politics and also with teaching and learning processes. The lifelong civic learning of civics teachers was examined in the different settings in which they acquire their knowledge, values, skills and ideological frameworks, and to understand the relative weight of each one in their overall learning process. This study also coincides with the implementation of a new provincial civics course for grade 10 students in Ontario, Canada during the 2000–1 school year. This case study consists of interviews with 15 social studies teachers who have taught the new civics course in Ontario. One of the clearest findings of the study is the powerful influence of the experience of teaching and of early family socialization on the acquisition of civic knowledge, skills and values, and on the development of political beliefs. Civic engagement and political participation were also considered an important source of civic learning, particularly in relation to the acquisition of civic and political skills. This is a finding that deserves further exploration, because our understanding of social movement learning remains limited. The findings suggest the promotion of lifelong citizenship learning entails the creation and nurturing of inclusive democratic spaces that have particularly high civic educational potential.     

Rethinking civic education in the age of biotechnology

In this paper, I first examine the three justifications most often provided for differentiating, discounting, or even disclaiming the present generation's moral responsibility to future generations. I then discuss ideological critiques of, and educational solutions to, the complicity of formal educational institutions in propagating these justifications. Finally, I inquire into the ethical postulates by which prefigurative democratic civic and citizenship education could facilitate civic engagement in deliberating about intergenerational relations. I argue that, by challenging such hegemonic cultural values as atomistic individualism, contractual social relations, the pursuit of progress, and the sharp division between ethics and epistemology, prefigurative civic education serves as the first step toward egalitarian intergenerational relations.     

Holocaust education in Polish public schools: Between remembrance and civic education

This article analyzes the historical and political context of Holocaust education, and its implementation in Polish schools. Perceptions of the Holocaust continue to change, influenced by Poland’s social and political situation. The Polish historical context is quite specific; it includes the long history of Poles and Jews as neighbours, with local resentments and animosities, and the Polish sense of being special victims of World War II and observers of the Nazis’ “final solution to the Jewish question”. These different types of social awareness have neutralized the remembrance of the Holocaust and its presence in school education. Similarly, the perception of the Holocaust in Polish schools has changed. Initially seen as just one element in the Nazis’ crimes against everyone in Poland, it is now understood as a singular phenomenon, the unparalleled mass extermination of the Jewish nation. From this perspective, I analyze Holocaust education, and its status in the curriculum and in pedagogical practice. I also report on my own research on the practice and meanings of Holocaust education in Polish public schools. Holocaust education should not be limited to the pedagogical transfer of remembrance but should also be associated with transforming social awareness and modern civic education.     

试论韩国公民教育的特点及对我国教育事业的启示

韩国公民教育在整个教育体系中占有重要的地位,发挥着重大的作用,它不仅对社会稳定起到了积极作用,而且还促使了经济的腾飞,韩国的教育体制也引起了世人的关注。韩国公民教育能获得成功,笔者认为主要在于把握了三个重点:坚持科学的理念,规划明确的内容,运用有效的方法,这些对我国的教育事业都有着重要的启示作用,我们应当积极借鉴。     

Indigenizing civic education in Africa: Experience in Madagascar and the Sahel

In Africa, as in many countries of the South, democratization is sometimes perceived as a process modeled upon outside – and specifically Northern – experience. Formal civic education programs in those countries arguably reflect the same bias and have not always been notably successful. Yet there are rich patterns of civic involvement and democratic process in African culture and in the myriad ways in which it has adapted to development challenges, often more successfully reflected in non-formal and informal education endeavors. This article reports on a comparative study of related experience in Madagascar and Sahelian West Africa and draws conclusions regarding ways to draw inspiration for school-based civic education from such ground-level sources.     

对目前公民教育问题及公民精神人格构建的思考

公民教育是帮助人们了解公民属性与权利责任的教育。目前我国公民教育中存在的主要问题是,公民教育观念相当薄弱,公民教育的内容比较狭窄,公民教育的效能远不能令人满意。要有力改变公民教育与公民素质的落后,关键是要在重视公民教育的前提下,选择好公民教育的科学思路,在调整好公民教育内容的同时,结合国民教育的人格培养来一体性地构建好公民的精神人格,以健全的公民精神人格来产生健全的公民精神。公民精神人格的构建,包括培养公民的理性能力、公民的理想及价值观与道德准则、公民的情感意志、公民的知识视野等四个方面的主要教育价值要点。     

美国学校公民教育的评价及启示

美国学校的公民教育即是我们通常所说的思想政治教育。通过公民教育，使美国人的公民意识不断增强。在美国，学校被看作是“公民教育的中心机构”，在思想政治教育中发挥着非常重要的作用。一、美国学校公民教育的主要内容美国是当今世界上经济和军事实力最强大的国家，是西方民主社会的所谓典范。美国学校公民教育的理论基础当数政治社会化理论，其主要目标就是宣扬西方核心意识形态，培养忠于美国制度的公民。其主要内容包括：１．爱国主义教育美国号称是世界上最民主的社会，自认为其政治制度、社会制度是世界上最优秀、最先进的。长期以…     

Higher education in transition - the case of Israel - a comparative study

This comparative study examines the impact of the conflicting higher education traditions of Germany, Great Britain and the United States on the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in particular, and higher education in Israel in general.The basic differences of these traditions concerning the aims of higher education - research, instruction and service - and their effects on higher education in Israel are evident in major decisions made by the Hebrew University at three critical stages in its development: (1) its initial organization into research institutes rather than into teaching faculties or departments (1925); (2) its decision to undertake teacher training and the inclusion of education as a scientific discipline (1935); (3) The Reform - introduction of undergraduate studies and the adoption of the three level degree structure (1950). These decisions were influenced simultaneously by the changing needs of the growing Jewish community in Palestine and by major events that affected the course of the Zionist movement.This study has shown that higher education in Israel was shaped in its initial stages of development by the elitist European (especially German) tradition. Gradually, however, the American populistic tradition became the dominant influence, broadening the curriculum and the function of the university to meet the scientific developments as well as the needs of the individual and the society in a newly born country.     

The response of clinical practice curriculum in teacher education to the Covid-19 breakout: A case study from Israel

PROSPECTS - This case study explores how teacher education curriculum in a college in Israel responded to the Covid-19 outbreak. The article focuses on the clinical component of the preservice...     

Curriculum capacity and citizenship education: a comparative analysis of four democracies

Governments, international organizations and academics have, in recent decades, expressed a sense of crisis in the practice of democracy based largely upon increasing levels of disengagement by citizens from even the most basic elements of civic life. One response has been to devise civics and citizenship education curricula for schools with the concomitant expectations of enhanced civic practice. Our examination of citizenship education programs has revealed considerable variation from country to country in the degree of success achieved in the design, development and implementation of programs. This paper examines recent developments in citizenship education in four leading Western democracies – Australia, Canada, England and the USA; each one with its own particular successes and shortcomings. It identifies several factors associated with the successful building of curriculum capacity for citizenship education and argues that these are fundamental for countries wishing to move beyond rhetoric and toward substance in citizenship education.     

构建社会主义和谐社会对公民教育的诉求

十六大提出了构建社会主义和谐社会的科学论断。这要求我们必须大力发展符合构建社会主义和谐社会要求的公民教育,在坚持社会主义核心价值体系指导下,以人的全面和谐发展为方向,积极构建适合社会主义和谐社会需要的公民教育体系。     

Moral and civic responsibility and the commercialization of higher education

Abstract

This paper examines religious affiliation and commitment of teenagers as a function of the quality of mother‐child interaction and the mothers’ religious commitment, as an illustration of the principle that transmission of parental norms and values to their children is facilitated or inhibited by the quality of their interaction. We expected that in cases where mother‐child interaction was good, parents would be better able to impose their own values upon their children, resulting in a lower disaffiliation and higher religious commitment in high quality of family‐interaction families. This expectation was tested using data from 223 British adolescent‐mother pairs, by means of logistic and ordinary regression analysis. The results largely supported the hypotheses, exemplifying how mothers in their role of moral agents may profit from good mother‐child relationships.     

Two views of education: Promoting civic and moral values in Cambodia schools

This paper discusses the Cambodian government's attempt to promote civic and moral values in Cambodia schools through the subject “Civics and Morals”. The paper argues that the tensions and challenges associated with civic and moral education are linked to a fundamental difference between the traditional view of education in Cambodia, and the modern view of education promoted by the Cambodian government and external donor agencies. It is further argued that policymakers need to promote the effective teaching and learning of civic and moral values with the support of the local community and religious institutions in Cambodia.     

The values and virtues promoted in the proposed seventh course of study in civic education: implications for democratic citizenship and democratic citizenship education in Korea

Citizenship education in South Korea has entered a new era in terms of the course of study. The seventh course of study in civic education introduces the conception of civic virtue for school education. The identification of the ten civic virtues is a remarkable first attempt in the history of the course of study. This study, which assumes that civic virtue must be a key concept in civic education, welcomes the idea of civic virtue, since it can act as a solvent on the citizen knowledge-oriented approach of citizenship education. Nevertheless, there are some problems with the identification of the civic values and virtues, and this study argues that those civic virtues selected for the school curriculum are mostly not civic, nor clearly vital to a liberal democracy.