Orit Ichilov: Abstract for Creating Citizenship Conference

Preparing the younger generation for the citizenship role is a great challenge in our rapidly changing world. "Citizenship" has been closely associated with the ideas of liberal democracy, nationalism, and nation-states. However, paramount political, technological, economic and cultural changes that have taken place all over the globe in recent years, may profoundly change the reality of citizenship and transform its very essence as a form of affinity and collective identity. This may have implications for citizenship education as well.

Such processes of change include, for example, the powerful pressures towards the fragmentation of large political unity, regional autonomy, localism and nationalism. Simultaneously, there is a strive for economic and political globalism and unification. Many Western democracies have witnessed growing cultural and ethnic heterogeneity, which may render obsolete the concept of a nationally homogeneous state, i.e., the nation-state. Postmodernity advocates changes which raise many concerns with regard to the future and nature of citizenship in the postmodern society. For example, how are society, politics and morality possible when we accept partiality, relativity, uncertainty, the absence of foundations, incommensurability, pluralism, fragmentation and poly-culturalism?

Citizenship education should provide a sense of purpose, solidarity and guidance. It should also promote global awareness, and the acquisition of political literacy. Limited to the inculcation of traditional patriotism or conventional nationalist ideology citizenship education is insufficient in a highly interdependent and changing world. Political socialization research, which has been carried out primarily within Western societies and fairly stable political settings, provide only limited guidance in this respect. There is a tendency today to shift from a narrow to a broader definition of political education, and to engage students in more active involvement. Innovative approaches to citizenship education, or to various aspects of it include, for example, "moral education", "political literacy", "education for conflict resolution", "multicultural education", "character education", "education for critical thinking", and the "just community approach".