CASOS CLÍNICOS

Citizenship education is about civic knowledge, skills, and values. In a school context, according to Homana, Barber and Torney-Purta (2006:1), citizenship education is an opportunity provided by schools to engage learners in meaningful learning experiences such as debates, role play, classroom deliberations, mock trials and other active teaching strategies to assist their growth as politically and socially accountable individuals. The concept of citizenship education emerged in Greece during the Archaic Age (776-479 BC) and has been a persistent human social need. It later flourished in the following classical age during which time it was the subject of some distinguished thinking (Heater, 2004).

In the period of the Greek and the Roman civilisations citizenship was adopted as a legal term and an expression of social standing (Hearter, 1999). During the two-and-half millinia from the emergence of the Greek city state the concept went through a vigorous process of invention and definition, re-invention and redefinition in five distinct contexts (Heater, 1999). This is most probably because different states conceptualised citizenship differently as it applied to their respective contexts. In this era, the Greek city states, the Roman Republic and Empire, the

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Medieval and Renaissance City, the nation state and the idea of the cosmopolis each constructed its individual version of the concept. For this reason to present day citizenship and citizenship education are both contextual as different states have different goals concerning the type of citizens they want to produce. It thus means that the ideals cherished, the subject matter and pedagogical issues will always differ from one country to the other.

Heater (1999) expounds that re-invention and change on citizenship perception was propelled by forces such as political needs of participation and loyalty. There were also philosophical, military and economic forces. The philosophical forces were based on the notion of popular sovereignty which assumes that the existence of power by any individual or group of individuals is legitimate only if endorsed by the populace. Resultantly, citizenship emerged as a means of institutionalising this believe. The explanation from the economic point of view for the emergence of citizenship was due to the fact that in the early phases only the economically privileged classes held the status in the society. It was this stratum of society which had full and better access to citizenship privileges. The military explanation on the other hand assumed that citizens were those who bore arms in defense of their city. This was based on the fact that the Greek polis or city state was originally defensive in purpose (Heater, 1999). Citizenship therefore emerged when the economic and military points of view matched with the political abolition and monarchical power.

Based on the above argument that the emergence of citizenship was propelled by the need for participation and loyalty on the side of citizens, citizenship is applicable in today’s society in that it can be used to re-enforce the fundamental principles of the nation. Simply put, citizenship can be used as a strategy to emphasize fundamental ideals cherished by a particular country. For instance, Botswana bases all its initiatives on the five principles of democracy, unity, self- reliance, development and botho (a well-rounded person). To further these ideals better, school curriculum could house elements on these principles and spread them. Cecchim (2003) agrees that citizenship education equips men and women to play an active part in public life and further to shape their destiny and that of the society. For this reason citizens can be regarded as people with legal rights who should have a say in the affairs of their nation within which their wellbeing is found. The argument advanced is that people who live in a community have a status which is

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conferred on them by the state. This status is conferred on the citizen by the state in order for the state to be able to shape the society as it wants.

Based on the above argument that citizenship is a form of one’s status in society, the main question at this juncture is, what does it mean to be a good citizen? According to White (2000), citizenship is guided by certain laws that one declared as a good citizen should obey. These laws include the law of (White, 2000):

 self-control which includes temper, tongue, thought and actions;

 good health; cleanliness, sleep, exercise and food;

 kindness in speech, acts and thought;

 sportsmanship which includes fair play and being honourable;

 self-reliance;

 duty which includes commitment to “I will not avoid my work”;

 reliability;

 truth;

 good workmanship;

 good teamwork; and

 Loyalty which covers one’s family, school and country.

These laws reveal the virtues that citizens have to portray in their daily activities. These therefore place a huge burden on the Social Studies education programme in Botswana to scrutinize the curriculum and classroom practices with a view to align them to the production of school leavers with conformity to the laws. It is on this premise that the current study is carried out to investigate the responsiveness of the Social Studies teacher training curriculum towards democratic citizenship education in Botswana. The researcher believes that the starting point in the move towards the development and implementation of a well-designed democratic citizenship education programme is effective and relevant teacher training. Additionally, since teachers are key-holder in the education process, their effective and thorough training needs no overemphasis.

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The next part is on the social imperatives of citizenship education which aims to further validate the study and the need for citizenship education.