Citizenship-as-Practice: The Educational Implications of an Inclusive and Relational Understanding of Citizenship

Abstract

Over the last few years there has been a renewed interest in questions of citizenship and in particular its relation to young people. This has been allied to an educational discourse where the emphasis has been upon questions concerned with 'outcome' rather than with 'process' -with the curriculum and methods of teaching rather than questions of understanding and learning. This paper seeks to describe and illuminate the linkages within and between these related discourses. It advocates an inclusive and relational view of citizenship-as-practice within a distinctive socio-economic and political, and cultural milieu. Drawing upon some empirical insights from our research we conclude that an appropriate educational programme would respect the claim to citizenship status of everyone in society, including children and young people. It would work together with young people rather than on young people, and recognise that the actual practices of citizenship, and the ways in which these practices transform over time are educationally significant.

Citizenship discourses: production and curriculum

“…Student citizens do not act in a void, but draw on wider discourses and social and institutional provisions and material resources for them (Elm-Larsen, 2006;Nicoll et al, 2013;Olson, 2012c). There is an argument to be had that by incorporating wider understandings of citizenship into the curriculum it might be possible to capture the imagination and motivation of young people in education by drawing on their current engagement and interest (Biesta, Lawy & Kelly, 2009;Lawy & Biesta, 2006;Öhrn, Lundahl & Beach, 2011). However, for a discursive approach such as the one that we deploy there is a normative difficulty in making any such suggestion for incorporation.…”

“…We have wanted to explore whether we would be able, through this kind of elicitation of description and discourse analysis, to set out markers where the possibilities and limits to citizen education discourses might emerge as issues to be confronted, recast and re-evaluated. With the premise that citizenship is articulated by citizens (Lawy & Biesta 2006;Olson, 2012b) we want to see what might be possible to 'render visible' (Klee, in Rabinow & Rose, 2003, p. 3) by talking with students and exploring their descriptions as discourse.…”

Action Research and Democracy

“…In terms of youth welfare, this interpretation implies the acknowledgment of the co-actorship of the children and parents in the creation of their situation (Roose & Bouverne-De Bie, 2007). In this approach, citizenship is not translated as an individual status, but rather as a practice to be realised through various activities and social relationships; a citizenship-as-practice (Lawy & Biesta, 2006). In case of our research in youth welfare, this citizenship-as-practice perspective meant that in our research a lot of attention was paid to, on the one hand, the way we approached children and, on the other hand, the search for defining quality criteria for care in dialogue with parents and children.…”

The Research on Democratic Quality of University Students

“…Business Unsatisfied with the passive accept -ion of education and management, university students are critical of the fact that they were not invited to participate in class meetings or any other forum with decision-making powers (Schou,20 32 aim to be a protagonist character seeking for the establishment of an operational supervisory mechanism or effective approaches to democratic rights .Thanks to the new information instruments, such as the Internet, BBS, the E-mail, and other electronic election and electronic voting system which provide variable possibilities for people to get access to the decision-making of public affairs and protect their values when democratic rights are infringed (Rainer &Guyton, 1999: 122). For example, during the graduate period ,when canvassing or gifts are found in the class election or class assessment affairs,49.8 percent of students choose to reflect to the teacher and president and 48.1 percent of them prefer to vent grievances in other ways rather than passively exit any other class activities .Therefore, one conclusion can be reached----When democratic rights being infringed, approximately half of them choose to protect, which demonstrates the rationality of the democratic supervision.…”