Practitioners of civic education have chosen a range of different terms to describe their work. They choose names for the educational approach that they believe conveys more appropriately the aims of such education. Each of the names, or terms, selected has its own dilemmas and its own operating assumptions. But an analysis of the concept through consideration of the terms does provide some insight into the concerns of the civic educator.
Education for Democracy
Programmes defining themselves as education for democracy concern themselves with preparing people for democracy on the assumption that it must be established and then maintained. Amongst the content of such an educational programme will be the skills and understanding necessary for this establishment and maintenance.
Educators may conduct education for democracy programmes in undemocratic societies and see this as a social intervention in ensuring that they become more democratic. The definition of democracy, therefore, becomes very important both in determining what should be taught and also in the actual educational programme. Such a definition might be a classical one; but it might also be a more radical one, including aspects of industrial democracy, consumer rights, and social justice.
Citizenship Education
Once a society has established a code by which citizenship is established, educators may consider that people require education in which they become more like the ideal citizen. The rights, roles and responsibilities of citizenship will be emphasised, and this educational intervention may actually be linked with the naturalisation process by which immigrants become citizens. As such, it is likely to invoke serious discussion of the legal position of citizens and the manner in which their identity and relationship to the state is defined. The general approach may well be assimilationist, but there will also be those programmes that consider matters such as those expressed in the next paragraph and maintained separately only for the purpose of this discussion.
Education for Citizenship
Citizenship can be defined not solely or narrowly in legal terms but rather in terms of the manner in which people exercise their responsibilities towards other people and the state, or where a state does not exist, to the construction of communal life. Education in support of citizenship, expressed as a set of relationships and responsibilities incumbent on each person and the responsiveness of the state towards this person and the members of his or her community, will consider the skills of active citizenship. Such skills, when expressed, make a person a citizen. Before that they are only a subject.
Such skills may include those necessary to take part in an election, or to make communal decisions, or to participate in public debate. They are likely to include those necessary for ensuring a responsive state or for participating in its construction. These skills may include advocacy, organising, and lobbying for public policy. Education programmes dealing with citizenship are based on the assumption that citizenship is possible. In other words, they are more likely to take place in societies where the concept of citizen has been established and where the practice of citizenship is possible. Such societies have, whether explicitly or implicitly, constitutional arrangements that recognise individuals and their contribution to governance and their relationship as an independent actor within the country and in relation to the state.
Political Education
Those who consider the conduct of public life in the polis or polity, however established, to be important may describe their work as political education. Where politics exists, individuals need to develop literacy (the ability to read and understand the political life around them) and they need to learn ways to participate in that political life.
Social analysis, the investigation of public discourse and communication, the understanding of the ways in which political and social systems interact and the manner in which they negotiate and divide power will all be a part of such an educational programme.
Leadership Training
A final form of civic education is best described as leadership training. Such training presupposes that leadership can and should be learned and then exercised by humans. The programme will consider a wide range of leadership skills and relationships. They are likely to consider questions of personal and political power with a strong ethical and value-driven
approach to power. There are two strands of leadership education. While they have some things in common, and historically appear to have been driven by similar concerns, they manifest themselves in different societies or different strata within societies.
- The responsible exercise of power: Many churches, clubs, youth clubs (the Scouting movement is one example), and philanthropic societies such as Rotary provide leadership training that focuses on skills development, ethics, social virtues, and so on within their organisational framework.
- Achieving leadership: On the other hand, organisations with less access to power in the society tend to use leadership training programmes that are highly experiential in methodology, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, conducted with those who are denied leadership in society.
At the heart of the discussion about appropriate terminology is the debate about the purpose of such education. Is it merely to inculcate behaviour and skills that fit a person for a predetermined society; or does it have a vital role to play in equipping people to act on and change their environment? But the practice varies widely. Fortunately, in societies that are not wracked by war, the ready flow of information, and the general international consensus in favour of democracy, has meant that the majority of people have the opportunity denied many of their forebears. They can become rulers of their own destinies if only they have the will, the skills, and some measure of freedom from want and fear.
