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The paper considers the European experience of the citizenship education developmentan important aspect of internal policy in the most countries. The education in question is considered to be the democratic citizenship training aimed at developing the loyal attitude to different value priorities in society, social responsibility, active citizenship position, awareness of democratic rights, capability of using and protecting them. The author looks at the transformation of citizenship education concept in the last three decades from the civics education (i.e. history, political science, law, etc.) to the democratic citizen education. The paper analyzes differ- ent approaches to citizenship education in several European countries including the post-soviet ones. It is emphasized that both in western and eastern Europe a lot of effort is made for spreading and supporting the education in question. The author recommends considering the foreign experience of integrating the democratic citizenship education into the state academic curricula at the primary, secondary and higher school levels.

El presente documento explora, a partir de los interrogantes derivados de investigaciones previas, los vínculos entre educación y sociedad, argumentando que el eje de dichos vínculos se sitúa en el currículo. Se problematiza, entonces, el sentido de la pertinencia curricular y de la formación ciudadana, confrontando el alcance de la democracia moderna, que confiere identidad al ciudadano de cuya formación se ocupa la escuela. Se hace especial énfasis en la necesidad de cuestionar las tendencias actuales en educación particularmente en lo relacionado con la formación por competencias, para concluir con un llamado a la resignificación de la formación ética y política en el ámbito de la educación superior como posibilidad de transformación estructural de la sociedad y no solo como un espacio para modificar actitudes individuales frente al entorno. This paper explores, taking as point of reference some aspects found on previous research, the connection between education and society, arguing that the key to understand such connection can be found in the curriculum. Consequently, the paper problematizes the meaning of the relevant curriculum and civic education, confronting the meaning of modern democracy, which gives identity to citizens who are trained in school. Special emphasis is placed on the need to challenge current trends in education and, particularly, it relates to skills training, concluding with an approach to the redefinition of ethical and political training in the field of higher education, as a possibility of structural transformation of society and not only as a space for the transformation of individual attitudes before the environment.

A relationship between school history and notions of citizenship is evident in the Australian context. In this way, it is important to reflect on the nature of the subject of history (Körber, 2011) and how socio-political forces have impacted discourses relating to its aim and purpose (Goodson & Marsh, 1996). This paper seeks to consider how literacies are historically embedded in history (mandatory) syllabuses in New South Wales (NSW), and the implications of this for a conceptualisation of literacy that acknowledges the changing nature of communication, and as a result, participatory citizenship. Following the linguistic turn, and acknowledgement of the importance of language to social practice, a successful approach to literacy in secondary school contexts should consider the language and literacies required for specific subjects, rather than common or foundational areas of literacy (Lo Bianco & Freebody, 2001), as are often the focus of standardised literacy assessments. Positioned as a history of the present (Popkewitz, 2011), official curriculum documents are examined covering the period of the 1990s to the early 2000s, prior to the implementation of the first national curriculum. It was found that there was a distinct and explicit separation of notions of literacy and understanding in official curriculum, as well as presenting information communication technologies (ICTs) and literacy as distinct (and separate) competencies. It is argued that if history education is to contribute to active citizenship, there is a need to reconceptualise this idea to align with emerging civic practices of the twenty-first century.

The paper traces the development of citizenship in the curriculum in England since the 1960s, emerging particularly from the Crick report. It argues for lessons to be learnt from John Dewey’s ‘Democracy and education’, the centenary of which is being celebrated this year.