The article elaborates on some important trends and discussions in citizenship education. Among scientific scholars there seem to be strong voices that oppose the teaching of only formal facts and democratic procedures as part of a focus on citizenship education. Such an approach is also criticized by students, for being meaninglessness and irrelevance. Further, there seems to be some degree of agreement that democracies are being challenged for various reasons, that schools have an important role both in citizenship education and in supporting republicanism, and that students construct their own view of the world (constructivist learning processes). However, as quite a few democracies fail to live up to their ideal of power sharing and only provide the minimum of welfare and support for their citizens, an important dilemma is that education for democracy may also support such “democratic” regimes.
In addition, there are other important dilemmas and related disagreements concerning citizenship education. One dilemma is whether children or adolescents should be regarded as either citizens or citizens in the “making”. A second dilemma concerns the content of knowledge, and is a question of facts versus literacy. Third, there are debates about the best critical approaches to teaching in class. A fourth dilemma relates to the question of whose knowledge may be presented in classrooms. Fifth, there is a dilemma concerning social education versus political education. A sixth dilemma may be characterized as the multicultural dilemma of integration versus assimilation. All of the aforementioned dilemmas and more are touched upon in the article. In particular, the dilemma of the critical approach and what is regarded as important knowledge for citizens to acquire, and is a matter of critical concern. These and other dilemmas are discussed with respect to implications for research.
