ERIC Number: EJ847703
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1474-9041
EISSN: N/A
What Kind of Citizenship for European Higher Education? Beyond the Competent Active Citizen
Biesta, Gert
European Educational Research Journal, v8 n2 p146-158 2009
How might European higher education contribute to the promotion and development of European citizenship? In this article, the author addresses this question through a critical discussion of the notions of "active citizenship" and "civic competence", which play a central role in current policy and research on the role of education in the development of European citizenship. The author argues that there is a tendency within the idea of "active citizenship" to depoliticise the very idea of citizenship because it is based upon a consensus notion of democracy and a functionalist understanding of citizenship and the formation of citizens. The author also argues that the idea of civic competence reduces civic learning and political education to a form of socialisation which undermines rather than supports political agency. For these reasons, the author argues that European higher education should not aim to become a socialising agent for the production of the competent active citizen but should seek to support modes of political action and civic learning that embody a commitment to a more critical and more political form of European citizenship than what is envisaged in the ideas of "active citizenship" and "civic competence". (Contains 10 notes.)
Descriptors: Higher Education, Citizenship, Democracy, Citizenship Education, Role of Education, Socialization, Individualism, Social Action, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A