Levensbeschouwing: dé basis voor burgerschapsvorming!

Abstract

Every child in The Netherlands is entitled to a form of decent citizenship education. At the moment, citizenship education is not given in a goal oriented and coherent way at schools in The Netherlands. Especially since education can be seen as the place in particular where students can learn how to fully participate in a democratic society in coherence with their own personal identity. This article will argue that good citizenship education requires a maximum interpretation of citizenship education and that worldview education needs to be taken as the starting point for this complete form of citizenship education. Good education has three functions: qualification, socialization, and subjectification. Citizenship education consists out of three concepts: democracy, participation and identity. These functions and domains of citizenship education overlap with worldview education. Precisely from a personal worldview a person can determine how he or she wants to participate in the democratic society. Worldview education is therefore an essential part of citizenship education.