Page 7 - Šolsko polje, XXX, 2019, št. 5-6: Civic, citizenship and rhetorical education in a rapidly changing world, eds. Janja Žmavc and Plamen Mirazchiyski
P. 7
Civic, citizenship and rhetorical education
in a rapidly changing world
Janja Žmavc
Plamen Mirazchiyski
Today’s youth are tomorrow’s future. A truism, which is quite of-
ten used in different context, including education. Besides being
well educated in core subjects, we expect that the youth of tomor-
row’s future will also be informed and knowledgeable citizens, critical and
active participants in social and political processes that understand and
master principles of persuasive language use. Undoubtedly, civic, citizen-
ship education and rhetoric – if we summarize the above description with
these notions – are highly interrelated topics that permeate modern edu-
cation in terms of its aims and goals. This is the reason why we decided to
draw up a joint issue and point out some features of the contemporary de-
velopment of civics, citizenship and rhetoric as independent education-
al topics as well as their pedagogies, and in particular, to highlight close
conceptual and historical links between the fields, which should be kept
in mind when we develop curricula, educational programs, specific sub-
jects with goals such as “knowledgeable citizens”, “critical thinkers”, “ac-
tive participants”.
Although the goals of civic and citizenship education seem to be
more or less consistent, the content and organization take a variety of
forms in different subjects across the countries around the world. Besides
its variety, in the last decades some serious challenges have been faced: (1)
social and political issues are not pertinent to particular countries only,
but have international reverberations; (2) the countries and the entire
world are not static, but change rapidly; and (3) the mass migration of
people.
5
in a rapidly changing world
Janja Žmavc
Plamen Mirazchiyski
Today’s youth are tomorrow’s future. A truism, which is quite of-
ten used in different context, including education. Besides being
well educated in core subjects, we expect that the youth of tomor-
row’s future will also be informed and knowledgeable citizens, critical and
active participants in social and political processes that understand and
master principles of persuasive language use. Undoubtedly, civic, citizen-
ship education and rhetoric – if we summarize the above description with
these notions – are highly interrelated topics that permeate modern edu-
cation in terms of its aims and goals. This is the reason why we decided to
draw up a joint issue and point out some features of the contemporary de-
velopment of civics, citizenship and rhetoric as independent education-
al topics as well as their pedagogies, and in particular, to highlight close
conceptual and historical links between the fields, which should be kept
in mind when we develop curricula, educational programs, specific sub-
jects with goals such as “knowledgeable citizens”, “critical thinkers”, “ac-
tive participants”.
Although the goals of civic and citizenship education seem to be
more or less consistent, the content and organization take a variety of
forms in different subjects across the countries around the world. Besides
its variety, in the last decades some serious challenges have been faced: (1)
social and political issues are not pertinent to particular countries only,
but have international reverberations; (2) the countries and the entire
world are not static, but change rapidly; and (3) the mass migration of
people.
5
