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Background: Youth citizenship is now on the international agenda with African countries increasingly interrogating their national perspectives on citizenship and citizenship education. In this emergent field of research, African scholars are beginning to challenge the prevailing (Western) theories of citizenship and democracy. Purpose: The aim of this paper is to contribute an African perspective to the study of citizenship education by exploring the political influences and meanings that shaped citizenship education in Kenya, and how these have evolved from independence to the present day. Data and Methods: This article is based on a documentary analysis of key policy-related documents, complemented by an analysis of some critical historical moments in the life of Kenya as a postcolonial nation. The policy-related documents include government policy documents, as well as political statements, speeches, development reports, technical commission reports, media articles, research publications and reports, education syllabi and curriculum documents. Main Findings: Post-independence, the Kenyan government focused on rethinking the colonial concept of citizenship in line with its political-cultural traditions, encouraging new notions of belonging, of civic virtues and of duties in relation to nation-building and economic development. Social Ethics and Education (SEE) programmes in schools were established and then later removed from the secondary school curriculum. Conclusions: This paper yields important insights into the international and national political agendas that shape Kenya's notions of active citizenship. It indicates the tensions which vulnerable and fragile states such as Kenya experience in negotiating their citizenship education agenda, whilst attempting to win foreign investment and aid for their economy, and whilst addressing regional and ethnic inequalities and high levels of poverty. (Contains 12 notes.)

Background: Increasingly incorporated into curricula worldwide, Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is a complex and evolving area of education. As the significance of GCE in the classroom grows, so does the need for insight into professional development for GCE educators. Given that many approaches to GCE have typically stemmed from 'global North' contexts, it is particularly important to research this area from 'global South' perspectives. This paper contributes by reporting on a study conducted in an initial teacher education setting in Ghana. Purpose: The study aimed to investigate prospective teachers' viewpoints on GCE. It sought to explore aspects including how preservice teachers understood the orientation, meaning and relevance of GCE teaching and their views on the debates surrounding GCE's underlying approaches and values. Methods: Participants were 16 pre-service teachers who had taken GCE courses during their degree programmes at a university in Ghana. Data were collected through three focus group discussions and analysed qualitatively. Findings: In-depth analysis of the rich data suggested that participants had generally positive perceptions about GCE, whilst observing challenges and tension in the relationships between local, national and global issues. Whereas some were of the opinion that GCE had a neocolonial orientation, focusing on Western elements over other cultures, others expressed the view that GCE content could be reoriented to address local issues as well. Although participants felt that greater practical experience could strengthen their learning, they believed they had obtained adequate skills in terms of content and theory for the teaching of GCE. Conclusion: The study draws attention to the need for educators to be supported from an early stage and throughout their career journeys with professional development in GCE that invites exploration, critical thinking and challenge.

Background: Citizenship, nationalism, human rights and democracy are four terms and concepts that are inextricably linked. In Kuwait, the status of citizen is based on nationality, gender and age, with women, children, naturalised citizens, expatriates and "bidoon" (stateless people) denied many freedoms, rights and services. Citizenship is defined by some, feeling and practice. In Kuwait, the denial or limitation of the first makes the latter two all but impossible. Purpose: In this paper, I discuss the tensions between citizenship, nationalism, human rights and democracy within the Kuwaiti context and then explore how these are mirrored in the tangling of terms within the Kuwaiti national curriculum. Particular attention is paid to the Constitution and Human Rights (CHR) module, which introduced a form of national democratic citizenship education to the secondary curriculum (grades 10, 11 and 12) for the first time in 2006 but was then rescinded to grade 12 only by the 2009-2010 academic year. Students' perceptions of the concepts and their learning will form an important part of the analysis. Methodology: The student voices come from student research workshops carried out as part of a case study of a Kuwaiti government school. These workshops were carried out in the spring terms of 2009 and 2010 with grades 10, 11 and 12 classes; a total of approximately 180 students were involved. In small groups, students were asked to reflect on posters on what they learned in school about citizenship, human rights and democracy. Their responses were translated, coded and categorised by theme. The grade 11 posters were selected for this paper, as they provide a contrast between the 2009 students, who took the CHR module, and the 2010 students, who did not. Quotes that were selected for inclusion in this paper were those that had themes echoed by several other students. Conclusions: The CHR module shifted the focus from education for national citizenship to education for "democratic" national citizenship, as reflected in the contrasting student responses in 2009 and 2010. However, the module also inadvertently brought to the surface the inconsistencies and tensions between several of the concepts it was meant to educate about. This caused students to develop criticality, and, alongside their learning on human rights and politics, was a potentially strong trigger for change from below. Its swift withdrawal from the curriculum, however, shifted the focus of citizenship education back to nationalism and patriotism. It also rendered students less equipped to effect change--a result that the more sceptical may believe was intended. (Contains 9 notes.)

Background: This paper considers how textbooks resolve the tension between contradictory goals of promoting a cohesive national identity while teaching respect and equality among diverse social groups in British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. Purpose: The article presents preliminary results of a larger study examining the content of required civic education textbooks in Canada to examine whether and how notions of national identity incorporate the principles of human rights and multiculturalism. Sample: The study draws on curricular material for required high school social science courses in B.C. The sample includes textbooks starting the first year of high school (Grade 8) and covers each year through high school graduation (Grade 12). The central analyses examine the content of 17 core textbooks approved by the provincial government for these courses. Design and methods: This research systematically examines the content of currently approved textbooks for high school social science courses in B.C. A questionnaire designed using the principles of content analysis measures textbook emphases on content relevant to human rights, multiculturalism and national identity. Results: This study finds that traditional notions of national identity are reshaped in response to the rise of emphases on human rights and multiculturalism. Rather than depicting national identity as stemming from a common race, ethnicity, language or history, the government pursues four main strategies to simultaneously promote human rights, multiculturalism and a shared national identity: (1) framing human rights and multiculturalism as part of national identity; (2) using pedagogical approaches that promote multiple perspectives; (3)celebrating social and scientific figures and accomplishments as a main source of national pride; and (4) drawing on exogenous sources to affirm state legitimacy. Conclusion: In a context that values diversity and human rights, contemporary sources of national identity can stem from facets of society that can transcend many cultures and emphasise organisational aspects of the nation-state. A main implication is that the inclusion of principles of human rights and multiculturalism into civic education is changing traditional conceptions of national identity. (Contains 2 figures and 3 notes.)

Background: In many countries, working towards a truly inclusive national citizenship means deconstructing hegemonic structures that are deeply entrenched. Moving outside of the borders toward a global citizenship hints at giving up on what has been a long road toward multicultural citizenship. A balance between including and empowering diverse populations within borders as a part of citizenship education is critical. Likewise, future citizens must be prepared to conceive of a borderless world and interact with cultures different from their own. Literature that empirically examines the relationship between global citizenship and multicultural citizenship is sparse. This paper explores this tension, using the case of Germany. Purpose: The overall aims of this study were to explore German teachers' values and beliefs about citizenship education in light of new citizenship and immigration laws, and in light of European and global influences, as well. Design/method/sample: A qualitative research design was employed to capture a range of German social studies teachers' views on citizenship, diversity and education. Interviews were conducted with 43 teachers from five different states across Germany. The constant comparative method of analysis was used to analyse these data. Findings: The analysis suggests the existence of four major themes: "Peaceful Europe", and "Rejection of Europeanisation", "Christian like us" and "Multicultural = European". Taken as a whole, these categories show that the teachers did engage with both multicultural and global citizenship ideas, but they did so in a manner that created limits on both concepts. European citizenship emerged as a means of comfortably addressing diversity and, perhaps unintentionally, disenfranchising non-ethnic Europeans present in the classroom from accessing this concept of citizenship. (Contains 5 notes.)

Increasingly incorporated into curricula worldwide, Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is a complex and evolving area of education. As the significance of GCE in the classroom grows, so does the need for insight into professional development for GCE educators. Given that many approaches to GCE have typically stemmed from 'global North' contexts, it is particularly important to research this area from 'global South' perspectives. This paper contributes by reporting on a study conducted in an initial teacher education setting in Ghana. The study aimed to investigate prospective teachers' viewpoints on GCE. It sought to explore aspects including how pre-service teachers understood the orientation, meaning and relevance of GCE teaching and their views on the debates surrounding GCE's underlying approaches and values. Participants were 16 pre-service teachers who had taken GCE courses during their degree programmes at a university in Ghana. Data were collected through three focus group discussions and analysed qualitatively. In-depth analysis of the rich data suggested that participants had generally positive perceptions about GCE, whilst observing challenges and tension in the relationships between local, national and global issues. Whereas some were of the opinion that GCE had a neocolonial orientation, focusing on Western elements over other cultures, others expressed the view that GCE content could be reoriented to address local issues as well. Although participants felt that greater practical experience could strengthen their learning, they believed they had obtained adequate skills in terms of content and theory for the teaching of GCE. The study draws attention to the need for educators to be supported from an early stage and throughout their career journeys with professional development in GCE that invites exploration, critical thinking and challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Citizenship, nationalism, human rights and democracy are four terms and concepts that are inextricably linked. In Kuwait, the status of citizen is based on nationality, gender and age, with women, children, naturalised citizens, expatriates and bidoon (stateless people) denied many freedoms, rights and services. Citizenship is defined by some, feeling and practice. In Kuwait, the denial or limitation of the first makes the latter two all but impossible. Purpose: In this paper, I discuss the tensions between citizenship, nationalism, human rights and democracy within the Kuwaiti context and then explore how these are mirrored in the tangling of terms within the Kuwaiti national curriculum. Particular attention is paid to the Constitution and Human Rights (CHR) module, which introduced a form of national democratic citizenship education to the secondary curriculum (grades 10, 11 and 12) for the first time in 2006 but was then rescinded to grade 12 only by the 2009-2010 academic year. Students' perceptions of the concepts and their learning will form an important part of the analysis. Methodology: The student voices come from student research workshops carried out as part of a case study of a Kuwaiti government school. These workshops were carried out in the spring terms of 2009 and 2010 with grades 10, 11 and 12 classes; a total of approximately 180 students were involved. In small groups, students were asked to reflect on posters on what they learned in school about citizenship, human rights and democracy. Their responses were translated, coded and categorised by theme. The grade 11 posters were selected for this paper, as they provide a contrast between the 2009 students, who took the CHR module, and the 2010 students, who did not. Quotes that were selected forinclusion in this paper were those that had themes echoed by several other students. Conclusions: The CHR module shifted the focus from education for national citizenship to education for democratic national citizenship, as reflected in the contrasting student responses in 2009 and 2010. However, the module also inadvertently brought to the surface the inconsistencies and tensions between several of the concepts it was meant to educate about. This caused students to develop criticality, and, alongside their learning on human rights and politics, wasa potentially strong trigger for change from below. Its swift withdrawal fromthe curriculum, however, shifted the focus of citizenship education back tonationalism and patriotism. It also rendered students less equipped to effect change - a result that the more sceptical may believe was intended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper will empirically investigate female education in Luxembourg from a historical perspective. A special focus will be laid on the question of how women in Luxembourgian society were constructed as female ‘citizens’, even though they were, rather, considered as a homogeneous category limited to a private sphere separated from the male citizens. Purpose:The primary purpose of this article is to reveal the narrative of a homogeneous femininity separated from a male sphere associated with citizenship, and the impact this division had on education. Secondly, through the example of Luxembourg, it will show how this narrative served to maintain traditional role allocations, while at the same time linking them to rhetorics of progress – for example, by adding a political dimension to the former ‘private sphere’. Thirdly, this article will demonstrate the heterogeneity which shaped female education, despite the rhetorical homogenization, showing how social and local/regional differences were as influential in determining female education as gender differences. Design and methods: This historical study is based on a longitudinal analysis (contained within a bigger project) of the Luxembourgian curriculum in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The source corpus of this project includes 12,000 historical documents related to curricular negotiations in Luxembourg, which were analysed in a combined quantitative–qualitative analysis. Findings: The analysis demonstrated that public and professional discussions about female education undertook a rhetorical homogenization of women and their education, and that this served to conserve existing gender differences in the school system. By strategies of rhetorical scientification and politicization of domestic tasks, traditional role allocations were ascribed a political dimension and interpreted as progressive. However, though claiming universality, the plurality of concepts proves that this homogenization did not reflect reality. The pedagogical concept of ‘the female education’ shows only a few rudimentary features, mainly based on the introduction of obligatory handcraft and domestic education. A social differentiation was already given by the structure of the school system, which – given that there were no secondary schools for girls – meant education in Catholic private schools in the first place. Conclusions: The findings reveal that, by assuming a homogeneous concept of femininity, numerous codifications of female education – unlike those often perceived in literature and public discourse – were not necessarily understood as ‘modernizing’, but rather as conserving female role allocations. The results, however, suggest that female education was far more heterogeneous than rhetorically assumed in the educational debates, and that rather than gender differences, social and regional differences prevailed in determining schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: In many countries, working towards a truly inclusive national citizenship means deconstructing hegemonic structures that are deeply entrenched. Moving outside of the borders toward a global citizenship hints at giving up on what has been a long road toward multicultural citizenship. Abalance between including and empowering diverse populations within borders as a part of citizenship education is critical. Likewise, future citizens must be prepared to conceive of a borderless world and interact with cultures different from their own. Literature that empirically examines the relationship between global citizenship and multicultural citizenship is sparse. This paper explores this tension, using the case of Germany. Purpose: The overall aims of this study were to explore German teachers' valuesand beliefs about citizenship education in light of new citizenship and immigration laws, and in light of European and global influences, as well. Design/method/sample: A qualitative research design was employed to capture arange of German social studies teachers' views on citizenship, diversity and education. Interviews were conducted with 43 teachers from five different states across Germany. The constant comparative method of analysis was used to analyse these data. Findings: The analysis suggests the existence of four major themes: 'Peaceful Europe', and 'Rejection of Europeanisation', 'Christian like us' and 'Multicultural = European'. Taken as a whole, these categories show that the teachers did engage with both multicultural and global citizenship ideas, but they did so ina manner that created limits on both concepts. European citizenship emerged as a means of comfortably addressing diversity and, perhaps unintentionally, disenfranchising non-ethnic Europeans present in the classroom from accessing this concept of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This article presents an analysis of how critical thinking is contextualised in everyday teaching in three vocational education and training (VET) programmes: Vehicle and transport, Restaurant and management, and Health and social care. Purpose: The main question addressed is: What knowledge discourses permeate different VET-contexts, and hence what kinds of opportunities for critical thinking do they offer students? Method: The qualitative analysis draws on data from a four-year ethnographic project exploring learning processes that can be characterised as civic education in Swedish vocational education. The analysis presented here used data collected during 85 days of observations of teaching in six VET classes, interviews with 81 students and 10 teachers, and collected teaching material. To explore why some contextualisations provided more opportunities and encouragement for critical thinking than others, we applied Bernsteinian concepts of 'horizontal and vertical knowledge discourses' and 'discursive gaps'. Findings and conclusions: Overall, teaching that was observed focused primarily on 'doing'. However, in all three programmes, the analysis identified that there were also situations that touched upon critical thinking. Three major themes were identified: critical thinking related to 'Personal experiences', 'The other(s)' and 'Wider perspectives'. It appeared that the frequency and nature of such situations varied with the knowledge discourses permeating the programme. Furthermore, we discuss the manifestations of critical thinking in relation to the wider context of what Bernstein refers to as pedagogic rights; individual enhancement, social inclusion and development of the competence and confidence to participate in political processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Netherlands traditionally has a strong civil society. This has had an impact on the education system through the relatively high degree of autonomy for schools on moral and didactical choices as well as on the curriculum. Such freedom provides ample room for citizenship to develop at alocal level. The large degree of curricular autonomy allows schools to shape education according to their own vision and values in partnership with those in civil society. Purpose: This article explores how citizenship education, cultural diversity and human rights education are implemented within such a context. The main aim is to analyse how societal and political ideals are laid down at the policy level (intended curriculum), how they are implemented at the school level (implemented curriculum), and how they impact on student learning (attained curriculum). Sources of evidence: Formal educational policy documents are analysed to gain insight into the intended curriculum. Insights in the implemented and attained curriculum are gathered through analysis of research studies into classroom practice. Main argument: The article argues that although citizenship education, cultural diversity and human rights education are prominent themes in political and societal debates and expectations of schools' contribution to these themes are high, the intentions are formalised only briefly in the intended curriculum. The freedom of education is mentioned as the main reason for the lack of policy commitment. The article argues, however, that local empowerment cannot do without school leadership to develop a school-specific vision and approach, aswell as a coherent long-term vision on the way forward at the macro level. Conclusions: This curriculum analysis shows that cross-curricular socialisation themes do not play a prominent role in curriculum policy and that implementation in classroom practice is varied, but generally limited. With ambiguity in educational policy and limited implementation support, it is a complex challenge for schools to make strategic choices in interaction with civil society and to set their own social agenda. Given the current political and societal context, with itsfocus on freedom of education, it is necessary, but not realistic, to expect moredetailed curricular regulations on these curriculum domains. Moreover, the current emphasis on basic skills in literacy and numeracy also limits the room for these societal issues, in both curriculum policy and practice. The article concludes that schools need more support to make autonomous choices as well as more clarity on what is expected from them. Also more insight is needed about feasibleand coherent approaches to incorporate citizenship education in a core curriculum that has a strong emphasis on the basic skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]