Nationalizing the post‐national: reframing European citizenship for the civics curriculum in Ireland

Abstract

The EU and other European institutions have launched a wide range of educational initiatives over the past 50 years in order to foster European citizenship and bring Europe ‘closer to the people’. However, the efficacy of these efforts is questionable. In the EU, education policy (and in particular, curriculum policy) is governed by subsidiarity: citizenship education curricula are designed at the national level, with limited input from European institutions. This paper examines whether European citizenship education initiatives have impact upon national‐level curricula and, moreover, how the concept of European citizenship has been defined and constructed in national citizenship education programmes. These questions are explored here using qualitative, socio‐historical methods through a case study of curricular reform in the Republic of Ireland. This case illustrates that there has been a gradual deepening and broadening of the way in which European citizenship is conceptualized in the Irish curriculum. However, this remains a narrow conception of European citizenship, and one which ultimately limits both the impact on national citizenship and the prospects of European citizenship.

Keywords:

• citizenship education
• education policy
• European citizenship
• Ireland

Acknowledgements

This research was sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, UK. I would like to thank Madeleine Arnot, Gerard Delanty, and Jacky Brine for their insightful comments along the way.

Notes

1. Citizenship education is still a nebulous term that can encompasses (or be conflated with) civics or civic education, social studies, political education, and even history education (Kerr 1999: 2). Here civic and citizenship education are used interchangeably, as in the case under review (Ireland), citizenship education is delivered through subject curricula that are entitled ‘Civics education’ or, more recently, ‘Civic, social and political education’.

2. However, the EU recently devised a set of indicators for measuring citizenship education competences and outcomes at the individual level (Hoskins et al. 2008).

3. For an overview of Soysal’s project parameters, see Soysal (2002).

4. Alternatively, one can differentiate between minimal and maximal approaches to civic education (see McLaughlin 1992).

5. While I was able to collect and analyse all publically available documents for this study, access to internal documents and informal political texts (such as political speeches) was more fortuitous and limited. The sample (and indeed the records kept by officials) of these document types, therefore, cannot be considered complete or exhaustive.

6. See Hyland (1992) on the impact of European developments on the Irish education system in the 19^th century.

7. Hyland (1993: 2–3) suggests that the Department of Education had an ambivalent attitude towards the methodology and approach espoused by the Notes, and the guidelines do not appear to have been widely circulated, much less implemented.

8. In an effort to revive the subject, draft proposals were produced in 1987 for a new subject entitled ‘Social, political and environmental education’ (SPEE) (CEB 1987). However, these proposals were hampered by political upheaval, a lack of political will and financial resources, and a persistent ambivalence and sensitivity about political education (Hyland 1993: 4–5).

9. In Ireland, 2^nd‐level education is sub‐divided into two cycles: the Junior Cycle, a 3‐year programme of compulsory education culminating in a state examination and certification; and the Senior Cycle, a 2–3‐year programme that is not compulsory but widely taken up. The Senior Cycle also culminates in examination and certification, but, in recent years, this level has been reformed to include a wider range of educational options and certificates.

10. For example, in course descriptions for Unit 3 (The State–Ireland) and the teaching guidelines action projects on democracy (Department of Education 1996, 2005).

11. This technique first featured in the exemplar materials that were produced in the 1990s to assist teachers. It has since been replicated in many of the CSPE textbooks.