Young people’s experience of a democratic deficit in citizenship education in formal and informal settings in Scotland
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Date
03/07/2015Author
Hong, Byulrim Pyollim
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Abstract
This thesis enquires into the kinds of citizenship taught and learned in
formal and informal settings of citizenship education in Scotland. There has
been a ‘perceived’ crisis in democratic citizenry in the UK and elsewhere
across the world since the 1990s and this has brought about renewed
interests in citizenship education whereby young people are a specifically
targeted group. Yet, citizenship education is a fundamentally contested
domain where conflicting and contrasting ideologies co-exist and the Scottish
version of ‘education for global citizenship’ is an archetypal example of this.
By exploring similarities and differences between accounts of ‘what adult
practitioners do’ and ‘what young people learn’ in each setting, the thesis
emphasises tensions and challenges of citizenship education and their
implications for the wider debates about the complex relationship between
citizenship, democracy and education.
The thesis deploys a synthesised theoretical framework for differentiating
and analysing the types of education and learning that are legitimate points
of reference in citizenship education for democratic life. It distinguishes
between approaches to education for citizenship that focuses on membership
of the community (relationships and service work in communities), formal
political participation (political literacy in terms of institutions, processes and
procedures) entrepreneurial citizenship (employability skills and economic
participation) and social and political activism (the commitment and capacity to
think critically and act collectively to realise the inherent goals of
democracy). These different approaches entail a broad ideological mix of
civic republicanism, liberalism and neoliberalism which informs citizenship
education. The increasing emphasis on economic participation in educational
contexts resonates with what can be termed as a neoliberal version of
‘responsiblised citizenship’ that promotes an individualised and
depoliticised conception of citizenship by equipping young people with
knowledge, skills and experiences to get on and get into the labour market
through their own individual efforts rather than being concerned with the
collective needs and interests of young people.
Formal education and, to some extent informal community education, tend
to overlook the de facto issues, experiences and contributions of young people
as engaged citizens and the need to focus on the commitment and capacity to
think critically and act collectively in order to realise the inherent goals of
democracy as an unfinished project. Consequently, the experience of
citizenship education is one young people often feel marginal to or
marginalised from. This thesis challenges the dominant assumption of
‘disengaged youth’ to focus instead on the democratic deficit at the heart of
citizenship teaching and learning. Along with the ‘invited’ spaces of
citizenship education, in both formal and informal settings, the goal of
democracy should include the ‘invented’ spaces of citizenship learning
which reflects the lived experience, concerns and aspirations of young
people.