Educating the new national citizen: education, political subjectivity and divided societies

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which citizenship education is used in an effort to create particular kinds of citizens as part of a larger effort at nation- and polity-building. This paper addresses the purpose of citizenship education and its role in creating political subjectivities for citizens. We argue that policies and programmes often attempt to heal social divisions by fostering a common linkage between citizens and nation, but in ways that may be ineffective, and in some cases, deeply problematic. This argument is developed through a consideration of the ways in which different agents involved in citizenship education use their own experiences to develop and interpret citizenship education programmes. Through this, both the meaning and the teaching of citizenship may be reworked. This conceptual argument is supplemented through a consideration of citizenship education programmes in South Africa.

Keywords:

• citizenship education
• divided societies
• South Africa
• nation-building
• political subjectivity

Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-22-2841). We are grateful for the comments of participants in the workshop, The Pedagogical State: Education, Citizenship, Governing, and to Jessica Pykett and the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance at the Open University for including us in that workshop.

Notes

1. This is an explicit element of some subject-specific teaching guides in post-conflict Bosnia, for example. See Stradling (2003).

2. The USA has its own history of racialised oppression, of course.

3. It should be noted that this is not something Osler and Starkey do, however.

4. It should be noted that Osler and Starkey state that there is no necessary contradiction between fostering a sense of cosmopolitanism and national citizenship.

5. This research is based on national policy documents, interviews with government officials and educators, and classroom observations in five high schools in the Western Cape in February and March, 2009. The schools included a mix of public schools, most of which charged additional fees and one that did not; one independent school was also included. Regardless of revenue streams, all schools follow the national curriculum. This is part of a larger study that will include Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.