Aims + Scope  

There has been considerable reform in citizenship education curricula across Europe since the early 1990s as governments have sought to respond to a rapidly changing economic, demographic, and political environment. Governments had to tackle, for example, low voting participation, the resurgence of racist movements, and, in Central and Eastern European states, the transition to democracy. In the ensuing debates, policymakers also recognized the need to reconceive citizenship education in light of a globalizing world, and to incorporate global and European dimensions into their curricula (Osler & Starkey, 2006).

For the member states of the European Union, educating for European citizenship is of particular concern.  Forging a supra-national citizenship that transcends national borders is a key goal of the European integration process that is taking place under the auspices of the European Union. In an effort to create a political as well as an economic community, the supra-national institutions of Europe have established a politico-legal framework that provides the citizens of their member states with opportunities for citizenship rights, political participation, and identity. The implications of this new political space have extended to the educational arena, where it is hoped (and indeed assumed) that teaching about Europe will contribute to the wider political project of moving beyond exclusively state-centric notions of citizenship and of building European citizenship (Heater, 2004). The EU member states have, moreover, made a commitment to incorporate a so-called ‘European dimension’ into their education systems and to teach about European integration (CEC, 1988 and Council of Ministers of Education, 2005).

These developments suggest that European states provide a set of concrete and insightful examples in which to examine how governance and citizenship, altered by globalization, have then potentially shaped the content of citizenship education curricula in nation-states. In the process, this region also provides an opportunity for examining the relationship between national and supra-national citizenships. Since the rise of the modern nation-state, state education systems have served to inculcate the knowledge, feeling and behaviour of national citizenship (Green, 1997). The expansion to a supra-national citizenship thus signifies a radical departure from the historical functions and focus of citizenship education, and poses a challenge:  how do nation-states attempt to balance national and supra-national citizenships in their citizenship education curricula and textbooks?

This and other questions will be examined in this special issue through a series of case studies from across Europe. Because of the diversity of political, social and educational contexts, as well as divergent experience with democracy, the example cases available when focusing on Europe provide an important comparative aspect.  In order to then contextualize the cross-national comparisons within the greater global context of citizenship education reform and globalization, we conclude by examining the parallel developments taking place in the United States. 

Contents 

1.    Introduction - Citizenship Education Curricula: The Changes and Challenges presented by Global and European integration
                           AVRIL KEATING, DEBORA HINDERLITER ORTLOFF, and STAVROULA PHILIPPOU (Guest Editors)

2.    Nationalising the Postnational:  Reframing European citizenship for the civics curriculum in Ireland
                          AVRIL KEATING

3.    From the local to the supranational: Curriculum reform and the production of the ideal citizen in two federal systems, Germany and Spain.
                          LAURA C. ENGEL and DEBORA HINDERLITER ORTLOFF

4.    What Makes Cyprus European? Curricular Responses of Greek-Cypriot Civic Education to ‘Europe’. 

                          STAVROULA PHILIPPOU

5.    Europeanisation in the ‘Other’ Europe: Writing the Nation into ‘Europe’ in Post-Socialist Civic Education in Slovakia and Estonia
                         DEBORAH L. MICHAELS and E. DOYLE STEVICK

6.    Educating the European citizen in the global age: critically engaging with postnational citizenship education in the UK and identifying a research agenda
                          HARRIET MARSHALL

7. International Education Policies and the Boundaries of Global Citizenship in the United States
                       CHRISTOPHER J. FREY and DAWN MICHELE WHITEHEAD

8.    Conclusion - Citizenship Education Curricula: Comparing the Multiple Meanings of Supra-National Citizenship in Europe and beyond
                      STAVROULA PHILIPPOU, DEBORA HINDERLITER ORTLOFF and AVRIL KEATING (Guest Editors)