Citizenship education

More and more people feel that they cannot leave their lives to be governed by democratic institutions alone. They want to take charge themselves, be involved and have a say in their community - in short, live their lives as active citizens. Citizenship, however, is not a given. Like most things, it needs to be learned, and citizenship education aims to facilitate just that. For students, citizenship education means more than merely learning about citizenship and democracy. Citizenship education means learning through practicing citizenship inside and outside the school. One model for that is service learning, first conceived in North America but now also taking root in other parts of the world. Service learning combines service and learning by linking community service and reflection about it in class. The present volume grounds citizenship education theoretically, presents empirical research about its long-term effects and gives examples of how it works in practice. Contributions by John Annette, Monika Buhl, Martina Diedrich, Schima Hassan-Beik, Andrew Furco, Gerhard Himmelmann, Manfred Hofer, Klaus Koopmann, Hans Peter Kuhn, Elena Marta, Bruce Maxwell, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Peter Noack, Hans Oswald, John Potter, Maura Pozzi, Roland Reichenbach, Christina Saß, Anne Sliwka, Heinz Reinders, James Youniss.