Citizenship

Reflecting Education
http://reflectingeducation.net

STARKEY, H., HAYWARD, J. & TURNER, K. (2006) Education for Citizenship.

Reflecting Education, 2, 1-7.

Citizenship

Hugh Starkey, Jeremy Hayward, Karen Turner

Institute of Education, University of London

This special edition of Reflecting Education focuses on the teaching and learning of
citizenship in the education system in England and in Lebanon. We have selected articles
that raise questions for theory and policy and we have also included empirical studies based
on the experiences of teachers and researchers who have engaged directly with classrooms.

We are able to do this because at the Institute of Education we work closely with
practitioners around the world and schools across England. We help to train teachers of
citizenship and offer a number of courses: the PGCE secondary citizenship; the MA
Citizenship Education, which is offered in face to face and distance versions; and special
CPD courses leading to the DfES certificate of citizenship teaching, also offered in face to
face and distance versions. We also have a number of doctoral students investigating topics
in citizenship education. Teacher researchers from these courses account for the majority of
the contributions to this special issue.

In putting together this special edition, we aimed to:

• contribute to current debates about citizenship education;

• review critically the state of citizenship education in schools;

• compare citizenship education in England and in other contexts.

We are pleased to present a collection of seven articles that meets these targets. Before
introducing the authors and the contributions we feel it appropriate to situate this collection
in a policy context.

Citizenship as a concept refers to the free and legitimate participation of individuals and
groups in society. It is both an attribute of individuals and a concept that embraces
collective actions. Citizenship is a status that recognises the claims of individuals to
agency. There is an expectation that citizenship carries with it the right to participate and a
responsibility towards others. It is perhaps most easily understood as contrasting with other
possible statuses such as slave, prisoner, subject of an absolute ruler, vassal (Faulks, 2000).
Individuals in these conditions have little opportunity to influence their condition or that of
others.

The romantic view of citizenship associated with the 1789 French Revolution links
citizenship to democracy. Citizens started a process of overthrowing an absolute monarch
and creating a constitution based on fundamental rights. When associated with democracy,
citizenship is about inclusion. The more people feel included, the better the quality of
democracy.

Other definitions of citizenship may be in tension with democratic values of inclusion.
Citizenship can be an exclusive status, usually linked to nationality. National citizenship is

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