A Moral Perspective on Citizenship Education and on IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Studies

Abstract

Citizenship education can be conceptualized within different frameworks or perspectives about the meaning of citizenship. These differences become more important when the focus is on educational policy and practice. The chapter first discusses a national concept of citizenship and then the concept of global citizenship. This chapter conceptualizes three different types of national citizenship: adapted, individualized, and critical-democratic. Research into global citizenship also shows three types: an open global citizenship with an emphasis on cultural openness; a moral global citizenship focusing on the well-being of humanity; and a social-political global citizenship aimed at greater social justice. These distinctions emphasize the influence of globalization on the articulation of civic and citizenship education. Global citizenship focuses on human rights principles as moral guidelines for improving the world; national citizenship focuses on strengthening national culture. This chapter demonstrates the relevance of moral values for civic and citizenship education. It also presents suggestions for including moral values in the conceptual framework of the IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). To that end, it concludes by suggesting a new definition of education for citizenship.