Democratic Citizenship and the University Curriculum: Three Initiatives in England

Abstract

If conceptions of citizenship are complex and contested, then no less so are the curricular forms corresponding to them. While governments and other agencies may sometimes naively assume that schools and universities can straightforwardly promote whatever goals are passed down to them, the reality is far less predictable. Considerable challenges are posed by factors such as the difficulties in enabling experiences of citizenship in practice, potential conflicts between the political positions of teachers and those of the official curriculum and tensions in an overcrowded curriculum oriented around high-stakes assessment, not to mention the ability of students to reinterpret and recast the messages they receive. While there is substantial literature concerning the forms of citizenship that might be acceptable in contemporary societies characterized by diversity (Callan, 1997; Galston, 1989; Kymlicka, 2003), less attention has been paid to these pressing pedagogical and curricular challenges.