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This article identifies the challenges of developing active citizens based on the latest revised social studies curriculum in Malawi (2015) in the context of Malawi's secondary school classrooms. By using collected data from interviews with teachers and students and classroom observation, the paper examines the extent to which social studies empowers students to express their opinions. The analysis identifies three issues: 1. both teachers and students perceive social studies teaching as 'easy'; 2. teachers expect students to be active in classroom practices but to be obedient outside classes and 3. individualistic values in textbooks could conflict with the values of Umunthu in Malawi. The paper concludes that classroom practices might dissuade students to be critical thinkers, thereby fostering obedient citizens and limiting students' potential power to tackle social issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite increasing attention to citizenship education since the turn of the 21st century, the recent spread of authoritarian populism worldwide has raised relatively little attention in educational policy and research. As a result, the possibilities and limitations that national curricula offer to educators to deal with this phenomenon are still rather uncertain. In this article, we develop an analytical framework based on the key features of authoritarian populism and critical citizenship education to compare the elements and scope for addressing populism in the national curricula of Brazil and Spain, two countries where national populism is particularly widespread. This paper examines the extent to which national curricula in these countries include goals and content that enable teachers to address the complexities of this phenomenon ranging from political polarisation through to the exaltation of national identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a theoretical contribution to discussions about the emancipatory potential of citizenship education across four sites (i.e. Catalonia, Colombia, England, and Pakistan). By reflecting on policy and empirical data from our four contexts of study, we discuss whether citizenship education manifests different conditions of emancipatory education (modern, postmodern, and posthumous). We argue that citizenship education offers possibilities for emancipation, but these are constrained by capitalist and Enlightenment barriers. We conclude that if an emancipatory form of citizenship education is to be possible, there is a need to make room for politics in school classrooms and further politicise epistemological and anthropological assumptions. We recommend a form of citizenship education that conceptualises emancipation as our ability to respond ethically to situated challenges by thinking by ourselves with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizenship is a contested term and its meanings and implications vary according to the socio-political and historical context in which it originated and continues to be practiced. This research explores the conceptualisation of citizenship among different groups within the Palestinian education system. The research utilises qualitative research methods such as interviews, focus groups, policy document analysis, and classroom observations. The findings of the research reveal that citizenship represents a unique relationship between the individuals and the homeland. Moreover, this research demonstrates how politics and culture affect citizenship conception. It also demonstrates how the absence of Palestinian statehood affects the perception towards citizenship amongst the participants in this research. The study concludes that the existing definitions of citizenship could be adapted, rather than merely adopted from other contexts when applied to the unique Occupied Palestinian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]