Skills, rights and civic democracy: Citizenship education between equity, equal opportunities and learning

Abstract

Education is often described as a place where civic and citizenship competences are considered central to curricular pathways at all school levels, as well as an indicator of equity and social justice, including in relation to equal opportunities and literacy processes. The contribution focuses on the importance of preparing teachers to interpret educational processes in terms of cultural rights, active citizenship and democratic culture. Indeed, teachers play a central role in building literacy competences, including through specific programmes. Citizenship competences can also act transversally as connectors between different kinds of competences in order to strengthen the internal coherence of teacher and learner training pathways. The contribution considers civic and citizenship competences with reference to the value they hold in the definition of the cultural profiles of the school population and in the cultural framework outlined by the European Union, which is concerned with promoting them, also starting from the changes that have taken place in the process of cultural democratisation that has involved the school system.

Keywords

• Education
• Citizenship skills
• Civic skills
• Equality of opportunities
• Cultural democratization