Rethinking citizenship education : a curriculum for participatory democracy / Tristan McCowan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCowan, Tristan, 1974-

Series:

Continuum studies in educational research

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Citizenship--Study and teaching.

Citizenship.

Civics--Study and teaching.

Civics.

Physical Description:

218 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, [2009]

Summary:

Rethinking Citizenship Education presents a fundamental reassessment of the field. Drawing on empirical research, McCowan argues that attempting to transmit preconceived notions of citizenship through schools is both unviable and undesirable. The notion of 'curricular transposition' is introduced, a framework for understanding the changes undergone in the passage between the ideals of citizenship, the curricular programmes designed to achieve them, their implementation in practice and the effects on students. The 'leaps' between these different stages make the project of forming students in a mould of predefined citizenship highly problematic.

Case studies are presented of contrasting initiatives in Brazil, a country with high levels of political marginalisation but also significant experiences of participatory democracy. The studies indicate that effective citizenship education depends on a harmonisation or 'seamless enactment' of the stages outlined above. In contrast, provision in countries such as the UK and USA is characterised by disjunctures, showing insufficient involvement of teachers in programme design, and a lack of space for the construction of students' own political understandings.

Some more promising directions for citizenship education are proposed; ones which acknowledge the significance of pedagogical relations and school democratisation, and allow students to develop as political agents in their own right.

Contents:

Part 1 Current Tensions in Citizenship Education

1 Mapping Citizenship 3

2 Tensions and Disjunctures in Citizenship Education at the Start of the Twenty-first Century 17

3 Paulo Freire v. Bernard Crick 46

4 Student Participation: Towards a Prefigurative Conception 67

Part 2 Understanding Processes

5 A Theory of Curricular Transposition 87

6 Three Brazilian Experiences 105

7 Relating Ends and Means 121

8 Enactment at Work 139

Part 3 Responses

9 Seamless Enactment 179

10 The Uncertain Journey 190.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [202]-218).

ISBN:

9781847060587

1847060587

OCLC:

263605565