Education and citizenship: theoretical issues, policies and practices

The Research Network of Sociology of Education is pleased to invite abstracts on the subject of Education and Citizenship for its mid-term conference to be held in Lisbon, Portugal.

Socialisation, and in particular citizenship, has been a goal of the education system in the Western World since its establishment and increasingly so since the Second World War. Through ‘socialisation’ and civic education, society sets up and reinforces relations among and between individuals and their political community. Marshall's work in the 1940's introduced the distinction between civil, political and social rights within citizenship. Some theorists argue that citizenship is a ‘unifying’ concept which entails both rights and duties, in a two-way permanent exchange so these concepts should be seen in relation to one another. In the last decades, the rapid societal changes taking place in the areas of globalization, human mobility, normative and cultural pluralism, etc. put a pressure on the traditional basis of citizenship (the national and “natural” belonging), transforming it into a new “cultural” and negotiated object.

More recent approaches such as multiculturalism and feminism also construct citizenship in a slightly different manner than in the past: citizenship becomes a key issue even for personal identity, combining particular and universal properties. These critiques interrogate the power of the institution of education whereby younger members of society

are trained for meaningful, wide-ranging societal participation when they are adults. Formal, non-formal and informal agencies are committed to this task, not only by transmitting universal values but also by asking each future citizen to prove actively his/her civic-mindedness, as a basis for rights’ recognition (“active welfare state” paradigm). Such an important role is greatly constrained as economic issues result in less resources becoming available to schools while at the same time, schools are put under pressure to perform better, without a clear understanding of the measurable outcomes or added benefits of these changes.

• How is schooling affected by these changes?
• How do schools react to diminished resources?
• How is the “new”, multiple, open, global citizenship treated by the reformed curricula throughout the different national systems?
• How is active citizenship practised at all levels of education? What are the results and constraints of such active citizenship?
• Are students of different ages receptive to issues related to active and multiple citizenships? How do they perceive or construct (even informally) their relationship with the public sphere?
• What is the impact of citizenship education on students' achievement?
• What new challenges are arising as a result of these changes?
• How do communities and other interested groups resist financial cuts and how do they co-operate with schools in citizenship education?
• What is the role of parenthood in the construction of an active citizenship education? Is the school-family relation being affected by these changes?