Citizenship Education

Kathleen Knight-Abowitz

Citizenship typically refers to the relationship between the individual and the community, state, or nation. Encompassing aspects of membership, identity, civic knowledge, civic values, dispositions, and civic skills, citizenship education is often narrowly defined as taking place in civics, government, and history classes. But citizenship education is far broader than civics; here, it is defined as any educational experience that promotes the growth of individuals in regard to their civic capacities . The civic realm, the world of political and community work, requires particular kinds of knowledge, skills, and dispositions. This is particularly true in a democracy, where the role of the citizen takes on special importance in governance. This entry looks at citizenship education from the perspective of the social foundations discipline, which has conceptualized itself from the beginning as a field concerned with promoting schools relevant for a democratic society. Education for democratic citizenship, therefore, is both a ...

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