Heterotopian cosmopolitan citizenship education?

Garratt, Dean and Piper, Heather (2010) Heterotopian cosmopolitan citizenship education? Citizenship and Social Justice, 5 (1). pp. 43-55. ISSN 1746-1987

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Abstract

This article examines the on-going saga of citizenship education in the UK against a backdrop of conceptual confusions and contradictions around the question of what it means to share a civic identity. Noting calls to grasp the social and political realities of an emerging cosmopolitanism, and move towards a more identity-based conception of citizenship, the article questions whether in fact nationhood is a socially just concept worthy of pursuit? It suggests that the teaching of citizenship in schools is perhaps the wrong place to start, and that this is likely at best to lead to confusion, and at worst perpetuate binary and/or discriminatory thinking. In the absence of a realignment and reprioritization of teacher education, it seems unlikely that most teachers will be au fait with the complexity surrounding concepts such as identity, nationhood, and citizenship, and consequently pupils are likely to experience relatively crude and simplistic coverage of the topic.