This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Leonard, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Children's Citizenship Education in Politically Sensitive Societies

Queen's University Belfast, M.Leonard{at}qub.ac.uk

Citizenship is both an individual and collective identity. In politically sensitive societies, the aim of citizenship education is to transform discourses around `us' and `them' into a more inclusive `we'. Yet promoting an inclusive citizenship is beset with challenges and contradictions as it may integrate young people into mainstream political structures to which some of them will have limited allegiance. In politically sensitive societies, discourses around citizenship may promote discourses of silences around existing communal tensions. The paper demonstrates this by drawing on Northern Ireland as a case study. It explores a number of dilemmas associated with citizenship education, including the crucial need to acknowledge the dynamics of power and control which characterize adult/teacher and child/pupil relationships in the school classrooms where citizenship education is transmitted.

Key Words: children • citizenship • Northern Ireland • schools

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?