THE FLUIDITY OF THE CITIZENSHIP CONCEPT AND ITS ALLUSIONS FOR THE CURRICULUM ...

22 Pages·2012·0.4 MB·English

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THE FLUIDITY OF THE CITIZENSHIP CONCEPT AND ITS
ALLUSIONS FOR THE CURRICULUM
Shahla Zahabioun4 ,Alireza Yousefy5, Mohammad H Yarmohammadian 6, Narges Keshtiaray7
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the concept of citizenship fluidity and
its allusions for the curriculum. Therefore, the attention has been paid in this article
at first to the analysis of the citizenship concept, history and its dimensions from
the point of views of the scholars and experts in this field. After explaining the
citizenship education, the necessity for flexibility and adaptability of the school
curriculum to the concept of citizenship and its importance has been studied as a
dynamic phenomenon based on two approaches (traditional and active). This
research was theoretical and descriptive – interpretative approach is used in its data
analysis. The most important finding of this study was that citizenship is a dynamic
and fluid concept. Throughout the history, by the transition of the societies from
one stage to another stage, this concept has undergone evolution and
transformation in terms of conceptually and functionally. At the same basis, the
education system, which is responsible for the mission of educating informed,
creative, responsible and committed citizens, should be allowed clearly realize in
fulfilling this mission in the schools through an active and dynamic curriculum.
Keywords: Citizenship, Citizenship education, Curriculum, The fluidity,
Curriculum objectives, Curriculum contents

4- Ph.D. student , Department of Educational Sciences , Khorasgan branch(Isfahan),Islamic Azad
University, Isfahan, Iran.
Associate professor, Medical Educational Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical -2
Sciensce, Isfahan, Iran.
6 -Associate professor, Health Management and Economic Research Center, Isfahan
University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
7- Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Khorasgan Branch(Isfahan)
Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.
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Introduction:
At the first of third millennium, great and wonderful changes have been affected
in all areas including citizenship due to the continuous growth and development of
information and communication technologies(ICT). Therefore, that, to meet the
challenges ahead, the citizen of the twenty-first century requires various trainings.
In comparison with the past, citizenship is defined as the membership in a political
community that designs all of the relationships (possible, actual and desired),
between the government and citizens (Neveu and et al, 2011). In this process, an
exchange takes place between citizens and the political community [the
government] (Mitchell, 2007, p. 841). However, the citizenship is a lifelong
learning process (Ramos, 2010, p. 95). Various factors and institutions play
important roles in citizenship education, such as family, religion and media, but
according to Mehrmohammadi (2000, p. 5), the modern human for facing with the
productive and effective scientific, industrial, cultural, economic, and moral
challenges has not been identified something more suitable, more effective and
more legitimate than education. Therefore, citizenship education has become a
strategic manner to prepare and equip citizens with the knowledge, attitudes and
specific skills for living in the modern world. Therefore, you could say that
curriculum as one of the major elements of the education system should be placed
at the focus of preparing a new generation of active and effective citizens for
entering the community by staying away from the passive approach (traditional)
and emphasizing on active approach (with progress objective). In the passive
approach (traditional), the curriculum emphasizes on the followings: maintaining
the status quo, the transmission of values, creating a sense of identity, shared
culture and history, sense of belonging to a particular geographic, political and
territory, to instill a sense of loyalty, respect for its law, ignoring the differences
and limiting dimensions of citizenship purely to legal and political dimensions
(Scott and Lawson, 2002 Cecchini, 2004, Talebzadeh, Nobarian and Fathi
vajargah, 2002). It seems that in this approach, the citizens are entrusted in a more
passive role as to be observer, onlooker, with lack of sufficient knowledge,
awareness, and required skills. In the active approach, curriculum is a reflection of
the growing trends of new phenomena. So that, according to Arnot (2002),
curriculum is required to reflect changes in the social field and knowledge needed
by society (pp. 269 - 270). In this approach, these cases are highlighted: creative
thinking and critical thinking skills, equipping students to understand and
management of change, attention to differences, active participation in community
affairs, local and national and international role, being sensitive to global events,
understanding the complexities, understanding the importance of the environment
and sustainable development. The fluidity and dynamism issues of citizenship
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affect the objectives and content of the curriculum more than other elements.
Therefore, this study typically pursues the following objectives:
1 - Explaining the fluidity of the citizenship concept
2- Allusions of the fluidity of the citizenship concept for the purposes of
curriculum
3- Allusions of the fluidity of the citizenship concept for the content of
curriculum
Methods:
This was an overview – analytical study. This research was studied and
identified about citizenship and citizenship education in the curriculum within 6
months by the style of the libraries and reviewing the books, articles, journals, and
electronic resources, including the following databases: Proquest, Sage, Elsevie,
Tylor and Francies, Google Scholar and Springer. These studies were also the most
important resources of the study: International Association for Evaluation of
Educational Progress, Citizenship Foundation studies in England, curriculum
Studies in the UK and Australian citizenship, Theda and Maker and associates
studies (2001-2010), reported studies on citizenship in Latin America, International
Journal of Citizenship Teaching and Learning belonging to the Institute for
Training and Development in UK schools, Journal of Citizenship Studies in
England and Wales and studies of curriculum in Northern Ireland. In this study, the
interpretation - descriptive method was used to analyze the findings.
Theoretical framework of the original research concept and history of
citizenship:
The Greek word of “politeia” is the term for citizenship. In fact, this term is the
meaning of the citizenship right and every citizen is as a member of the
community, which he has been under its rule. Politeia is used as the meaning of a
structure, system or the constitution (Radulović, 2006). The citizenship term is
used to describe a number of distinct phenomena but related to each other, which
involves the relationship between the individual and the state (polity). Bosinka
described the term of citizenship as four distinct concepts, as follows:
1 - Citizenship as legal dignity
2 - Citizenship as the rights
3 - Citizenship as political activity
4 - Citizenship as a form of orientation and collective identity (quoting
Rubenstein & Adler, 2000, p. 521)
However, Aristotle has done the first systematic attempt to develop a theory of
citizenship. Hatching (1999) believes that the conceptual and historical background
of citizenship discussions go back to social and political ideas of Socrates, Plato
and especially Aristotle in the book of Politics in Ancient Greek, and Stoicism and
Christian philosophers (especially Augustine and Aquinas) in the Roman era and
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the Middle Ages. However, its history is reflected more coherent in the
Renaissance in the political - social thoughts of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke,
Rousseau, Kant and Hegel (Tavassoli and Nejati Hosseini, 2004, p. 35). In this
study, the history of citizenship has been investigated during four periods as
follows:
Ancient period:
Citizenship was formed for the first time in the Athenian democracy. In its
ancient sense, it was implying the concept of equal rights and duties against the
law and political participation. Before that, in some lands such as the Egypt,
Babylonia and ancient China, the individuals rather than to be known as citizens,
they were considered as dominated persons or subjects. Later, a new idea began to
form in the ancient Greece and based on it, the people should have an effective role
in the fate of the state (the government). Therefore, the citizenship was a status and
position that was given by the government to some individuals as the Citizen. In
the ancient Greek, citizenship was the ability to govern and to be governed, which
of course it was possible for the free men (Roy, 2005, p. 2). In the point of view of
the Athenians, citizen was a person who was concerned about the political affairs
of the government and considered himself responsible for it. This situation was
only for the men over the age of eighteen years and the women, slaves, foreigners
and persons less than eighteen years were not considered as citizens (Ejorh, 2007,
p. 2). For the free men who had the privilege of citizenship, civic virtue and being
a good citizen was considered as an important value and the citizens would be
required to perform the duties of citizenship (Howe, 2006, p. 214).
Middle Ages era:
By the time of the middle Ages, the importance of the citizenship was declined.
In the Italian cities such as Venice and Florence, there was citizenship based on the
model of Republic of Greece. In this era, citizenship turned into a hierarchical
status. The rights of the citizens even changed in accordance with the property and
assets (Shiani, 2002, pp. 11-12). In fact, the governance of the feudality regime
was quite obvious on the non-public, hierarchical and in accordance with property
citizenship (Fallahzadeh, 2007, p. 50). The contained components in the concept of
Roman - Christian citizenship represented the limitations of the citizenship scope
and were not included in the other community groups such as women, slaves and
the foreigners. The Christian citizen was accompanied with restrictions from the
absolute guardianship of the Pope and the Church and the supremacy of spiritual
authority over the secular authority. This type of citizenship was containing
specific ideas in comparison with Greek - Roman citizenship (Debenva, 1999
Held, 1999 and Falks, 2002, quoted by Torkaman and Bahmanpour, 2006, p. 13).
With the advent of the Renaissance and by the end of the middle century, the
sixteenth century was faced with the rejection of the Roman - Christian citizenship
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conceptions and the return to the Aristotelian citizenship notion (Greek)
(Manuchehry and Nejati Hosseini, 2006, p. 5).

Industrial Revolution era:

Some believe that citizenship is a modern concept and has been used widely after
the revolution in France. However, due to many experts though, the term of
citizenship was widely discussed from the early eighteenth century. In this period,
some discussions were studied about the rights and responsibilities of the
citizenship. In fact, the modern concept of citizenship was formed at the end of the
eighteenth century with the development of the modern state at the Europe. It was
at the same time that Kant posed the cosmopolitan discussion. This view, in
addition to the acceptance of citizenship at a particular country, drew the attention
of the citizens to a more global and transcendent form of the citizenship duties.
After that and until the nineteenth century, the citizenship (within the meaning of
the state - nation) was a community that an individual was defined based on it. The
individual also obtained mutually a set of fundamental values and principles from
the community. According to Kivisto and Faist (2007), the understanding of the
citizenship concept at the ancient Greece and as a primary concept was as the state
- city and in the modern world as the state - nation.

Contemporary era:

At the recent decades and since the beginning of the nineteenth century, the form
of the citizenship that was prevailed at the eighteenth and the nineteenth century
began to be changed. New rights emerged such as ecological and environmental
rights, gender rights and natural rights. Therefore, the need was created for new
words and expressions and the concept of citizenship (Frey, 2003, Isin, 2009). So
that, now a days, the idea of citizenship is extended beyond the state – nation idea.
In other words, the idea of the state – city at the ancient Greek was replaced by of
idea of the state - nation (in Renaissance period). Then, there was a huge change
and transformation in the scientific, industrial and technological fields, and
especially the major developments in the fields of information technologies and
citizenship communication. Like other sectors, the concept of state – nation had no
ability to respond to the changes and new developments from the conceptual and
functional point of view. Today, the concept of citizenship is a transnational and
global context. Marshall, known as one of the experts in the field of citizenship
studies, believes that citizenship is a status that is awarded to the members of the
community and all the people who are in such a position. In addition to have equal
rights, they must also assume some duties. The main elements of the citizenship in
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Marshall's theory are concepts such as membership, rights and obligations arising
from it. In his view, the citizenship involves three types of rights:
1- Civil Right: including: freedom of speech and thought and idea, creating
equal expectations, impartial judgment, property rights and adherence to the
contracts
2 - Political Right: Including the right to participate in public decisions, having
the right to vote and direct access to political positions to lead the party and
the government or other positions of authority
3 - Social Right: including: security and prosperity, living in the society based
on common standards, providing equal benefits of educational facilities,
housing and health for all members of the community
Marshall point of view is a historical perspective to the full realization of civil,
political and social rights. Based on his view, these cases have been developed
during the mentioned periods, civil rights in the eighteenth century, political rights
in the nineteenth century and social rights in the twentieth century (Hansel, 2011;
Calavita, 2005, p. 403). According to him, particular organizations and institutions
have the responsibility to ensure these rights. Judiciary and Justice are responsible
for the provision of civil rights. Parliament and local government councils should
be involved in providing political rights and education and social service
organizations are to guarantee the social rights (Martin, 2003; Turner, 2008).
Turner is another expert in this field. He describes the citizenship as a series of
legal, political, economical and cultural actions that defines an individual as a
qualified and competent member of the society and consequently shape the
progression of resources flow to the public and community groups (Fudge, 2005, p.
634). Turner imagines citizenship, not in the frame of rights and duties, but rather
as a process from benefiting up to deprivation. The process of benefiting will also
access the citizens to community resources. The deprivation process (through
construction of a common identity) will be deprived the others from the benefits of
citizenship. In his point of view, citizenship has been obtained by the civil conflicts
in England, independence wars in America and the French revolution. The origins
of these revolutions were nationalism and citizenship (in the form of individual
rights and responsibilities), which was considered as a part of the national
community. In fact, Turner studies the citizenship by sociological method (2008, p.
9). In the analysis of the above theories, it should be pointed that the fundamental
concepts of citizenship in Turner Theories are active citizenship and passive
citizenship. The active citizenship is associated with social citizenship,
involvement in community affairs (public) and participation in community affairs.
The passive citizenship as a personal concept is to be away from the community
(private) and lack of participation in the affairs. In Marshall Theory, the
weaknesses are as follows: limited to the period of the industrial revolution, focus
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on a specific period of the British history and inattention to ethnic, cultural, racial,
religious, and linguistic differences.
However, looking at citizenship as a unified and integrated concept and ignoring
the concept of social belonging to national symbols can be considered the weak
points of both points of view. Finally, it should be considered that the desired
changes in the manner of insight, attitudes and behavior of individuals, needed
business abilities and skills in one hand, and preserving and continuing the social
life, economic growth and political stability in communities, on the other hand,
need active, effective and powerful citizens. It would not be possible except
through education or citizenship education.

Citizenship education:
Citizenship education as a major issue has turned special attention in diverse
areas. So far, it has been performed many fundamental studies in the field of
citizenship education in the form of forums, conferences, researches and writings.
Including, International Association for the Evaluation of Educational
Achievement (IEA), which has conducted numerous studies about civic and
citizenship education in many countries such as Latin American countries, Korea
and other countries around the world on the topic of citizenship among the
adolescents and the youth. Results of these studies have provided valuable
information in participating countries and other countries. The National
Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) in England was performed the
Citizen Education Longitudinal Study (CELS) to study the impact of citizenship
education on student learning experiences and outcome from 2001 to 2010.
The mentioned study followed three main objectives:
1 - Evaluation of short-term and long-term effects on students' citizenship
education In England
2 - Discovery of the fact about the possibility of causing different results and
outputs from different variables at school level, the teacher and in individual
level
3 – Investigation about this issue that, what kind of changes could influence its
potential growth and impact capability in the mode of transmission of
citizenship education.
Holding the NECE conference in Europe as a part the associated movements with
citizenship education was among other carried out activities in this area. One
important indicator of the conference was putting the issue of citizenship education
in the top of the conference program and agenda by the European authorities. The
other indicator was publishing several studies in this field. Some of other activities
included:
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- Placing the citizenship education as a priority of training programs in 1997 by
the heads of European Summit Association of the states and governments
- Conducting a study in 1998 by the Europe Union in the field of active
citizenship and preparation of documents required for citizenship education as
a lifelong learning process and planning for the future of citizenship education
- Declaration of 2005 as the year of citizenship through citizenship education by
European Parliament (Cecchini, 2004).
The federal government of Australia in 1999, following the developments in the
growth and composition of the population, the growth of technology and the
increasing pressures of globalization, in order to prepare Australian students in
reaching their position in today's world of global features, has attempted to rethink
in civic and citizenship education (Reid and Gill, 2009, p. 4). This attention was
suggested as the key role of education in raising good citizens, as a key to the
wellbeing of communities, empowering the students to achieve a desirable way of
living in order to find their status and situation in an increasingly unstable world
full of rich complexity and diversity.
Howe, Davis and Ritchie (2001) believed that the purposes of citizenship
education were more important for them than the other things such as a sense of
responsibility towards society and emancipation and empowerment of the students
in taking the control of their lives.(quoted by Growney, 2004).
Citizenship education is a provision of employment the opportunities for students
in meaningful learning experiences in a manner that will facilitate their growth as
committed individuals and social and political activist (Homana et al 2006, p. 3).
Sears and Hughes (1994) mentioned that one of the roles of citizenship education
is to prepare the students to understand the meaning of change management and in
particular, the consequences of it, such as cultural diversity and the appreciation of
its role (p. 132). Therefore, we can say that citizenship education, on one hand,
gives the necessary knowledge, skills and understanding for students to enable
them to play an effective role at local, national and international levels and become
informed, responsible and thoughtful citizens. They will be aware of their rights
and obligations and can play an instrumental role in assisting the school, the
community and the larger world. On the other hand, it will enable them to examine
actually the knowledge and skills acquired in school and community. Therefore,
the citizenship education has become nowadays as one of the important component
of the school curriculum (Berslin quoting Huddleston and Galbraith,2008;
Naveebrahim and Massoudi, 2011, p. 275).
Thus, this issue is one of the most important educational goals, on the one hand,
in order to determine the characteristics of good citizens equipped with the
necessary skills in various aspects, or in other word, what it is called in literature to
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a Good Citizen. On the other hand, it is the organization of the elements and
components of the educational system to educate and nurture the Good Citizen.
Relationship of citizenship education with the curriculum:
There are different opinions about the relationship between citizenship education
and curriculum. Some such as Gearon (2003) believed that citizenship education
should be implied as a part of the school curriculum. Some such as Bloomfield
(2003) believed that the citizenship must be taught openly through the curriculum
and should be taught as a separate course. Another group believes that citizenship
education should be included in the entire curriculum and penetrate in it. Some,
such as Hicks (2001), have emphasis on the global coherence and support
promoting the global dimensions of citizenship education by the curriculum
(quoting Kerr, 2005, p. 77). Huddleston and Galbraith(2008) believe that
citizenship education should be included in the formal curriculum. It is not only
should be taught as an independent subject (by an expert) but also as an element in
other subjects and even as a separate unit in other programs (p. 7). Therefore, in
order to train qualified and competent citizens in meeting the challenges of the
current era, the curriculum should be rotated from passive approach (traditional)
toward the active approach. In the traditional approach, the concept of citizenship
is regarded as a fixed and unchangeable concept and the purpose and content are
strictly organized in order to maintain the status quo and educate citizens with
minimum required skills. While on active approach, the fluidity of the concept of
citizenship has played a crucial role in defining the objectives and content of the
curriculum. The citizens not only trained to deal with the change and the
adaptation, but also to make appropriate changes in the local, national and global
levels. Active and passive approaches and comparing them with each other are
useful in order to observe further explanations of the active and passive approaches
to curriculum, recognizing the dimensions and citizenship initiatives with minimal
(passive) and maximum (active) orientation. Each features of the Minimal
Approach and the Maximal Approach based on Mc Laughlin point of view (1992),
include the followings:

Minimal Approach:
In this approach, a limited and non-dynamic definition of citizenship is offered.
The features of this approach include the following cases in having and promotion
of interests, expectations of special groups of the society from the benefits of the
citizenship, formal and structured training, content – based and teacher – based
learning, the traditional method of memorizing and remembering, emphasis on
knowledge transfer to learners’ minds, limited opportunities for participation and
creativity of the learners, knowledge acquisition about the customs, traditions,
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history and geography of the country, limited results up to the level of knowledge
and understanding, and easy evaluation of the results through written exams.
Maximal Approach:
In this approach, there is a broad, open and dynamic definition of citizenship.
The followings are considered as the features of this approach: benefiting of all of
the society segments from the privileges of citizenship, formal and informal
education, acquisition and application of knowledge in various methods by the
development of collaborative capabilities, process – orientation, strategies for
teaching – learning interactive and collaborative in the classroom and outside of
the classroom, discussion and dialogue, enough opportunities for innovation,
emphasis on values, extensive results to increase the knowledge, attitude and
competence, and finally the difficulty in measuring the results (quoting Kerr,
1999).
Accordingly, in the passive curriculum, the emphasis is on Minimal Approach
in citizenship education. In the Minimal Approach, the purpose of education, in
fact, is "education about citizenship". However, in the active curriculum, the
Maximal Approach is emphasized with the goal of "education for citizenship" is.
Therefore, it could be concluded that the purpose of passive curriculum is to train
the citizens with minimal required characteristics and the active approach is to
train the citizens with the maximum required features. On the approach of
“education about citizenship", the required information and knowledge are taught
to the students about the national history, structures, processes and functions of the
government by the rate of one to two hours per week. Although, the
implementation is easy, but does not have much benefits for the learners. Approach
of "education for citizenship", seeks to prepare students in the fields of knowledge
and understanding (knowledge), values and abilities (vision), skills and
preparedness (competence). They will be able to assume the social roles and
responsibilities so good in the near future and in their adult life by active
participation in the affairs at the levels of the school and community. Another type
of training is also known as the "education through citizenship". This approach has
also been emphasized on students learning through active participation at the level
of the school, local community and higher levels. In other words, they will practice
what they have learned. This will enhance their knowledge of citizenship. This
approach is the complement of the active approach or "education for citizenship".
There are two other approaches as well in "education for citizenship".( Kerr,1999).

Kerr (2005) identified four approaches to citizenship education and their positions
in curriculum with school-based approach to citizenship education (p. 75).
1 - Schools with a progressive objective approach (progressing school): This
approach is considered as the most advanced preparation for citizenship
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