Citizenship Curriculum Research Articles

Challenging Conceptions of Western Higher Education and Promoting Graduates as Global Citizens

AbstractRecently there has been a shift in the discourses of university policy from internationalisation towards the contested concept of global citizenship. This paper explores ways of challenging the current interpretation of international education policy through the concept of global citizenship drawing on the discussion forums of two cohorts of participants in an online course. The participants’ responses illustrate ways they are rethinking the purpose of international higher education and the relevance of the concept of global citizenship. Whilst most participants whole‐heartedly endorsed a more holistic view of higher education, several issues were raised, especially the fit of the ideal of global citizenship with a capitalist society and the Western heritage of the concept, which were perceived to be troublesome issues. Resistance to the inclusion of education for global citizenship was anticipated from institutions and disciplines, both heavily invested in the status quo. The academics’ personal beliefs about higher education, and their willingness and potential to design and deliver curriculum for global citizenship were also prominent. Although universities are beginning to include the term global citizen in their policy documents the extent to which this might influence the goals and curricula of higher education is yet to be realised.

Educating for Global Citizenship: A Theoretical Account and Quantitative Analysis

Universities regularly suggest that they are educating for global citizenship. Yet global citizenship is rarely defined with precision, and the process for encouraging global citizenship is often unclear. This article examines a pedagogical effort to encourage global citizenship through global service-learning (GSL) courses offered by a nonprofit/university partnership. A quantitative instrument examined students’ shifts in respect to global civic engagement and awareness. The study compared students in three categories: 1) a typical composition course on campus; 2) GSL courses without the global citizenship curriculum; and 3) GSL courses that include the global citizenship curriculum. The results suggest significant gains in global civic engagement and awareness occur only in the context of a carefully constructed, deliberate global citizenship curriculum in addition to exposure to community-driven GSL.

Teachers' Perceptions of National Identity in the English and Taiwanese Citizenship Curricula: Civic or Ethnic Nationalism?

This article examines and compares the hotly debated issue of national identity in the Taiwanese and English citizenship curricula and investigates the extent to which schoolteachers' perceptions fall in line with the written curriculum. The author describes the background to the evolution of national identity in each country. Following this preliminary understanding, the theory of civic-ethnic nationalism is used as the criterion to examine the nature of nationalism underlying the curriculum. The Taiwanese citizenship curriculum with its 60-year long history has transformed from being a tool for the promotion of an ‘imagined’ Chinese national identity to a more Taiwan-oriented programme. With fewer disagreements, ‘Britishness’, as a consensual identity constructed from a civic construct, creates an inclusive umbrella to accommodate citizens with different ethnic, cultural, and religious identities. However, English citizenship education teachers question whether it has a robust-enough and deep-enough magnet to engage every citizen with varying backgrounds and further enhance social consolidation. On the other hand, this umbrella-type national identity seems to provide a valid solution for the Taiwanese citizenship curriculum designers to heal the long-lasting tensions caused by the ‘Taiwanese-Chinese identity’ divide. On closer examination, the Taiwanese curriculum chooses to sidestep this contentious issue and is therefore strongly criticised by the school teachers interviewed here. This research attempts to demonstrate the strengths and limitations of each curriculum's discourses of national identity and suggest what each may learn from each other.

The Use of Weblogs in Citizenship Education: A Theoretical Analysis of the Integration of Weblogs and the English Citizenship Curriculum

New technologies have changed the way people perceive the world as well as access to knowledge. The ubiquitous influence of the Internet has also impacted traditional teaching in schools. According to existing studies, the weblog, or blog, is one of the most commonly applied new technologies in teaching due to its ability to allow a combination of text, photographs, videos and discussion forums on an interactive platform. Its influence is particularly keenly felt in language teaching, distance learning and natural science education. However, its use in the humanities, including history, geography and citizenship education, is relatively unexplored. The author discerns a strong connection between weblogs and citizenship education, and argues that they share the mutual objectives of transmitting knowledge, enhancing deliberative interaction, and cultivating participation and contribution, as well as generating a sense of community. While citizenship education is widely included in school timetables across countries to stave off social apathy and reverse the trend of ever declining participation in public affairs, the nature of blogging can be an effective tool to encourage information-sharing and opinion exchange between pupils as well as teachers, which may further stimulate participation and confidence in schools, the community and the larger society, and transform the acquired civic knowledge in class into real-life experience. This article investigates this issue by means of theoretical analysis and, in order to facilitate understanding, the author uses the English citizenship curriculum as an example to contextualise the theoretical arguments and demonstrate the integrative potential of the subject and this technological device. Not only are the advantages proposed in the research, but also possible disadvantages are illustrated, in order to bring additional attention to the detrimental effects that the new technology may have.

Progressive reformers and the democratic origins of citizenship education in the United States during the First World War

The birth of formal citizenship education in the United States emerged in the context of mass immigration, the Progressive Movement, and the First World War. Wartime citizenship education has been chastised for its emphasis on patriotism and loyalty, and while this is a trend, historians have minimised the ways in which the democratic goals of the Progressive Movement at large also shaped citizenship education in its infancy. The paper situates citizenship education within the larger and broader aims of the Progressive Movement, and then looks at two federal agencies, the Bureau of Education and the Bureau of Naturalization, which produced and distributed the first citizenship curricula to the nation’s teachers. Ultimately, analysis of their citizenship textbook and teachers’ manual show that, even during war, it was assumed that through education any person, regardless of nationality or gender, could access citizenship, this being a very democratic mission in a paranoid moment.

Building Bridges between the Romanian National Curriculum for Elementary Students and the Global Context

Today's schools need to educate for the future more than ever before, as the world's challenges and opportunities become more compelling. With this regard, we should provide the students with opportunities for learning about issues that have local, national and global significance, leading to an understanding of human commonalities and empowering them to take thoughtful action. In this respect, the aim of this article is to show to what extent the Romanian national curricula for primary students, through its objectives and themes, foster the development of global citizenship. Unfortunately, a curriculum for global citizenship has not been developed yet in Romania, but we can identify some aspects in the curricula of various subject areas or disciplines. Education for global citizenship needs to be based on resources, material and learning engagements that encourage the students to ask questions, argue effectively, use critical thinking and reflection in an attempt to ultimately link learning to their own lives. The Romanian curricula for primary students offer some support in this sense through themes such as empathy for other human beings, respect and appreciation for human dignity. Moreover, humanitarian values and attitudes, the development of a sense of identity and the acquisition of knowledge about local, national and international institutions, good governance, rule of law, democratic processes, civil society and participation are supported. Our research also shows that the Romanian curricula support the development of life skills, including intra-personal skills such as emotional awareness, and inter-personal skills such as communication, cooperation, problem-solving, conflict resolution and advocacy. The conclusion of our research shows that the educational field in Romania needs to be more concerned with creating the right ethos and climate within the school as well as with empowering the students to take responsible action.

Young people's emotional geographies of citizenship participation: Spatial and relational insights

The inclusion of more ‘active’ citizenship concepts within citizenship curricula has been a pattern noted in many countries in recent years. Yet, rarely are young people's citizenship identities, and how these are shaped by emotional and relational experiences of being citizens in communities, considered in such curricula. In this paper, I explore the citizenship narratives of young people from two New Zealand high schools and examine how emotions formed a significant aspect of their citizenship perceptions and participation. These emotions were constituted in and through relations and non-relations with other young people at school, as well as with members of their local communities at various inter-locking spatial scales. Focusing on emotional geographies of citizenship participation offered insights into how young people were forming their citizenship identities at the intersection of their geographies of gender, race and class, and how these experiences shaped, motivated and sustained citizenship participation. The study highlights the complexity of young people's emotional experiences in relation to their citizenship identities and participation and the need to understand this affectivity in greater depth, especially within policy contexts.

A Critical Discussion of the Citizenship Curriculum in Taiwan and England: Teachers' Voices on Liberal and Communitarian Constructs

This article compares the development of citizenship education (CE) in Taiwan and England, as well as teachers' perceptions about the liberal and communitarian constructs underpinning the curriculum in both countries. Due to distinct social and political environments, the Taiwanese and English CE curricula demonstrate an interesting contrast. Until 1987, the Taiwanese curriculum grew under an authoritarian regime which had implemented the citizenship curriculum in 1945; in England, however, CE was not added to the school timetable until 2002, after a long debate about the controversial and potential influence of the subject. This article first offers an overview of the development of CE in Taiwan and England. Following this preliminary understanding, interview accounts with 20 CE teachers are included to share insights based on actual practical experience. The English curriculum leans towards a communitarian type of ‘active citizenship’, but teachers in England mention a gap between the theory and practice. In addition, reservations about the existence of the assumed ‘common values' underlying the communitarian construct are dealt with. In contrast, social and political participation is not perceived as a goal that is emphasised in the Taiwanese curriculum. Taiwanese CE sides with the ‘liberal construct’, but is criticised by some in Taiwan for ignoring moral values and character-building. It is also observed that both curricula use a ‘deliberative democracy’ approach to compensate for the shortcomings in curriculum construction. For a comparative study such as this, weaving both cases together demonstrates how each curriculum could derive inspiration from the other.

Beyond ‘Navel-Gazing’ and ‘Mush’: Learning about Identity in Australian Classrooms

This article explores how teaching about identity in Australia has been framed by the recent historical and political context. It analyses the influential characterisation of Australian identity during John Howard's period in office between 1996 and 2007. The findings of Australian education researchers relating to young people's sense of what it means to be Australian are reviewed. The author goes on to discuss the curriculum content, language, and underpinning intellectual frameworks of key areas of the emerging Australian Curriculum. Methodologically, the article draws upon the tools of critical policy and discourse analysis. The History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship curricula and related cross-curricular priorities are analysed in relation to their articulation of learning about identity. Some conclusions are drawn as to how Australian teachers can best be supported to address issues relating to identity in their school contexts. The author argues that teachers need help in developing the skills and confidence to see the emerging Australian Curriculum as a framework and not a straitjacket which prevents them from exploring unarticulated identity issues. He further concludes that there need to be curriculum opportunities to explore the political dimensions of identity issues in critical and participative ways.

Does Citizenship Education Work? Evidence from a Decade of Citizenship Education in Secondary Schools in England

In 2002 compulsory lessons on citizenship were introduced into secondary schools in England following the recommendations of an advisory group chaired by the late Bernard Crick. This study examines if this initiative has been successful in affecting the civic engagement of young people who were exposed to the citizenship curriculum over the decade since it was introduced. It utilises a survey of 18-26 year olds conducted in 2011 and compares respondents who were exposed to the curriculum with those who were not in what is a natural experiment. The findings are that citizenship education had a positive impact on three key components of civic engagement: efficacy, political participation and political knowledge. This suggests that the reform is likely to help offset some of the trends in civic participation among young people which have shown a sharp decline in key activities like voting and voluntary activities over time. The study concludes by speculating on the likely effects of the coalition governments decision to drop citizenship education as a compulsory subject in the national curriculum in schools in 2014.

Teaching with cultural intelligence: developing multiculturally educated and globally engaged citizens

Globalization and the increasingly multicultural characteristic of many countries and societies have placed an acute spotlight on whether nations are able to develop citizens who are multiculturally educated and globally engaged. While the character and citizenship education literature in Asia and the Pacific often mentions intercultural understanding and global-mindedness as desirable outcomes, few models exist that translate effortlessly into citizenship curriculum or classroom pedagogy. There has also been a lack of interdisciplinary exchange between the best science and practices of intercultural competence from other disciplines and the domain of citizenship education. Cultural intelligence, a theory-based and empirically rigorous construct propounds an ideal framework for promoting intercultural competence in character and citizenship education. To that end, teachers are faced with both the chance and challenge to lead and teach with cultural intelligence. In this paper, the inexorable requirement for intercultural competence in character and citizenship education is contended. The fit between the theory and practice of cultural intelligence and citizenship education is explored and examples offered for how teachers can teach with cultural intelligence and develop culturally intelligent students who will become multiculturally educated and globally engaged citizens.

Sorting citizens: Differentiated citizenship education in Singapore

Using Singapore as a case study, this paper examines how the discourses of democratic elitism and meritocracy help allocate different citizen roles to students and define the nature of the social studies citizenship education programmes for different educational tracks. While the Singapore education system is not unique in its stratification of students into distinct educational tracks with diverse educational outcomes, it is one of the very few countries with explicitly differentiated formal national citizenship curricula for students from different educational tracks. Students are formally allocated different citizenship roles and responsibilities according to the hierarchy defined by the state. Three distinct roles can be identified: (1) elite cosmopolitan leaders; (2) globally-oriented but locally-rooted mid-level executives and workers; and (3) local ‘heartlander’ followers. To cater to these different citizen roles, the three programmes encompass significantly different curricular goals, content, modes of assessment, civic skills, and values. The findings indicate that only the elite students have access to citizenship education that promotes democratic enlightenment and political engagement. The social studies curriculum for students in the vocational track, in contrast, focuses almost exclusively on imparting a pre-determined body of knowledge and set of values deemed necessary for academically low-achieving students.

Schools together: enhancing the citizenship curriculum through a non-formal education programme

In divided societies education for diversity, often introduced via the combined approaches of civic education, citizenship education and community-relations activity, is advocated as a core element of the school curriculum. Its delivery, through formal and non-formal educational approaches, has been routinely recognised as an opportunity for interactive learning, offering intellectual, social and emotional advantages to all involved. From its roots in the non-formal youth sector, the work of the Spirit of Enniskillen (SOE) Trust now encompasses formal partnerships with schools through a ‘dealing with difference together’ programme involving groups of sixth-form students (17–18 years) in a programme for citizenship education as a complementary and/or supplementary option to the subject area of Local and Global Citizenship. Based on a developmental evaluation of the Schools Together programme, this paper presents a case study of a collaborative schools-based programme for diversity in Northern Ireland. In particular, it outlines the unique characteristics of collaboration between the formal and non-formal education sectors; highlights the intrinsic value of such programmes for capacity-building and sustainability in schools; and identifies the contribution of such initiatives to educational reform and wider social change.

Identity, diversity and citizenship: A critical analysis of textbooks and curricula in Irish schools

Despite the long presence of migrant communities, Ireland was only transformed to a net-receiving immigration nation in 1996, and is currently experiencing net emigration in the wake of a sharp economic downturn. Debates about immigrant incorporation and educational responses are still at a relatively early stage. This study, which forms part of a larger project, set out to explore the role of schools and curricula in developing citizenship and the conception of Irish identity implicit therein. The article draws on citizenship curricula as well as some textbooks used in citizenship lessons. It argues that the curriculum at primary level emphasizes diversity and active citizenship in a plural society to a greater extent than the curriculum at secondary level. Moreover, there are discrepancies between the progressive rhetoric of policy documents and the content of textbooks and other curriculum material. This raises important questions of inclusivity in a still Catholic-dominated education system.

Does Citizenship Education Make Young People Better-Engaged Citizens?

Citizenship education has been a compulsory feature of the curriculum in secondary schools in England since 2002. However, its future may be uncertain amid inter-party disputes over the utility of such teaching. Moreover, there are substantial concerns over the breadth, aims and reach of the Citizenship curriculum. There is a lack of clarity over whether good citizenship can be taught and dispute over whether it can or should go beyond bolstering civil engagement (volunteering) and improving civic (political) activity. This article assesses the motivations for the introduction of Citizenship and the extent to which it has become a politicised panacea to a range of emerging policy challenges. Then, using survey data gathered for the Youth Citizenship Commission, established under the previous government to encourage community and democratic participation by young people, the article tests whether citizenship education is making a difference to the engagement of young people in the civil and political spheres. It assesses which categories of young people have been most influenced by – and which remain impervious to – citizenship education.

Educational policy for citizenship in the early years in Australia

Understandings of young children as active and capable citizens, while evident in discourses of early childhood education and research, are not widely reflected in the policy for the early years of schooling in Australia. This paper makes an analysis of the gaps and tensions between discourses of young children as active citizens and policy for citizenship education at the national level in Australia and at the Queensland State level. There is a widespread discourse within early childhood that regards young children as citizens and democratic participants in their own lives, as a reflection of the oft-cited Article 12 in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, educational policy and curriculum for citizenship in Australia, by and large, adheres to age and stage understandings of children that deem young children unable to conceptualise and/or articulate ideas of what it means to ‘be a good citizen’. We ask which discourses are being harnessed in educational policy for citizenship in Australia, what discourses are silenced or ignored and what this tells us about how young children are thought about in Australian politics and education.

The Nation, Europe, and Migration: A comparison of geography, history, and citizenship education curricula in Greece, Germany, and England

National curricula are being challenged and transformed by the impact of migration and European integration. This paper examines how cultural diversity and Europe are intertwined in geography, history, and citizenship education curricula in Greece, Germany, and England. This question is explored using quantitative and qualitative methods through a case study of curriculum content and discourses of 5 years compulsory schooling in all three countries. One might expect Germany and Greece, which have historically embraced a more monocultural vision, as having largely similar approaches. Yet, the cross-national analysis illustrates that the relationships between European and multicultural values are put together in rather different ways depending on the school subject. Whilst history is ethnocentric in all three countries, Greek geography and citizenship curricula veer between ethnocentrism and Europeanism. In contrast, in England, notions of multicultural Britishness are reinforced in geography and citizenship education. German curricula privilege national and European topics, but attempts have been made to address diversity, particularly in geography. Curriculum analyses have hitherto largely focused on either national and European dimensions or multicultural and global dimensions. This study provides new insights into how these dimensions intersect and their combined effect on migration and citizenship education in European societies.

Republican cosmopolitanism: democratising the global dimensions of citizenship education

This paper considers the nature of citizenship found in recent republican cosmopolitan work within political theory. It argues that republican cosmopolitanism, which seeks to recognise the importance of both cosmopolitan and active citizenry within global political communities, offers important insights through which the nature of global citizenship education may be understood. After identifying the central substantive tenets of republican cosmopolitanism, key issues raised by these for citizenship education are discussed. It is suggested that citizenship education can benefit conceptually from understanding and interrogating global issues from a republican cosmopolitan perspective, and that in turn recourse to republican cosmopolitan ideas raises important questions concerning the nature and focus of global aspects of the citizenship curriculum.

Teacher interpretations of citizenship education: national identity, cosmopolitan ideals, and political realities

Citizenship education typically focuses on the nation and citizens’ supposed natural affinity to the nation‐state. In this global age, this is challenged by cosmopolitans who propose a form of education which encourages a primary commitment to fellow humanity and/or the planet Earth. However, citizenship education has been re‐emphasized by those who assert that in a globalized world and nation‐states characterized by diversity, one requires a primary commitment to the nation‐state. The latter group proposes a renewed focus on civic education which promotes national belonging and loyalty, often targeting, either explicitly or implicitly, students from minority or migration backgrounds. Within EU member‐states, this binary between education for national and global citizenship is troubled by the issue of European citizenship and belonging. This article analyses the official citizenship curriculum for England and reports on qualitative research with teachers, designed to explore their perceptions of the curriculum and their students’ needs as learner‐citizens. The teachers reflect on local, national, European, and global dimensions of citizenship. Expressing concern about the ethno‐nationalistic attitudes of some students, they work to engage with and extend students’ experiences. The article proposes education for cosmopolitan citizenship to meet students’ needs, whether their affinities are apparently fixed or flexible; local; national; global; or multiple.

Performativity, well‐being, social class and citizenship in English schools

A range of initiatives to promote well‐being and empowerment have been introduced into English schools. These ostensibly support the citizenship curriculum that seeks to foster a more active and engaged populace. Whilst children are being encouraged to view their own well‐being as a personal project (and as a badge of successful citizenship), this process is being undermined by an informal curriculum of citizenship, embedded within the culture of performativity, that is promoting a climate of misrecognition within schools. This form of “symbolic violence” (that affects working‐class families disproportionately) is encroaching into the private sphere, traditionally a potential refuge providing opportunities for the development of forms of well‐being that were not dependent on institutional endorsement. It is suggested that some of the counter‐hegemonic values developed in the face of marginalisation might usefully inform issues of citizenship and well‐being in schools in ways that would encourage genuinely empowered forms of citizenship.