Researching citizenship education in Africa: Considerations from Ghana and Liberia

Within the last 30 years, the African continent has experienced significant changes related to democracy, governance, and education; however, large-scale international studies of citizenship education have not included African nations. Despite this gap, youth political movements incubated in universities and secondary schools have been influential factors in political change; in addition, youth currently make up a large portion of the population of Africa, with 43% of the population under the age of 14. The ways that young people understand and enact citizenship will shape the direction of their nations and the continent. This article discusses considerations for researching citizenship education in post-colonial nations in Africa. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative studies of civic education in Ghana and Liberia, the paper proposes four major considerations for researchers: first, the importance of situating conceptions of citizenship in the context of historical and contemporary issues; second, the importance of considering reciprocity in research ethics; third, the need to consider the impact of the researcher on the work, and fourth, the willingness to look for civic influences beyond the civics classroom and the school.