Citizenship Education Curriculum Research Articles

Pedagogical principles for encouraging (socially just) youth climate action: A schema for citizenship education curriculum analysis

This article synthesizes pedagogical principles for supporting youth climate action from across local (Ontario) and global literature. It also seeks out stories of Indigenous youth engaging in climate action in distinct ways—highlighting examples from Sioux (of Standing Rock) and Inuit youth. The authors propose the Pedagogical Principles for Supporting Climate Action curriculum analysis schema before using it to examine the Ontario citizenship framework. The findings reveal how the curriculum segment in its current form is incongruent with the pedagogical principles of supporting youth climate action. The authors articulate both immediate and urgent curriculum revisions that are necessary for supporting youth in socially just climate action—with a call for immediate revisions that include a shift toward centering Indigenous knowledges, integrating climate justice and upholding relationality to the land and all that it sustains.

La formación inicial del profesorado de primaria en educación para la ciudadanía. Estudio de casos en Latinoamérica

This article identifies, analyzes and interprets what happens with citizenship education in the initial training of generalist teachers, in university programs in Latin America. The methodological strategy is the documentary analysis of the citizenship education curriculum in three academic programs in Chile, Argentina and Colombia, which train primary school teachers and who agree to participate voluntarily in the study. The results identify that the purposes and objectives of the programs for the initial training of generalist teachers focus on global citizenship. In the study plans, the contents planned for teaching the area are few and focused on theoretical concepts related to national citizenship, which do not favor the development of critical thinking or the political training of teachers, which are essential aspects to train students future teachers and transformative intellectuals (Giroux, 2006). The analysis concludes that general teachers are not being trained to educate primary school boys and girls as critical and democratic citizens. Academic programs have the challenge of proposing problematizing curricula, in which future teachers acquire the professional skills to analyze and understand the complexity and interdisciplinarity of social knowledge and, to guide the area of ​​citizenship in primary education in the construction of democratic culture and social justice.

Urgensi Pendidikan Bela Negara di Era Society 5.0 (Tantangan dan Peluang)

This research aims to examine the urgency of national defense education in the Society 5.0 era, with a focus on the challenges and opportunities faced. The research background reflects the importance of maintaining state sovereignty and building awareness of state defense in the midst of increasingly complex globalization. The research method used is a qualitative approach with document analysis and interviews as data collection techniques. The research results show that national defense education which is integrated into the citizenship education curriculum has an important role in shaping students' character and fostering a spirit of love for the country. The main challenge in its implementation is overcoming the influence of globalization which can damage national values. However, there are opportunities to optimize national defense education by utilizing developments in information and communication technology. In conclusion, state defense education is a vital aspect in maintaining state sovereignty and preparing the young generation as agents of change in the Society 5.0 era.

Transmission, transactional and reflection model: An approach to implementation of citizenship education in Kenya

ABSTRACT Citizenship and Citizenship Education are at the centre of curriculum reform in Kenya. Weak implementation processes have previously watered down similar novel curricular reforms due to a need for an elaborate curriculum implementation model. This article reviews existing Citizenship Education models to develop an effective curriculum implementation model. As a result, the paper formulates the ‘Transmission, Transactional and Reflection’ Citizenship Education curriculum instructional model. Unlike existing models that view the three phases as distinctive independent categories, the current model conceptualises it as a continuous process. The model further specifies the resultant transformation and change to include Disciplined, Participatory and Critical Citizenship. The model is similar to the vision of the basic education curriculum framework, which aims to enable every Kenyan to become an Empowered, Engaged and Ethical citizen. If adopted, this model will improve the implementation of Citizenship Education, instilling requisite citizenship values for effective citizenry.

Global citizenship education curriculum through the lens of Indigenous knowledge systems: Perspectives from Ghana

Global citizenship education curriculum through the lens of Indigenous knowledge systems: Perspectives from Ghana

Pendidikan Moral Menuju Harmonisasi Sosial

Moral education in Indonesia is urgent, because in the last decade moral issues are still very complex. This emphasizes the importance of a holistic evaluation of Islamic education, which is based on divine and human values. This article also highlights changes in the curriculum for Islamic education and citizenship education, as well as the role of teachers in facilitating learning. The evaluation process is considered important in assessing the success of moral education, and this article suggests re-evaluating current evaluation methods to better measure the achievement of moral and ethical values. This article discusses the reconstruction of moral education evaluation towards social harmony. This emphasizes the importance of evaluating moral behavior that is rooted in the student's personality. This article argues that the current curriculum in Indonesia is not yet effective in achieving educational goals, and suggests that a reconstruction of evaluation methods is needed. This article proposes several strategies for evaluating moral education, including integrating moral education with real life situations, incorporating multicultural learning, and focusing on affective and psychomotor aspects of learning. The article concludes by highlighting the desired outcomes of moral education, such as tolerance, respect, and nationalism.

‘I have discovered how to have faith in my students’: Negotiating a citizenship education curriculum with vocational education students

Although the curriculum ideally serves the interests of its recipients, student perspectives have been marginalised in curriculum negotiation. Our objective is to better meet the needs and wishes of vocational education students by including them in planning, acting/observing and reflecting on the citizenship education curriculum. In this participatory action research project students were made responsible for designing, developing and delivering a lesson for their peers. Data collection consisted of interviews, focus group discussions and observations during three action rounds involving five classes. Even though many teachers were initially sceptical about their students’ abilities, it turned out that students enjoyed engaging in curriculum negotiation. Students were the main drivers of the curriculum. Relevant factors for implementation were: teachers’ beliefs about student capabilities and attitudes, changing roles and responsibilities, and safe and constructive classroom dynamics. Students were exposed to a wide variety of skills and challenges. Future research should focus on studying the same participants during multiple implementation rounds. Also, opportunities for curriculum negotiation activities within other topics should be explored. Lastly, a more rigid analysis of the learning outcomes as well as the impact on personal development of students and teachers would be recommended.

Empathy as a virtue: a Confucian interpretation and a tool to address anti-Asian hate crime

ABSTRACT This paper extends the dominant understandings of empathy – as a trait, state, communication or relationship – by conceptualising it as a virtue and as a tool to address anti-Asian hate crime. Drawing upon the writings of the Confucian philosopher Xunzi, this article interprets empathy as a personal quality that attests to one’s moral excellence. It is argued that Xunzi’s concept of empathy revolves around the ethical attributes of zhong (authenticity) and ren (humaneness). This article amplifies Xunzi’s formulation of empathy by applying it to anti-Asian hate crime in the U.S. The authors propose that Xunzian empathy is a powerful tool to address racism and violence towards Asians through two related and mutually reinforcing approaches: undoing fixation by identifying and eliminating racial/ethnic prejudice and discrimination; and habituating humane conduct by internalising and exhibiting li (normative behaviour) towards fellow human beings. These two approaches and a Confucian construal of empathy as a virtue can be enacted in schools through the strategies of role-taking, empathetic pedagogy, and Global Citizenship Education curriculum.

Students’ and teachers’ voice on the outcomes of a citizenship education curriculum

The current study aims to examine students’ and teachers’ voices and views on the outcomes of the implementation of a curriculum as relevant and appropriate to enhance students’ citizenship skills by engaging them in dialogic and argumentative practices. To achieve the aim an innovative curriculum, consisting of 15 lessons per education level (pre-primary, primary and secondary) was developed. These lessons involved teachers and students in dialogue and argumentation around themes of citizenship education as cultural literacy using dialogue and argumentation as tools. The sample consisted of the responses of 134 teachers and 78 secondary school students. Overall, the curriculum was successful on supporting students on dialogue, argumentation and cultural literacy. A second finding has to do with teachers identifying changes in their practices related to dialogue and argumentation during the enactment of the curriculum. Furthermore, teachers underline the aspect of student enjoyment of the curriculum during the implementation. This finding supports the democratic and participatory aspect of the curriculum and adds a successful example of citizenship curriculum to the literature. Students emphasize as important aspects of the curriculum the fact that it makes the connection to everyday life, and is different from usual classroom related issues.

From Global Citizenship to Anthropocene Denizenship: The Challenge to Education for Sustainable Development

ABSTRACT This article connects instrumental, emancipatory, and critical approaches to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) with the different cultural responses or grand narratives of the Anthropocene: eco-modernist, eco-catastrophist, and eco-socialist. The tensions between these different approaches are explained by ESD’s reliance on the ideals of citizenship and the global, which are also at the heart of the Global Citizenship Education (GCE) curriculum. It is argued that the Anthropocene puts into question both ideals, by forcing us to recognise that humans and nonhumans are denizens with limited rights and expanded obligations, all interconnected with each other through the multiple and complex relations of living-together or cohabitation. In this context, ESD needs to move beyond the humanist and liberal ideal of education as a way to form active and engaged citizens able to deal with the global environmental crisis and pursue instead a posthumanist curriculum for Anthropocene Denizenship Education. This proposal aims to overcome anthropocentric pedagogies and encourage learners to develop an embodied, affective, experienced, relational sense of becoming-together with other co-inhabitants of the Earth by cultivating vulner-abilities, attend-abilities, and response-abilities.

Digital and socio-civic skills development and young people’s perceptions of digital citizenship in the UK

Digital Citizenship is an emerging field of research but there is still a lack of knowledge into what works and how to implement educational practices to develop digital citizenship. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between young people’s participatory profile and their perceptions of the development of digital and socio-civic skills, and to understand how young people exercise their citizenship in the United Kingdom. The study consists of 124 responses to an online questionnaire. The analysed data suggests that the current framing of citizenship education curriculum in the UK is still focused on more traditional forms of political participation and more work needs to be done in terms of developing citizenship education for a digital era.

Hollanda'da Göçmenler ve Vatandaşlık Eğitimi

The Netherlands is a significant example of citizenship education for other countries because of its distinctive citizenship politics based on immigration, and sexuality politics. This critical review focuses citizenship education curriculum in the Netherlands and highlights an understanding of how politically constructed educational objectives might endanger or support social cohesion and the integration of immigrants. This review, which is based on relevant literature, concentrates on secondary-level citizenship education because that level places the most emphasis on teaching civic principles based on citizenship policies, which have an emphasis on sexuality politics, Dutch nationality, and the assimilation of non-Western immigrants into Dutch society. The critical review of the current practices shows that there are two reasons for the failure to teach civic values to immigrant children and to create a harmonious relationship between locals and immigrants: 1) There is an inadequate explanation of how sexuality politics is connected to Dutch nationality in the school curriculum. 2) The political structure does not acknowledge that immigrant youth have a positive perception of understanding that sexuality politics is a component of Dutch nationality because of their political interests. Given the arguments, this discussion suggests that citizenship education curricula should give enough coverage to terms and concepts that are used to teach civic values and should have boundaries between politics and civic values to support the inclusion of immigrant communities.

Designing a Citizenship Education Curriculum based on the Concept of Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) in Higher Education

The Citizenship Education Curriculum is a device unit regarding goals, materials, tactics, and practical evaluation of Citizenship Education as capital in achieving a national education orientation. This study aims to describe the designing of a Citizenship Education Curriculum based on the concept of Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka in Higher Education. This research was carried out through a qualitative approach using the literature study method. The sources of this research are focused on various primary sources and are supported by secondary sources. Data analysis is done by data reduction, data display, verification, or drawing conclusions. Based on this research, independent learning at the independent campus encourages and facilitates students' rights to master various knowledge that is useful for entering the world of work and provides opportunities for students to have other learning experiences outside of their study program. The development of the Citizenship Education curriculum, based on the concept of an independent campus, needs to reflect the school of progressivism educational philosophy and collaboration with other schools of educational philosophy that are capable of supporting the achievement of a curriculum development orientation. The design of the Citizenship Education Curriculum based on the concept of Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka in Higher Education has four aspects, namely planning, learning process, assessment, and evaluation.

Engineering the development of democratic citizenship education curriculum in the global era: A few perspectives from theoretical frameworks

There are weaknesses both from the perspective and effectiveness of Citizenship Education (CE) which are too oriented towards domestic problems in the context of facing global challenges and problems. Today it is necessary to change the orientation of the Civics curriculum which is globally oriented. In other words, it is necessary to engineer the Civics curriculum development. This paper attempts to present theoretical frameworks for engineering the development of a democratic and globally oriented Civics curriculum. There are at least six theoretical frameworks, namely the Birdcage Theory, Crystal Theory, Tree Theory, DNA Theory, Mushroom Theory, and Amoeba Theory. The six theories have different views, implications, and recommendations in curriculum engineering, including the Civics curriculum. This paper ends with the author's recommendations after considering both the strengths and weaknesses of the six theoretical frameworks.

How Right-Wing Populists Influence Citizenship Education—Evidence from Poland

As the importance of right-wing populist parties (RPPs) has grown significantly in Europe, with some even forming governments, the attendant political and policy programs are attracting greater attention. However, to date most of the relevant research has been focused on the core slogan policies of RPPs, relating to immigration and the economy. This has left the parties’ educational policies understudied. In seeking to address this situation, we analyse changes in the citizenship-education curricula that Poland’s schools pursued during the years 2017 to 2022, with the country’s ruling party ( Law and Justice— PiS), thus offering a case study of a typical RPP. This article scrutinizes citizenship-education curricular changes pursued by PiS—with an approach that regards this as the field that best allows the desire to reconstruct the model of citizenship to be discerned. We also explore a process of “civic de-socialization,” and the new system of values being put in place in the curricula, by the Polish government. We examine whether the new provisions this entails fit into the ideological system of right-wing populists, and we conclude by developing hypotheses, and seeking to conclude theoretically, that ideological radicalization in education is being observed, in the wake of years of rule by an RPP. Interesting in this regard is the finding that more profound changes were not put into effect until a second stage to the reforms was reached. Overall, the case of the curriculum pursued in Poland by PiS points to a new ontology of citizenship, more nativism, and an anti-progressive agenda.

Digital storytelling for global citizenship education: a Chinese case study

ABSTRACT Adopting Oxfam’s key elements of education for global citizenship, this case study investigates how digital storytelling, a participatory media practice, is used for citizenship education among Chinese college students. A thematic analysis of in-depth interviews suggests digital storytelling can be used as an effective pedagogical tool as students report multifaceted development in knowledge, skills and values outlined in the curriculum for global citizenship education. Instead of taking an approach focusing only on Western values, the researcher emphasizes the use of local agendas and taking local contexts into consideration while integrating information and communication technologies for global citizenship education. The findings show that professional tools and tutorial are helpful and welcomed but not a must-have, which indicates promoting global citizenship education through digital storytelling is practically feasible in the Global South whose voices should be heard and values known in a globalized world. This study adds literature on global citizen education in China which is under-researched compared to more developed Asian economies.

Exploring the Private and Public Spheres of Values Education in Singapore through a Perception Study

Purpose: This paper explores the role of parents and schools in the private and public spheres of values education in early childhood and investigates parents’ perceptions and expectations of their role and the role of schools in their children’s moral and character development. It examines parents’ desired values for children in relation to the refreshed Character and Citizenship Education curriculum that is taught in Singapore primary schools, and other factors of influence that affect early morality.
 Method: This research project uses a mixed method design that draws upon data from a survey and focus group discussion to investigate values education in the home and school contexts. Using thematic analysis, seven major themes emerge from the findings to reveal parents’ perceptions and expectations of schools in cultivating desired values in their children.
 Results: The findings indicate that parents see themselves as the first educator of their children and schools play a secondary role in the values education of their children. Overall, parents are satisfied with the quality of values education their children receive.
 Conclusion: Parents and schools are integral to inculcating values and developing children’s character from young, which points to the importance of establishing a collaborative partnership for effective values education to take place at home and in school.

“We are not equal citizens in any respect”: citizenship education and the routinization of violence in the everyday lives of religious minority youth in Pakistan

ABSTRACT This article foregrounds religious minority youths’ subjective experiences of citizenship education in Pakistan to reflect on the relationship between educational curricula and religious exclusion. Drawing on narrative interviews with Hindu, Sikh, and Christian youth in the Punjab province, we demonstrate how sectarian constructions of national history and the paucity of positive representation in the curriculum inflict routinized forms of violence on minority youth and create an environment where anti-minority discriminations and prejudices can be justified. Youths’ narratives also reveal how they mobilize available institutional mechanisms to challenge these routine forms of violence and reinforce their commitment to an inclusive Pakistani identity. Reforms in citizenship education curricula are therefore urgently needed to address these concerns and promote an inclusive Pakistani identity. We situate our findings both in the historical context of contemporary Pakistan and the wider region of South Asia which has witnessed a rapid growth in exclusionary religious nationalisms.

Study on 2015 French Citizenship Education Curriculum: Analysis and Implications

[연구목적] 본 연구는 시민교육에서 ‘문화’의 중요성을 인식하여 문화를 계획된 교육과정 차원에서 활용하는 프랑스의 교육과정을 탐색하고자 하였다. 이를 통해 사회가 다원화되고 가치의 대립이 심화되는 한국에서 시민교육을 구상하는 데 유용한 시사점을 모색하고자 하였다. [연구방법] 이러한 목적을 달성하기 위해, 프랑스에서 시민교육이 강조되는 사회적 맥락을 파악하였다. 이후 사회문제를 시민교육으로 해결할 것을 주장하는 정치인 및 정부 제출 보고서의 담론을 확인하였다. 마지막으로 시민교육 교육과정 개정 작업에 참여한 교육과정 학자들의 연구물과 2015년 교육과정을 확인하였다. [연구결과] 주요 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 시민교육 연구자들은 가치의 일방적 전달이라는 교화 문제를 해결하기 위해 ‘도덕적 문화’ 개념을 도입하고 시민교육의 내용을 네 가지 문화로 유목화 하였다. 첫째, ‘감수성의 문화’를 통해 청소년들에게 공감하는 감정과 자신의 감정을 분명히 알고 이름 붙이는 능력을 발달시키는 것을 강조했다. 둘째, ‘규칙과 법의 문화’는 학생들이 교실과 학교생활에서 지켜야 할 규칙을 알고 그것이 기반하고 있는 원칙에 대해 이해할 수 있도록 구성되었다. 셋째, ‘판단의 문화’로 이 문화는 학생들이 도덕적 선호를 명백히 밝히고, 다른 사람의 선호와 비교하는 행위를 강조한다. 넷째, ‘참여의 문화’는 학생들이 이전의 세 가지 문화를 통해 학습한 내용을 실천하는 데 관심을 기울인다. [결론] 프랑스의 시민교육 교육과정은 한국의 시민교육이 추후 어떤 문제 제기에 직면할 수 있으며 도출해낼 수 있는 대안은 무엇인지 파악하는 데 유용한 사례를 제공한다.

Validation of the Moral Reasoning Questionnaire against Rasch Measurement Theory

To support teachers in facilitating students’ moral reasoning development as specified within the Singapore Ministry of Education Character and Citizenship Education curriculum, the Moral Reasoning Questionnaire (MRQ) was developed and underwent preliminary validation. Based upon expert reviews, cognitive interviews and a classical test theory-based factor analytic approach, the development and preliminary validation found evidence (i.e., content appropriateness, response processes and internal structure) to support the validity and reliability of the MRQ. This study aims to extend the validation by examining the purported MRQ items and scale at a deeper level on the Rasch Measurement Theory, given that it is the only model that presents appropriate properties of interval measurement on a log-linear scale. The Rasch analysis found anomalies including differential item functioning and disordered thresholds in the initial set of items. Upon remediation and a second Rasch analysis, the MRQ responses were consistent with that expressed by the Rasch model (i.e., an item with an endorsability higher than what a respondent would tend to endorse would have a lower probability of being endorsed than an item exhibiting an endorsability below what that respondent would tend to endorse) and hence, there was sufficient evidence to support measurement invariance, and that MRQ scores could be concluded to characterise persons invariantly across a continuum.