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Citizenship: Active Citizenship
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Citizenship learning develops through active involvement. Young people learn what it means to be a citizen through discussions and debates in the classroom, and participation in the life of the school or college and in the wider community. They are given opportunities both to develop their learning and to put it into practice in ‘real life’ situations.
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The term Active Citizenship implies working towards the betterment of one's community through economic participation, public service, volunteer work, and other such efforts to improve life for all citizens. In this vein, schools in England provide lessons in citizenship.[1] In Wales the model used is Personal and Social Education.[2][3]
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President Abraham Lincoln brought to office a view of citizenship born out of his upbringing on the frontier. He saw citizenship as a means for even the poorest Americans to seek redress of wrongs and to have access to education and other sources of social mobility. He summarized this in his Gettysburg Address, in which he said the government of the United States was "of the people, by the people, and for the people." It was his view that the government had no legitimacy beyond what the people gave it, yet in "for the people" he meant that the government was obliged to actively help its people in attaining their civil rights.
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The term ‘citizenship’ is ... used to refer to involvement in public life and affairs – that is, to the behaviour and actions of a citizen. It is sometimes known as active citizenship. Citizenship in this sense is applied to a wide range of activities – from voting in elections and standing for political office to taking an interest in politics and current affairs. It refers not only to rights and responsibilities laid down in the law, but also to general forms of behaviour– social and moral – which societies expect of their citizens. What these rights, responsibilities and forms of behaviour should be is an area of on-going public debate, with people holding a range of views.
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Whilst all individuals share the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, regardless of status, knowledge or skill, it is clear that citizenship may be exercised with different degrees of effectiveness. A variety of personal and social circumstances can impede a person's capacity for active citizenship. For example, homeless young people may not secure the right to vote simply because they have no address. More generally, many young people living in poverty and experiencing other forms of disadvantage feel alienated. They see little point in participating in a system that seems remote from their concerns. It is in the interest both of individuals and of society as a whole that the rights and responsibilities of citizenship are well understood, that young people develop the capability needed to function effectively as citizens in modern society, and that structures are provided to enable them to do so.
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In a nondemocratic society, citizenship, if the term is used, means something else. The emphasis shifts toward duties, rather than rights, though there may be no total extinction of the latter. The loyalty of the population to the state may be just as great as in a democracy, but it is based on factors other than active political participation.
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Active Citizenship