Citizenship Education and the Curriculum

Citizenship education is a contemporary concern of policymakers in various parts of the world. Debates focus on modern notions of citizenship, and the need for citizenship education in a rapidly changing world. This need for citizenship education and corresponding definitions has changed over time, but a persistent characteristic would seem to be fear of indoctrination and a lack of a coherent vision due in part to the notion of citizenship being a contested concept. Different notions of citizenship in turn underpin different theories of citizenship education, and a number of commentators have examined its role and rationale at various points in time and identified ideal forms of pedagogy, values, skills, curricular content and assessment.