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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citizenship education to the secondary curriculum (grades 10, 11 and 12) for the first time in 2006 but was then rescinded to grade 12 only by the 2009-2010 academic year.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]

This paper examines the research on social studies curriculum's influence on the social, moral and political attitudes of youth. It is argued that it is difficult to make a case for the social or educational significance of these findings given their small magnitude. Four alternative interpretations of this genre of research are presented. It is concluded that the social studies profession should focus primarily on the achievement of cognitive goals and that further research into curricular effectiveness without longitudinal data is of limited value. As an alternative to curricular effectiveness research, it is proposed that descriptions of the workings of exemplary programs become a major research priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accelerated democratization of Eastern and Central Europe has set into motion unprecedented efforts us citizenship education curriculum reform involving partner institutions from developed democracies. These efforts assume that democracy is a cross-cultural concept adaptable from a developed democracy to a developing democracy. This paper compares two distinct, but related, studies to address the viability of this assumption. The first study involved US and Czech participants in a citizenship education curriculum reform project as they mutually shaped a common ground for understanding the concept of democracy. The second study extended to the Czech Republic to test the viability of this common ground by surveying a purposeful sample of Czech social studies educators on their conceptions of democracy. The comparison of the findings yielded areas of commonality and difference on the conceptualization of democracy that led to promising and problematic implications for citizenship education curricular reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College students, particularly those enrolled in public affairs programs, need to learn the skills of deliberative democracy. How can public affairs programs develop these skills and knowledge base among their students? This paper reports on a variety of efforts to teach deliberative democracy to undergraduates and graduate students through course-work and extracurricular experience. We describe how public affairs programs may include deliberative democracy in the curriculum through the teaching of basic participation models, the art of reasoned judgment, moderator skills, issue framing, and the crafting of research agendas from practice. Developing these democratic competencies will benefit students as future citizens and/or public officials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the "opportunities to learn" related to the democratic purposes of schooling that students receive in eighth, ninth, and tenth grade social studies classrooms. We identified five prominent frameworks linking curricular strategies to the preparation of citizens for a democratic society. We then created rubrics that reflected these conceptions and used these rubrics to code observations of 135 social studies classrooms in Chicago. We found that students in this representative sample of social studies classrooms received an alarming lack of opportunities to develop the kinds of capacities democratic theorists believe are important. We also found that when teachers provided students with more and varied opportunities to develop as citizens, that they simultaneously provided significantly more opportunities for higher order thinking and for deep and disciplined inquiry. Finally, we found that wizen eighth grade teachers were preparing students for the State-mandated constitution test (the state requirement most explicitly linked to civic goals), they provided significantly fewer opportunities related to developing citizens than when they focused on other eighth grade curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a course of study that would have high school students study and practice a public policy analysis model used by public policy professionals. Presently elected for study by graduate students in public affairs departments, rigorous policy study is saved for the tiny few. This in turn supports a form of democracy where the many are excluded from popular sovereignty. We elaborate the meaning of and rationale for public policy analysis and present a detailed conceptual framework. We argue that competence in this activity by the citizenry as a whole will strengthen popular sovereignty, and we suggest that research and extant curriculum resources generally support the effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a means of reforming the social studies curriculum in early childhood education, some have suggested replacing the typical here-and-now, expanding communities approach with the study of history presented through story and myth. Such study, they argue, is more likely to interest children and entice them to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required of citizens in a democracy. Rather than revolving around stories and myths, however, the study of history should focus on concepts considered key to the field and on children's understanding of these concepts. Only as children are able to construct everyday or spontaneous concepts of history during their early years will they be ready later to learn the complex scientific concepts characterizing the field of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schooling in our democracy is caught in a paradoxical position. On one hand, schools as public institutions are to serve the state and its needs. On the other, democracy requires semi-autonomous citizens willing and able to make their own value choices. This piece argues that this paradox is resolved by choosing either a "protectionist" or "participatory" form of democracy. Taking the participatory model, an outline of a curriculum for democratic participation is presented. One facet of this curriculum, the teaching of democratic values, is examined in detail through the example of a study of the nuclear freeze movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revisionists have played an important role in the development of the social studies curriculum. The problems of democracy course provided the means to establish a comprehensive citizenship education model. The historical study provides a degree of insight into the movement from 1916-1970 in which revisionists consistently attempted to promote citizenship education through the problems of democracy course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]