Citizenship Training Research Articles

El aprendizaje de la ciudadanía a lo largo de la vida: un estudio narrativo desde historias de vida

The study has two objectives: to understand the construction of civic identity and draw some key conclusions for the interpretation of its learning as active citizens. The study was carried out through life stories, using a multiple-case design. Three biographical oriented interviews were used to prepare each of the stories. The qualitative handling of the data used dual analysis: sequential analysis, as a reflection of the identity construction processes throughout life, and categorical analysis as a connection between the “what” and the “how” people learn their civic identity. The results of the sequential analysis show life spans that, in their singularity, reflect the constant identification and desire to improve, efficiently, the immediate surroundings where people develop, as well as the continuous practice of social action. The categorical analysis produced an interpretative model split into two interrelated dimensions. On one hand the “learning results” dimension with three macro-categories: “action”, defined by the possession of skills (leadership and power, empathy and dialogue, initiative and innovation); “commitment”, defined by certain values (vitality and viability, sensitivity and responsibility, regeneration and transformation); and “identity” (situated, discursive and dialectic). On the other hand, the “learning processes” dimension, with the following macro-categories: “scenarios”; “life experiences” and “socialisation. The discussion of results emphasises the principles of diversification, lack of control and authorship as references for a socio-cultural action that will stimulate citizenship training. This is based on making the protagonists “do useful things” in local scenarios that offer the opportunity for improvement, on promoting actions that will encourage self-reflection, and on raising awareness about the complexity of reality itself. These are principles that can be applied in educational experiences throughout people’s life spans from their beginnings.

Formation Secouriste Sauveteur au Travail sur le développement interpersonnel : étude exploratoire auprès des salariés de Structures d’Insertion professionnelle

The National Institute of Research and Security and the “CHANTIER Ecole” network have developed first-aid training for employees of integration into the workplace centres. Specifically geared towards workplace safety, but similar in its content to home first-aid and rescue training, this training is also designed to enhance individual and collective responsibility and citizenship. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the personal and interpersonal effects of first-aid training of these employees by considering their social and professional difficulties in terms of psychosocial skills, such as empowerment, stress and emotions management, and decision-making capacity. A descriptive-inductive study was conducted over 18 months based on the grounded theory approach. Five integration into the work-place centres participated in the study and 34 interviews were conducted. These results raise several questions concerning: a) the characteristics of this public targeted by this training and their perception of integration into the workplace; b) the suitability of this training to working conditions and the link with other types of training such as family health education; c) the relationship between citizenship training and first-aid training at work, as it is more applicable to family training than workplace training. A quantitative study is considered to confirm these observations in other integration into the workplace centres.

Educación ambiental para el desarrollo y consumo sustentable en Chile. Una revisión bibliográfica

The objective of the following article is to carry out a review of the literature in academic texts and official documents resulting from various international conferences that deal with topics related to environmental education, sustainable development and sustainable consumption. A selection of the most important milestones in the evolution of environmental education is carried out, making a tour in history since 1949 from the first Research of Unesco, to the most recent summit Rio+20 in 2012; subsequently, the article will describe the actions for environmental education that Chile is performing according to the documentation, revised and existing national legislation, in school settings (formal education) and citizenship training (non-formal education). It is stated that the task of consumer education in Chile is only partially channeled by a government agency, which provides guidelines for responsible consumption. It is concluded with this review that in Chile the environmental education for sustainable consumption and development has a formed base that progresses slowly and that, in accordance with the revised documentation, should materialize to a greater extent, in projects and programs for the benefit of the country’s natural and social scene. Thus, it would also be relevant that there is a formal curriculum addition, where emphasis is placed on mandatory contents of environmental education and, in turn, a specialization of teachers in this discipline.

Sundberg, Molly: Training for Model Citizenship. An Ethnography of Civic Education and State-Making in Rwanda

Sundberg, Molly: Training for Model Citizenship. An Ethnography of Civic Education and State-Making in Rwanda

El «enfoque de las capacidades» de Martha Nussbaum y sus consecuencias educativas: hacia una pedagogía socrática y pluralista

En un tiempo de incertidumbre como el que vivimos, la educación corre el riesgo de perderse en un sinfín de propuestas sin que exista un debate riguroso acerca de una pregunta esencial para cualquier educador: cuál es el modelo de persona y de sociedad por el que apuesta, y hacia el que se han de dirigir todas sus acciones educativas. En este artículo, intentamos salvar ese importante déficit presentando el «enfoque de las capacidades» de Martha Nussbaum, que incluye una determinada teoría de la justicia social y del bienestar individual. A partir de dicho marco, Nussbaum presenta algunas líneas fundamentales que deberá recoger la educación: la de contribuir a formar el pensamiento crítico y reflexivo y la de ser pluralista y formarnos en una ciudadanía múltiple o compleja. Concluimos con unas reflexiones personales acerca del difícil camino que debemos recorrer si nos comprometemos con el logro de esa «sociedad justa» de Nussbaum.

Teaching Teachers and Learning from Young Learners

At its best, education is an important training for citizenship, and the content we teach plays an important role in this process. One’s ability to ask questions is often a function of what one knows, but may also be a function of what one does not know. History is an argument about the past. Power relationships—who has the ability to legitimize their own stories, whose stories matter, whose stories are in the spotlight and which ones remain in the shadows—are part of the mix. A major challenge of US history teaching and learning is that our narrative is primarily a celebratory one. While not unique to the United States, efforts to avoid the more troubling aspects of our past too often obscure the contributions of an increasingly large segment of our current student population, our future leaders. All nations have a compelling interest in presenting a narrative that is engaging, that is inspiring. However, one casualty of the process of narrative construction is that troubling or controversial aspects of a nation’s history are often relegated to the dustbin. This can leave many wanting, or lead them to become cynical. We need to engage with our past if we are to meet the challenges of our present. Many of today’s most pressing challenges are directly connected to the past.

Training for Model Citizenship: An Ethnography of Civic Education and State-Making in Rwanda

This thesis addresses how government in Rwanda plays out in practice and how it affects lived experiences of state power and citizenship. Two decades after the genocide, Rwanda has come to be assoc ...

Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times by Amy J. Wan (review)

Reviewed by: Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times by Amy J. Wan Daniel Bernal Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times Amy J. Wan Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh Press, 2014. Print. 232pp. Strong in theory, rich in history, and far-reaching in its implications, Producing Good Citizens will soon become a staple for scholars, activists, and pedagogues alike who are interested in the complicated intersections of literacy and citizenship. In this historicized work, Amy Wan explores three main sites of citizenship training during the 1910s and 1920s—federally-sponsored immigrant Americanization programs, union-supported worker education training, and college-mandated first-year writing courses. Wan’s book starts with a brief introduction to citizenship theory, moves into archival research of each training site, and concludes with applications of her methodology to present anxieties over citizenship, particularly in relation to the Patriot and DREAM Acts. Through her book, Wan complicates citizenship as a discursive construct and demonstrates the limits of what literacy—and citizenship—can do for students as well as “the limitations put upon students by not only the idea of citizenship, but also its legal, political, and cultural boundaries” (178). Wan’s powerful, timely argument and her final challenge to educators and scholars alike should not be ignored. Together, Wan invites us to consider what is meant by the invocation of citizenship in the classroom, to analyze the habits of citizenship that are encouraged by our practices, and to connect our citizen-making processes to other more politically and materially situated notions of citizenship. In her use of “citizenship,” Amy Wan builds on Danielle Allen’s Talking to Strangers (2004), Barbara Cruikshank’s The Will to Empower (1999), and Bryan Turner’s introduction to Citizenship and Social Theory (1993). Wan, along with these scholars, expands the concept of citizenship from mere legal status to a “kind of credential with legal and cultural purchase” (6). In this manner, Wan justifies the exploration of citizenship construction in not only legal spaces, but also in classrooms, workplaces, and community spaces. She cites Harvey Graff ’s The Literacy Myth (1979) and Deborah Brandt’s Literacy in American Lives (2001), assessing that, while literacy might deem an individual worthy of certain resources (i.e. passing first-year composition in order [End Page 120] to graduate) it in no way guarantees social, economic, or political access. While this tendency to falsely conflate what Sharon Crowley describes as the “economic inequality and racial discrimination with a literacy problem” (qtd. in Wan, 7) might seem obviously erroneous, Wan is interested in its origins, pervasiveness, and rhetorical power. Ultimately, she concludes that this “literacy hope” serves to perpetuate systemic inequality. Nevertheless, the invocation of citizenship production is also constantly leveraged to justify the usefulness of higher education, and especially the writing classroom. In this way, the ideals of citizenship support literacy instruction by proving that students are becoming the right kind of citizens who are doing the right kind of learning. Citizenship is referenced in student learning goals precisely because education is recognized as one of the traits of citizenship demonstrated by good and useful citizens. For example, Kathleen Yancey in her 2009 NCTE report calls for compositions that “foster a new kind of citizenship” (7). Yancey desires to empower students, “citizen writers” (1), to use twenty-first century writing skills to take action in a digital world. Wan also references other scholars such as Ellen Cushman (1998), Elizabeth Ervin (1997), and Michele Simmons (2007) who similarly characterize the writing classroom as a space that can “reinvigorate democratic and participatory citizenship through writing that relates to the public” (Wan 21). But Wan takes issue with these high-sounding arguments. She asserts that this undefined and “ambient awareness” (22) of citizenship plays a role in shaping the types of citizens that are produced. She writes, “The desired skills—public writing, public engagement, citizen critique, critical literacy, or technology—become inextricably, although often silently, linked to the imagined ideal of the ‘good citizen’” (22). This is dangerous because educators’ subconscious and unsifted views of what kind of people students should become may “conceal other ways of being a citizen” (Wan 22). Wan’s work attempts to get...

Global citizenship in Pakistan

This paper attempts to understand the value of the ideology of global citizenship in Pakistan by looking at students' values and attitudes. In particular, it explores students' understanding of the term 'global citizen' and their attitude towards the concept. Using a case study approach, interviews were conducted with six students in a privately run school under the national education system, in addition to five teachers who have undergone a global citizenship training. This research highlights students' strong national identity, which engenders a sense of urgency with regard to displaying a positive side of the country, with global citizenship being seen as one avenue for creating a positive image. In addition, the absence of a clear understanding of 'citizenship' itself means a very loose understanding of what global citizenship could or should entail. These findings communicate the need to rethink global citizenship in the Pakistani context through a redefinition of the concepts from a local perspective.

Race, citizenship and national identity in The School Paper, 1946-1968

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore representations of Aboriginal people, in particular children, in the Victorian government’s school reader The School Paper, from the end of the Second World War until its publication ceased in 1968. The author interrogates these representations within the framework of pedagogies of citizenship training and the development of national identity, to reveal the role Aboriginal people and their culture were accorded within the “imagined community” of Australian nationhood and its heritage and history. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on the rich material available in the Victorian Department of Education’s school reader, The School Paper, from 1946 to 1968 (when the publication ceased), and on the Department’s annual reports. These are read within the context of scholarship on race, education and citizenship formation in the post-war years. Findings – State government policies of assimilation following the Second World War tied in with pedagogies and curricula regarding citizenship and belonging, which became a key focus of education departments following the Second World War. The informal pedagogies of The School Paper’s representations of Aboriginal children and their families, the author argues, excluded Aboriginal communities from understandings of Australian nationhood, and from conceptions of the ideal Australian citizen-in-formation. Instead, representations of Aboriginal people relegated them to the outdoors in ways that racialised Australian spaces: Aboriginal cultures are portrayed as historical yet timeless, linked with the natural/native rather than civic/political environment. Originality/value – This paper builds on scholarship on the relationship between education, reading pedagogies and citizenship formation in Australia in the post-war years to develop our knowledge of how conceptions of the ideal Australian citizen of the future – that is, Australian students – were inherently racialised. It makes a new contribution to scholarship on the assimilation project in Australia, through revealing the relationship between government policies towards Aboriginal people and the racial and cultural qualities being taught in Australian schools.

Citizenship Education Development: European Experience

The paper considers the European experience of the citizenship education developmentan important aspect of internal policy in the most countries. The education in question is considered to be the democratic citizenship training aimed at developing the loyal attitude to different value priorities in society, social responsibility, active citizenship position, awareness of democratic rights, capability of using and protecting them. The author looks at the transformation of citizenship education concept in the last three decades from the civics education (i.e. history, political science, law, etc.) to the democratic citizen education. The paper analyzes differ- ent approaches to citizenship education in several European countries including the post-soviet ones. It is emphasized that both in western and eastern Europe a lot of effort is made for spreading and supporting the education in question. The author recommends considering the foreign experience of integrating the democratic citizenship education into the state academic curricula at the primary, secondary and higher school levels.

<b>Contratualização no ensino superior: um estudo à luz da nova gestão pública

Current article discusses management forms of educational policies for higher education system focusing on the management contract used by the Program for the Support of Restructuring and Expansion Plans of Brazilian Federal Universities (REUNI). It is foregrounded on the analysis that educational policies must consider the historical contexts in which they were created and implemented, and which have lately been marked by sociopolitical and technological changes leading to reforms in the national States, with repercussions on the educational field. The bibliographical and documental study, developing a contextualized interpretation of the subject, shows that the adoption of a new management model, based on the theoretical frameworks of the new public management with business principles, has brought a new configuration to the management of the public universities where the management contract is the main operationalization instrument. The REUNI program, by adopting an organization model based on this paradigm, aimed at the efficiency and efficacy of the services, changed the organizational form of the universities, giving priority to a commercial-like relationship rather than insisting on its social function and its concern for citizenship training.

Cultura, género, interculturalidad y colonialidad del poder en los textos escolares de comunicación

¿Cuáles son las imágenes que se transmiten sobre el Perú en términos etnoracializados, de género y poder en los textos escolares de Comunicación de educación secundaria? ¿Cuál es el lugar de estos textos en el proceso de constitución del «Estado nación»? ¿Se aprecian procesos de democratización y de formación de ciudadanías interculturales? Para responder a estas preguntas, como integrante del proyecto multidisciplinario de investigación sobre «Los textos escolares de comunicación y el tema de la interculturalidad –imágenes y discursos (nivel secundaria)», en esta ocasión en primer lugar realizaré una breve reflexión histórica sobre la constitución de los «Estados nación», seguidamente exploraré las imágenes y discursos de los textos de Comunicación de educación secundaria elaborados por la editorial Santillana, en particular los textos de cuarto y quinto años, y concluiré con algunas reflexiones finales.

‘We Must Demonstrate Intolerance toward the Intolerant’: Boundary Liberalism in Citizenship Education for Immigrants in Germany

Following the decline of ethnic notions of national identity, the extent to which immigrants are believed to have acceptably liberal values has become a site of boundary making in Western Europe. Much scholarly work has focused on ‘boundary liberalism’ in European media/policy discourse, and the ways that Muslim migrants in particular are framed as carriers of unacceptable ideologies. There has, however, been little exploration of how these ideas shape practice in the mandatory citizenship training that is an increasingly common feature of European integration regimes. This article examines boundary liberalism in citizenship education as it took place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Attention is paid to how instructors interpret the mandate to enforce tolerance in others in light of Germany’s own problematic history, how curricula and classroom interactions define normative liberalism, and how lessons on these values still draw the symbolic boundaries of national and supranational identities to exclude Muslims.

Sosyal Bilgiler Dersinde Dijital Vatandaşlığa Dayalı Etkinliklerin Öğrencilerin Dijital Vatandaşlık Tutumlarına Etkisi ve Dijital Vatandaşlık Anlayışlarına Yansımaları-The Effects of Activities for Digital Citizenship on Students' Attitudes toward Digital

Bu arastirmanin amaci, 6. sinif sosyal bilgiler dersinde dijital vatandasliga dayali olarak gerceklestirilen etkinliklerin, ogrencilerin dijital vatandaslik tutumlarina etkisini belirlemek ve gerceklestirilen etkinliklerin ogrencilerin dijital vatandaslik anlayislarina yansimalarini incelemektir. Arastirmada deneme modellerinden on test-son test ve kontrol gruplu yari deneysel model tercih edilmistir. Ayrica 6. sinif sosyal bilgiler dersinde dijital vatandaslik dayali etkinliklerinin uygulanma surecini betimlerken arastirmanin gecerligini ve inanirligini artirmak amaciyla deneysel desen ile birlikte nitel veriler kullanilmistir. Arastirma sonucunda elde edilen bulgular, dijital vatandasliga dayali etkinliklerin sosyal bilgiler dersinde uygulanmasinin ogrencilerin dijital ortamdaki tutumlarini olumlu yonde etkiledigini gostermektedir.

Competencias ciudadanas en alumnado de magisterio: la competencia intercultural personal

In a multicultural society intercultural citizenship skills are essential for cultural citizenship training. In this study we show the results of the development of intercultural citizenship skills in 110 students from the Public University of Navarre. We compare too the main differences between the pupils who had received formation in interculturalidad (70.9%; n = 78) and the one that no. Finally we discuss how to account for these results to the initial training of teachers.

La degradación de un sistema económico que no atisbó la educación en consumo sostenible. Crítica social

From a multidisciplinary perspective, is based on social criticism, this article examines our economic, consumer, and education, in which it´s obvious what inconsistent is our management system, not only for the activity of our governments, but also individually. It allows describing a “modus operandi” that frequently draws inadmissible lifestyles to support in hard times. The invalidity of this procedure and way of managing the economic and social reality, also catchs a glimpse the lack of training in citizenship, due to an obsolete education system. Only consumer education will transform our reality and bring us a sustainable future.

Citizenship Training Plan for Social Adjustment of Multi-Cultural Families

Citizenship Training Plan for Social Adjustment of Multi-Cultural Families

Ethno-communal Conflict and the Local Government System in Nigeria: A Desideratum of Peace Building

Ethno-communal conflict is a major bane of the Nigerian local government system. This paper examined the social and political conditions that predispose communities and groups to conflict, the impact of conflict on the citizenry and how it vitiates development. A descriptive research design was used. The study was conducted in Nigeria between February 2012 and March 2013. Being an ex-post facto research, relevant documents on ethno-communal conflict, peace building and the Nigerian local government were consulted. The critical study, analysis and evaluation of opinions, data and other information formed the basis for explaining and understanding ethno-communal conflict, its persistence and the failure of the local government to build peace. Relevant statistics were presented to substantiate the position. Using qualitative and quantitative content analysis, the findings showed that Nigeria local government system failed to mobilize for citizenship training, reduce poverty, social discrimination and build peace and security. Statistics showed that poverty increased among the rural dwellers in Nigeria. Out of a rural population of 65 million, 17.1 million live below the poverty line with 27.2% poverty incidence in 1980. In 2010, out of the 163 million rural dwellers, 112.47 million live below the poverty line and 69% poverty incidence. Other poverty indices used showed that food

Muscular Christianity and the Western Civilizing Mission: Elwood S. Brown, the YMCA, and the Idea of the Far Eastern Championship Games

This article focuses on entangled transfers of values, norms, and cultures between the United States and Asia in the early twentieth century. More specifically, it deals with the activities of Elwood Stanley Brown, one of the most important promoters of muscular Christianity and “Olympism” during that period. As physical director of the Young Man’s Christian Association in Manila, Brown attempted to “civilize” Filipinos by spreading ideals of internationalism, egalitarianism, and of a “Protestant Work Ethic.” Following his positive experiences with sportive citizenship training, Brown established the Far Eastern Championship Games, which served as a means to popularize muscular Christianity within East and Southeast Asia. After initial successes, Brown cooperated with the International Olympic Committee to set up further regional games in a global cultural transfer and “civilizing” scheme. Finally, Brown attempted to apply his “colonial” experiences to the United States, as he considered American amateurism to be endangered.