Compulsory citizenship for the disenfranchised: benchmarking students,schools, and social and political attitudes before the Citizenship Order

This article reviews the current state of the debate about the political orientation and social attitudes of young people. After cautioning against a pessimistic view of moral decline, the article reports the results from a survey of 1249 young people in Hertfordshire. While showing evidence of low levels of political knowledge, interest, trust and efficacy, the findings do not confirm a lack of engagement with the wider social world. They show that young people contribute to social capital, by volunteering, for example, and that young people have broadly developed moral awareness. We explore students' engagement in citizenship-type activities both within and outside school; the extent to which they have covered the citizenship National Curriculum in school; and the degree to which they are active participants in their school. Our findings are generally positive, identifying reasonably high levels of engagement and integration. In short, there is a base from which to develop curricular reforms to promote political education.     

Respect and responsibility: Teaching citizenship in South African high schools

Respect is a core concept in citizenship debates. South African high school educators often draw upon respect as a key value within citizenship education. Their teaching of this value is often conflated with promotion of the practice of responsible citizenship. The constructions of respect and responsibility in these situations are imbued with assumptions around authority and power relations, such that learners’ are expected to take responsibility for demonstrating respect for in an unequal rather than reciprocal understanding of respect. Thus, negotiations of different kinds of respect are highlighted. The need for schools to embody a culture or ethos of respect is noted if learners are to be expected to recognise and adopt respect as a key element to citizenship in theory and in practice.     

主动公民教育:国际公民教育发展的新走向

20世纪90年代以来,出于对公民参与公共生活的积极性持续下降将影响民主的稳定与发展的担忧,各国尤其是西方发达国家把实施主动公民教育作为主要政策追求,在加强学生在学校与社区生活中的参与的基础上,强调通过课内与课外、校内与校外、正规与非正规等各种教育途径之间的互动与合作,以培养知情的、负责任的参与型公民.     

Pupils' views on equity in schools

This paper presents student perspectives on what they consider to be a fair and equitable national education system, based on their own experiences of primary and secondary level schooling by the age of 13 or 14. A survey of 5432 students in five countries involved a questionnaire administered as part of an EU‐funded project to develop indicators of equity in European school systems. Overall, the UK students reported favouring an egalitarian system where all students were treated in the same way, and this was largely what they felt that they experienced. In this respect, they differed from their peers in the other EU countries, a substantial proportion of whom thought that the least able should receive more support and attention in class, but who found that more attention was actually given to the more able. The UK students also appeared to be more self‐confident about their ability to succeed in school. We discuss these results in terms of policies for school allocation, student assessment and the formation of personal notions of justice. In particular, we argue that equity in structure and procedure is important for the effective teaching of notions of justice in citizenship studies.     

Education for democratic citizenship in Malawian secondary schools: balancing student voice and adult privilege

In countries that embraced democracy after the fall of communism, education became a particular focus for policy change, particularly within their citizenship programmes. Schools that had been used to inculcate obedience to and unfailing support for authoritarian regimes were now being required to adopt citizenship programmes incorporating democratic values. This paper reports a study in Malawi that explored the school as a location where democratic citizenship is practiced. Using a multiple case study approach in three different kinds of secondary schools to explore students’ participation in school affairs, the study found that different forms of participation were being encouraged, with each school apparently socialising students to distinctive kinds of citizenship roles. The paper highlights a conflict between democratic values and traditional roles of schools leading to new and hybrid school cultures. Providing scope for student voice to be heard can lead to tensions and paradoxical practices.     

Pedagogies for active citizenship: Learning through affective and cognitive domains for deeper democratic engagement

This paper reports on a two-year study that explored teachers' pedagogical approaches when implementing an active citizenship curriculum initiative in New Zealand. Our aim was to identify pedagogies which afforded potential for critical and transformative citizenship learning. We define critical and transformative social action through a fusion of critical pedagogy and Dewey's notion of democratic education. Data included teachers' classroom-based research as well as classroom observations and interviews with students. Our study suggested that citizenship learning through both affective and cognitive domains can provide for deeper opportunities for students to experience critical and transformative democratic engagement.     

Teaching for citizenship in Lebanon: Teachers talk about the civics classroom

National and Civic Education is a program of study compulsory across all grade levels in Lebanon aimed at promoting social cohesion and active citizenship. A sample of 19 civics teachers in Lebanon across four of the six governorates participated in semi-structured interviews. The conversations delved into their conceptions of citizenship and citizenship education and their reflections of classroom teaching experiences. Their responses revealed complex inter-relations among nationalist conceptions of citizenship, pedagogies of rote learning, emotional repercussions from controversial topics and limited opportunities to think critically and engage in dialogue in the classroom.     

Young people, citizenship and citizenship education in Zimbabwe

Citizenship education in Zimbabwe is based on the claim that young people lack citizenship virtues. This study set out to investigate these assumptions by assessing high school students’ knowledge of, attitudes towards and participation levels in citizenship issues. Findings show that while students are knowledgeable about citizenship issues they are however, hesitant about involvement in political activities. The study concludes that the reported claims are partly not valid. In a politically sensitive environment students are unwilling to engage in political activities. They accurately assess the situation and adopt a position which other citizens in similar circumstances might take.     

Social literacy and citizenship education in the school curriculum

This article explores citizenship education's need to focus on both ‘political’ and ‘social’ literacy within a communitarian framework. The Crick Report (1998; see also Lahey, Crick and Porter, 1974), while recognizing that the social dimension of citizenship education was a precondition for both the civic and political dimensions, concentrated largely on ‘political’ literacy. This article examines the social dimension of citizenship education. Concern with the social dimension of the curriculum in schools is not a recent interest, but changes within society have accelerated the social demands made upon schools. At the very least, society expects schools to correct the behaviour of children and to teach them values which usually means insisting on ‘good’ behaviour. The social development of pupils has thus assumed a much greater place in the aspirations of schools. Programmes of personal and social education, together with citizenship education, invariably emphasize a range of social skills and these skills are introduced early and built upon throughout the years of schooling. An individual's sense and ability to make socially productive decisions do not develop by themselves; rather, they require knowledge, values and skills. Above all opportunities are required for children to experience social relations in such a way that they are able to operate critically within value-laden discourses and thereby to become informed and ethically empowered, active citizens.     

Constructing citizenship in post-conflict contexts: the cases of Liberia and Rwanda

In post-conflict and fragile contexts, one central aim of education is to prepare citizens to rebuild society and manage conflict. In this paper, we discuss the ways that citizenship education, students’ civic attitudes, and student civic practices vary across two post-conflict contexts in Africa: Liberia and Rwanda. First, we consider the historical and current complexities of citizenship education in these countries drawing on a post-colonial framework and Osler and Starkey’s three dimensions of citizenship. Next, we discuss survey and interview data from secondary students based on separate multi-level case studies in the respective countries. We note differences and similarities in student conceptions of good citizenship, civic identity, classroom climate, and civic engagement across the two countries, as well as variation by school type and gender. Some notable findings included less active conceptions of citizenship and openness to discussing controversial issues in Rwanda than in Liberia, and less participation in out of school activities among young women than young men. These and other results highlight differing contextual values of development, security, freedom of speech, and civic action and the overall importance of citizenship education in a post-conflict context.     

新农村建设背景下村委会的人权责任分析

新农村建设对村委会和村干部的人权责任提出了更高的要求．但是,其人权责任的来源和特征都与国家的人权责任和特征不同．村委会的人权责任的要求、原则和内容是在相应的法律的框架下展开的,但是,由于不同村的具体情况不同,其人权责任也会有所侧重．     

浅析近代德国公民身份的发展轨迹

在近代德国历史上,公民身份问题与移民问题和福利国家的建设密切相关。德国与英法在公民身份发展史上的差异是其历史特殊性的一面镜子。它对20世纪德国历史悲剧性的发展有着重要影响。     

Civic education in Ethiopian schools: Adopted paradigms,instructional technology,and democratic citizenship in a multicultural context

After nearly two decades of military dictatorship, democratic civic education has been integrated into the Ethiopian school curriculum. This paper examines the policy–practice concordance in implementing the civic education curriculum based on empirical evidence generated on the philosophical underpinnings, curricular contents, pedagogical approaches, and the role of instructional technology. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey on 179 randomly selected high school students, key informant teachers, and content analysis of students’ textbooks, teachers’ guides, and official policy documents. The findings reveal that the existing civic and ethical education curriculum is eclectic in its character blending the minimal interpretation of democratic civic education with the inclusive conception of ethno-cultural diversity relevant to multicultural societies. Nevertheless, the manner in which the TV-instruction is used in classrooms is found to hinder interactive learning that is instrumental to nurture democratic and active citizens.     

Influence of teachers and schools on students' civic outcomes in Latin America

The authors investigated to what extent teachers' practices and school characteristics can influence students' civic knowledge, civic attitudes, and future participation in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico and how this can be related to their specific curricular structures and educational content. It uses data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study. The results show that in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico, teacher practices and attitudes relate to the civic outcomes. Although teachers' practices and attitudes significantly predict students' civic knowledge, this relationship does not seem relevant for students' expected participation and students' attitudes toward diversity. Still, the democratic environment of the school is a relevant variable in the case of expected participation of students and their attitudes toward diversity, which shows a possible indirect influence of teachers through the school environment. The results are discussed in relation to the civic education curriculum in place in the countries analyzed.     

Reframing citizenship education in Beijing: competing views and strategies

This narrative documentary study depicts two approaches of citizenship education (CE) in Beijing over the past decade—change through curriculum development, versus change through the international exchange of ideals and practices. It reveals the varied interests of CE designers and the tensions arising from competing approaches to CE. Analysis unfolds three dimensions of CE in Beijing, i.e. CE as a civic mission advocated by Chinese scholars, as a diplomatic platform for local government to showcase the city’s image building, and as an authoritarian agent serving to resist notions and terminologies associated with the state’s political enemies. Reframing the citizenship discourses into these three dimensions allows us to order, conceptually, how we approach the function of CE in Beijing. The case of Beijing illuminates the methods, tensions, and likely future directions of CE in other Chinese polities, such as Hong Kong.     

Agents and subjects: schooling and conceptions of citizenship in early nineteenth-century Sweden

This article aims to analyse how the emerging Swedish school system in the early nineteenth century can be understood within the context of a gradual break-up of the estate society and its replacement with a class society in which citizenship was an important foundation. This is done through the discussion of the conceptions of citizenship on two levels. The first is the national level, focusing the national debate on education, and the second is the local level, investigating the local schools and the school setting. The main result is that the conceptions of citizenship in the school context were formed along two major lines: an inclusive social and civil citizenship and an exclusive, active and political citizenship. Consequently, the emerging Swedish school system simultaneously fostered these two citizenship conceptions, which coexisted in an educational system that was able to cast pupils as either subjects (comprehensive citizenship) or agents (designated citizenship).     

From civic to citizenship education: Toward a stronger citizenship orientation in the Ethiopian CEE curriculum

Recent research on Civic and Ethical Education (CEE) in Ethiopia has revealed a need for improvement in a number of areas with regard to the current CEE curricula. These materials are currently oriented to a conservative form of civic education than on citizenship education, whose aims are more progressive. The essential problem identified in the present study is that CEE content does not match the Ethiopian Ministry of Education’s stated goals for CEE, including the promotion of global citizenship. An inductive method was used to categorize themes found in the CEE curricula and textbook, which were analyzed with reference to Tawil’s (2013) framework for education for global citizenship. A concept in textual analysis known as ‘internal critique’ was also utilized to identify inconsistencies in the materials between the stated aims of the CEE program and the textbook content itself. The analysis revealed three main characteristics of the CEE textbooks, namely, an emphasis on sovereignty, patriotism, and responsibility; ambivalence to Ethiopia’s independence from/dependence on wealthier nations, and abstraction in CEE content. This content does only partially match the Ethiopian government’s stated aims for CEE. The findings of this study suggest that the content of the ethical dimension of Ethiopia’s CEE curriculum could be greatly improved through the inclusion of content that reflects an emphasis on citizenship education. Such an approach is more progressive than civic education and promotes a more learner-centered and critical orientation to ethical issues on the part of students within the framework of Global Citizenship Education (GCE).     

Creating critical‐democratic citizenship education: empowering humanity and democracy in Dutch education

Dutch society and educational policy see citizenship education as being an important task of education. The first section of this paper discusses the concept of citizenship and citizenship education, and analyses educational developments in the Netherlands. Following on from this introduction the second part of the paper puts forward a critical democratic pedagogy of citizenship education. With this proposed democratic pedagogy in mind, the third and final part of the paper goes on to analyse the discourses and developing practices of citizenship education in the Netherlands, and proposes a number of new possibilities.     

Muslim women meme-ing citizenship in the era of War on Terror militarism

ABSTRACT

Facebook meme groups created by Muslim students at American universities are sites of intensive daily productivity, where members post memes they create, or share memes they find elsewhere, joking about the everyday lived experience of practicing Islam as part of a family, a community, and a society. Through the practice of making memes about Muslim piety, members of these groups articulate a form of cultural citizenship in Western liberal secular society through humor. Young Muslim women engaged in meme-making must contend with the intersections of gender and religion while making claims to American citizenship, doing the work of re-shaping belonging both in terms of American citizenship and in terms of Islamic practice and belief.     

Daisaku Ikeda and the Soka movement for global citizenship

ABSTRACT

This article examines contributions to the ethic and practice of cosmopolitanism by Japanese educators Makiguchi Tsunesaburo, Toda Josei and, most significantly, Ikeda Daisaku. Collectively, they are “the philosophers of the Soka movement” that Rizvi and Choo refer to in their call for a special issue on “Asian cosmopolitanism.” The article advances understanding about the Soka movement for cosmopolitanism in two ways. First, it traces the genealogy and thought informing the Soka movement and then examines the substance of each progenitor’s contributions to cosmopolitanism from historical and linguistic perspectives. The author pays particular attention to the inclusion of courage and faith in Ikeda’s framework and also addresses important translational insights invisible to those not fluent in Japanese. Second, the author analyzes today’s Soka movement for cosmopolitanism in education and in the Soka Gakkai International. This section draws on Sato Masaru’s views of the Soka movement and presents concrete examples of how Ikeda’s perspective of global citizenship is understood and actualized curricularly in the U.S. context.