Education for Citizenship in Romania and the UK: A Comparison

Abstract

The article compares the development of Citizenship Education in the United Kingdom and Romania since 1989, the year when Communism was overthrown in several Eastern European countries including Romania (and when, coincidentally, Citizenship made its first formal appearance in the English National Curriculum as a cross-curricular theme). Findings are presented from two case study high schools, one in the UK and one in Romania. Staff and students offer views on the nature of citizenship, on how Citizenship Education might be taught in school and on issues influencing the development of a programme to help students become effective individuals with a commitment to community participation in its broadest sense. The analysis develops the view that, if Citizenship Education is to make a genuine contribution to the creation of a vibrant, participatory democracy in which young people are fully involved, the structures and processes via which Citizenship Education is devised and delivered should themselves reflect the principles of democratic participation.

Young People's Ignorance about the Topic of Taxation

“…Certainly they speak to debates on education for citizenship (Crawford & Foster, 2001;Mutch, 2003). Those interested in citizenship, social and economics education are centrally interested in the curricular aspects of this topic.…”

“As far as the government is a good government, it is democratic”: Citizenship education in China

“…In Western context, either explicitly or implicitly, some scholars may hold a view that citizenship in China is out of the question. And there is a widespread belief that citizenship should build on human rights, democracy, and individualism (Crawford and Foster, 2000: 170–182; Heater, 2004; Lee and 李榮安, 2004; Print and Saha, 2007; Sears, 2009: 143–158; Weil, 2001: 17–35). However, from the viewpoint of Mainland China context, such criteria for assessing citizenship do not necessarily exist, because of their collectivist experience, authoritarianism, and harmony.…”