Citizenship - AWay of Being in One’s World and of One’s World - Introduction

Oct 15, 2026

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Explores global dimensions of citizenship through education, using literature to reveal the humanity and everyday concerns of people who may feel culturally and socially distant. Outlines three principles: awareness supports a stronger civil society, silenced voices must be included, and ethical public discussion is central. Defines active citizenship as participation, appreciation of difference, and social cohesion, linking local actions to global forces, while detailing course design and student context.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

What is meant by citizenship?

Creating Citizenship through Education

Who were the students?

How We Constructed the Learning Experience

Citizenship: AWay of Being in One’s World and of One’s World Anne Ryan and Helen Fallon Introduction This article explores the global dimensions of citizenship. Byway of contextualising the discussion, the authors describe a component of a course that was designed to introduce students to the lives of people they may otherwise never have had an opportunity to encounter. Our challenge, as we saw it, was to reveal the humanity, individuality and ordinariness of these ‘strangers’. The purpose was to gain an insight into the perspectives and values of those who differ from us in signiﬁcant ways so that we can empathise with them and better appreciate the varied cultural, social and economic contexts that shape the world we all share. We used literature as the means to gain easy access to a range of diverse cultural perspectives. In particular, we selected novels by African women writers. The focus was on what the stories revealed about the everyday joysand cares of the characters rather than on the literary merit of the novels. Three fundamental principles permeate our approach to citizenship. The ﬁrstis a belief that awareness and understanding are vital to build a strong civil society because they counter the forces that alienate or disconnect people from each other. The second is that those whose ‘voices’ have been silenced cannot participate in their society and their exclusion impoverishes the community asa whole. The third is that the primary purpose of a strong civil society is not to ﬁll gaps in the state’s provision of services but rather it is to ensure that a multitude of arenas exist where important ethical as well as practical issues can be discussed with a view to creating informed public opinion. What is meant by citizenship? This year, 2005, has been declared the ‘European Year of Citizenship through Education’. Documents1 produced as guides to support educators in their efforts to promote citizenship make it clear that citizenship refers to more thana legal status; being an active citizen entails a level of continuous and meaningful engagement in the public sphere. The ways in which people relate to eachother determine the quality of this engagement. The active citizen is generally described as one who has: the opportunity and capacity to participate in shaping the society in which s/he lives; an ability to appreciate difference; and a desire to promote social cohesion. Although the emphasis is on involvement in the local community, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the local and the global are intrinsically linked. Being active atthe local level calls for an appreciation of the economic and social forces that can be felt locally but have their origin in distant places. Similarly, decisions taken locally impact elsewhere. Appreciating the complexities of problems such as environmental degradation, conﬂict, natural disasters and the movement of refugees, requires a global perspective. Therefore, in order for citizens to have the capacity to participate in shaping their local community they need to understand the links that connect peoples and places well beyond their locality and national borders. Creating Citizenship through Education Education has been designated asthe medium to promote citizenship. Like citizenship, education conveys a sense of on-going process rather than a ﬁxed position. Latin scholars tell us that ‘educare’ means ‘to lead out gently’. It is less about learning new information and more about revealing what we already know. This deﬁnition sits well with the radical adult education approach that informs the course under review here. It implies (i) making space for those voices that are not usually heard and at the same time (ii) undermining the conventional and unconscious discourses that shape our ways of thinking and everyday behaviours. In a Freirean (1972) sense the goal is to become reﬂective, to become an observer of our own behaviour so that we can probe the mean

FAQs

How does the article define citizenship beyond legal status?

Citizenship refers to continuous, meaningful engagement in the public sphere, where the way people relate to each other shapes that engagement.

What are the three fundamental principles behind the authors’ approach?

Awareness and understanding strengthen civil society; silenced voices require inclusion because exclusion impoverishes the community; and strong civil society enables arenas for ethical and practical public discussion.

Why did the course use literature, and what kinds of works were selected?

Literature provided access to diverse cultural perspectives, especially selected novels by African women writers, focusing on everyday joys and cares rather than solely on literary merit.

Oct 15, 2026

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