ABSTRACT
An initial sketch of some key issues is necessary. Citizenship is undeniably important for reasons that are both intrinsic and to do with its current highprofile position on the political agenda. Dahrendorf has described the 1990s as ‘the decade of the citizen’ and there is no shortage of comment by prominent politicians and authors of international research and development projects which seek to understand and promote education for citizenship. These developments will be explored at various points in the book. The work reported here is timely as an increasing number of publications examine the meaning of citizenship education and how it has been and should be developed in the future (e.g. Cogan and Derricott 1998; Ichilov 1998). The fundamental, intrinsic importance of citizenship can be simply outlined. Crick’s (QCA 1998) characterization of citizenship education, which has recently achieved support from the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, suggests that there are:
three things, related to each other, mutually dependent on each other, but each needing a somewhat different place and treatment in the curriculum…Firstly, children learning from the very beginning self confidence and socially and morally responsible behaviour both in and beyond the classroom, both towards those in authority and towards each other…Secondly, learning about and becoming helpfully involved in the life and concerns of their communities, including learning through community involvement and service to the community…Thirdly, pupils learning about and how to make themselves effective in public life through knowledge, skills and values what can be called ‘political literacy’, seeking for a term that is wider than political knowledge alone.
