The policy shift towards citizenship education in Flanders. How can it be explained?

ABSTRACT

In 2018 the Flemish Government agreed to introduce citizenship education for all students in secondary schools. This is new, since Flanders does not have an elaborated tradition of citizenship education. After a presentation of the political genealogy and the content of the new educational goals, the article analyses which theoretical framework can be used to explain this policy shift in Flanders. Conventional theories such as ‘interest groups’ and ‘rational choice’ do not serve the purpose. We argue that the policy transformation can better be explained by a combination of both the ‘path dependent explanation’ and ‘the paradigm creates politics approach’. While the paradigm shift has certainly played a big role, it does not offer the full explanation why Flanders formulated official learning goals for citizenship education. The path-way change has been initiated by a small reference in a parliamentary document to a European text in an early stage of the overall reform process of the educational goals in Flanders.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum reform
• citizenship education
• Flanders
• educational goals
• paradigm
• Europe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. About the increasing place of European citizenship in the education policy of the European member states: see (Keating, 2014).

2. Organized by the Gülen movement inspired by the Turkish theologian Fethullah Gülen.

3. Facts and figures: https://onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/nl/onderwijsstatistieken (accessed 19–05-2020)

4. From the beginning, the freedom of education has been an important good in Belgium (Witte et al., 2009). At the time of independence this was a major issue over which Belgian Catholics and liberals united with each other against the policy of the protestant Dutch King William I. Since 1831, the Belgian Constitution thus states that education is free (then Article 17, current Article 24). This means, among other things, that it is possible to establish a school inspired by a certain worldview, philosophy or pedagogy and still have it be subsidized by the government.

5. http://eindtermen.vlaanderen.be/publicaties/voet/voet2010.pdf (accessed 19–05-2020)

6. Stuk 1364 (2017–2018)—Nr. 13, Decree of 17 January 2018 amending the basic education decree of 25 February 1997 and the Codex Secondary Education, with regard to educational objectives, and amending the Decrees on the Legal Status of Teaching Staff. http://docs.vlaamsparlement.be/pfile?id=1361109 (accessed 19–05-2020)

7. The educational goals for the second and third stage of secondary education are given content within the same seven building blocks.

8. https://www.onderwijsdoelen.be/(accessed 19–05-2020)

9. In the GO! Memorandum for the elections of 26 May 2019 it was stated (p. 12) that it is in favour of halving the hours of religious education and non-confessional ethics: one hour of religion/ethics instead of the current two hours, with the second hour allocated to citizenship, increasing general citizenship education to two hours—as happened previously in French-speaking Belgium. https://pro.g-o.be/blog/Documents/GO-memorandum2019-2024.pdf (accessed 19–05-2020)

10. https://llinkid.katholiekonderwijs.vlaanderen/#!/leerplan/e14ea44a-4d5c-4763-a1c4-f19316ba5c68/doelenlijst (accessed 19–05-2020)

11. https://www.katholiekonderwijs.vlaanderen/secundair/modernisering-so-2018/mens-samenleving (accessed 19–05-2020)

12. Meanwhile the Flemish government decided in 2020 that they will no longer participate in ICCS research.

13. E.g., Lieven Boeve, the director-general of the Catholic school network, in this article of 29 August 2017 in the newspaper De Morgen: https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/getouwtrek-over-de-eindtermen-in-het-onderwijs~b4ab4a27/

14. More about the Catholic Dialogue School: (Boeve, 2019; Pollefeyt & Bouwens, 2013).

15. See also https://pro.g-o.be/blog/Documents/LEERLIJN%20ACTIEF%20BURGERSCHAP%2027062018.pdf (accessed 19–05-2020)

16. https://www.g-o.be/actief-burgerschap/(accessed 19–05-2020)

17. Available at https://pro.g-o.be/blog/Documents/Toolkit%20MM.pdf (accessed 19–05-2020)

18. This is the website of the interreligious competencies: https://www.levensbeschouwelijkevakken.be/interlevensbeschouwelijke-competenties/(accessed 19–05-2020).

19. The French-speaking Community has already made a change there by reducing the hours for religious education and non-confessional ethics from two to one (in 2016 for primary schools and in 2017 for secondary schools). The other hour is used for a course ‘Philosophy and Citizenship’ (Cours de philosophie et de citoyenneté) with official learning goals. Pupils with an exemption for religious education and non-confessional ethics have two hours Philosophy and Citizenship instead (cf. Delgrange, 2018).

20. For France: Eduscol. (2019). Prévenir la radicalization en milieu scolaire—Prévention de la radicalization—Éduscol. [online] Available at: https://eduscol.education.fr/cid100811/prevention-radicalization.html (Accessed 19–05-2020)

21. https://netwerkislamexperten.be/(Accessed 19–05-2020)

22. E.g. the speech on March 7 2016 by the Minister-President of Flanders Geert Bourgeois at the Catholic University of Leuven, wherein he argued for learning goals for citizenship education in Flanders. https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/integraal-de-constitutionele-agenda-van-geert-bourgeois/article-longread-675235.html (Accessed 19–05-2020)

23. Council recommendation of 22 May 2018 on promoting common values, inclusive education, and the European dimension of teaching. OJ C 195, 7.6.2018, p. 1–5.

24. Commission Decision of 27 July 2017 setting up the High-Level Commission Expert Group on radicalization. OJ C 252, 3.8.2017, p. 3.

25. Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning. OJ L 394, 30.12.2006, p. 10–18.

For the updated version: Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on key competences for lifelong learning, OJ C 189, 4.6.2018, p. 1–13.

26. Nota van de Vlaamse Regering. Masterplan Hervorming Secundair Onderwijs. Ingediend door de heer Pascal Smet, Vlaams minister van Onderwijs, Jeugd, Gelijke Kansen en Brussel. Stuk 2111 (2012–2013)—Nr. 1, ingediend op 5 juni 2013. http://docs.vlaamsparlement.be/pfile?id=1039084

27. In the final Decree of 2018, the eight European key competences were restructured in sixteen key competences (cf. supra). In the eight European competences, for instance, the legal competences and the competences related to historical consciousness and sustainability were implicit part of the citizenship competences. The Flemish parliament made these competencies more explicit.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Patrick Loobuyck

Patrick Loobuyck (°1974) is full professor in religion and political philosophy at the Centre Pieter Gillis and the Centre for Ethics of the University of Antwerp. He is also guest professor at the department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University. His research focuses on political liberalism and public reason, religion in the public sphere, religious and citizenship education, multiculturalism, interculturalism and liberal nationalism.