Citizenship education in post-conflict contexts

Periodical
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice
Volume
7
Year
2012
Issue number
1
Page range
33–57
Relates to study/studies
ICCS 2009

Citizenship education in post-conflict contexts

A review of the literature

Abstract

In recent years, citizenship education has been the subject of much international attention, including two major cross-national studies. However, few reviews of civic education scholarship include research from post-conflict societies. This omission is notable because post-conflict situations offer distinct challenges to instilling both democratic norms and a sense of social cohesion to ensure democracy and social justice in the future. This paper seeks to address this need, providing a review of research on citizenship education in post-conflict contexts published in English-language journals in order to delineate similarities and differences across such contexts. Findings common to many studies on citizenship education in post-conflict countries include the avoidance of controversial issues, the unique role of ethnicity, a lack of trust in political parties and authoritarianism. Some studies also reported a movement towards global or regional identities and student desire for active citizenship education.