Teaching and Learning Citizenship Education in a Changing Europe

Abstract

This paper examines various analyses of the relationship between citizenship and rights, drawing on the work of T H Marshal, Karl Vasak and John Urry, and relates these to citizenship education. It is argued that citizenship can be defined around conceptions of human rights, and that these have developed in civil, political and social phases. Rights are consequent on membership of a community, but we have seen, particularly in the development of the European Union, a decoupling of rights from territory. As we have multiple identities, we also may have multiple citizenships. The paper moves to analyse how communities are constructed, and identifies iconic, symbolic and enactive aspects in the formation of a community. Relating these to citizenship education, it is argued that Jerome Bruner’s model of learning is particularly appropriate. While citizenship education has traditionally focused on the iconic and symbolic, it is necessary for young people to engage inactively with citizenship in order to learn civic participation, and such active learning is best focussed on the extension of human rights into new domains.