Citizen Education Today: Developing Civic Competencies. A Report of the Citizen Education Staff.

Overview & Synopsis

The publication presents the final report of the U.S. Office of Education citizen education project, focusing on major issues relating to the concepts of citizenship and citizen education. The objective is to contribute to a clear delineation of goals, strategies, and needs. The document is divided into five chapters. Chapter I explains the need for citizen education; how the concept of democratic citizenship evolved; and the history, evolution, and core elements and tensions of citizen education in the United States. Chapter II discusses patterns of political learning among American children, adolescents, and adults focusing on both cognitive development and social learning. Chapter III emphasizes the influence of the family and the peer group on children and adolescents and describes a variety of school-based programs in citizen education. Chapter IV discusses selected citizen education activities of the media, voluntary/community groups, business and labor unions, and all levels of the government. The concluding chapter reaffirms the need for citizen education, lists 15 developments occuring within the past five years, and recommends that there be national leadership in this area sustained by a genuine commitment to major improvement. It also recommends nine goals for leadership activities, including reestablishing citizen education as a basic goal of schooling, designing professional training experiences, coordinating school and community resources, and broadening the constituency served by citizen education. (CK)