Understanding the Complexity of Citizenship: A Prerequisite for Developing Effective Citizenship Education Programs

• In Event: The Citizenship Education Dilemma: Implications for Civic Education Reform in Multicultural Nations

Abstract

This paper, which will open the session, locates citizenship education within a number of complex issues and concerns associated with citizenship in multicultural nations. The goal of traditional citizenship education was to teach students what it meant to be a good citizen. In the United States this focused on American creed values. Yet this presumes that the students are, or will become, legal citizens. Today many residents of the United States are undocumented; many of these individuals are children of undocumented parents. With a growing number of non-citizen school-aged children or citizen children growing up in mixed-status homes, a preliminary question underlying the purpose and goals of citizenship education is, “Who is a citizen?” Is it an individual with the legal status of U.S. citizen, an individual residing within the United States, or a person who is deeply connected to and who has obligations to the United States? Citizenship scholars recognize three aspects of citizenship: legal status, rights, and identity (Bosniak, 2006; Joppke, 2010). The three components of citizenship can be mutual, exclusive, or overlapping. When citizenship educators speak of citizens, what aspect of citizenship do they wish to address and who do they imagine as citizens? These and other related questions will be explored in this paper.
This paper will also examine social cohesion and its relationship to how citizenship is defined. Naturalization rates in the United States have been decreasing in recent decades. Numerous scholars are concerned that the failure of eligible non-citizens to naturalize and become U.S. citizens undermines cohesion and unity within the United States. These scholars contend that it is residents’ identity as citizens that keep them connected to the State and the polity. This paper will also discuss the important role that citizenship education can play in building cohesion and unity by adopting an expansive conception of citizenship education that includes individuals with significant connections and obligations to the polity regardless of their citizenship status. It will conclude by discussing ways in which the recognition of non-citizen residents will help to resolve the citizenship education dilemma.

Author

• Angela M. Banks, William & Mary Law School