The State and Potential of Civic Learning in Canada Charting the Course for Youth Civic and Political Participation
...................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................... iv Introduction .................................................................................................1 Methodology ...............................................................................................................3 What Kind of Citizen? ................................................................................5 A Brief History of Citizenship in Canada ...................................................6 The Canadian Citizen, 1867-1918 .............................................................................7 The Canadian Citizen, 1919-1990 .............................................................................8 Trends in Youth Civic Participation ...........................................................9 Explaining Levels of Engagement and Redefining Civic Literacy .........14 Political Knowledge and Young Canadians ............................................19 Does It Matter?......................................................................................................... 22 Capacities and Skills for Youth Civic Participation ................................24 What Skills Should School Teach? ......................................................................... 25 Civic Literacy and Schools .......................................................................27 Provincial/Territorial Curriculum Guidelines ............................................................ 28 Provincial “Behavioural” Codes of Conduct ........................................................... 30 Opportunities for Civic Learning .............................................................31 Future Research ..................................................................................................... 34 References .................................................................................................36 Provincial/Territorial Educational Curriculum and Behavioural Documents ........... 44 Appendix A: Student Questionnaire .......................................................47 Appendix B: Student Interview Guide ....................................................48 Appendix C: Teacher Interview Guide ....................................................50 Authors ......................................................................................................52
Educating for active compliance: discursive constructions in citizenship education
This article examines the discursive construction of ‘active citizenship’ within recent civics curriculum documents across three provinces in Canada. New secondary school civics curricula have emerged across liberal democratic states since the year 2000, presumably in response to the perception of youth as disengaged from political involvement. Many of the new curricula subsequently emphasize ‘active’ engagement within the polity. The central task of this paper is to better understand what such ‘active citizenship’ actually means, via the methodological tool of discourse analysis. Engaging a theoretical frame that incorporates Foucauldian governmentality theory and cultural theories of the role of the state in creating subjectivities, the paper ultimately argues that the ‘active citizen’ of contemporary civics curricula is, in fact, a deeply neoliberal subject. The article then draws on feminist theories of citizenship in order to assess the forms of exclusion that the curriculum documents inadvertently create, arguing that they ultimately participate in a long tradition of devaluing such elements of citizenship as relationality and emotional ties. We conclude that one of the fundamental goals of citizenship education – to expand access to citizenship participation for all – has failed.
Mandating Identity: Citizenship, Kinship Laws and Plural Nationality in the European Union
For over a century it has been the case that a person exists, at least for legal purposes, only after she has been recognized by the state. As a unique element of this acknowledgement, nationality has also been an essential component of individual identity. Now, under pressure from a variety of directions, the nature of the link between state and individual is changing, with as yet unclear implications and long-term effects. In this original and insightful analysis, Eniko Horvath focuses on three processes of legal evolution in Europe that affect the meaning of membership and individual identity: the increasing salience of supranational culture and rights; kinship; legislation privileging non-nationals with linguistic, cultural, and ethnic ties to a given state; and the emergence of plural nationality as an acceptable (and even welcome) phenomenon.The author's treatment is notable for its informed appreciation of both the content of relevant European and national laws and the ways in which these laws are embedded in particular social and political frameworks. In addition to extending the legal theory on citizenship and nationality, the analysis draws on sociology, social psychology, and political theory to anchor its insights and recommendations. After two in-depth chapters introducing the complexities of the subject matter, three distinct but interwoven chapters show how each of the three processes has unfolded in a given context, offer detailed explanations and suggestions as to why each development has occurred in the manner that it has, and discuss the legal, political, and sociological issues raised by the particular development.A comprehensive reference section with extensive lists of laws, cases, and scholarship concludes the volume. It is likely that this book will come to be recognized as a foundational work in the legal analysis of the concept of cultural identity, and especially its role in setting norms of membership, as that way of seeing the world becomes ever more clearly defined in coming decades. It is sure to be not only studied and cited by academics and legal theorists, but of special value also to policymakers in the areas of nationality and citizenship.