What Competencies Should Be Developed in Citizenship Education in the Twenty-First Century? Analysis of Being Active Citizens in Europe and the US

In this paper we aim to discuss citizenship education along with the reflex and implications of the process in the people’s concept of citizenship. We reflect on and discuss citizenship education demand to clarify the notion of citizenship and the differences between this and civic education. Citizenship education is more global than civic education, because citizenship is constitutive of human identity development. Citizenship education in the twenty-first century requires an educational process to promote competencies development so that citizens are capable of acting with autonomy and conscientiousness in society. In fact, it is important that the educational process enable citizens to think critically about their duties and about laws in order to promote good social welfare. Beyond the political dimension, the social conjuncture of this millennium requires that citizenships also assume an ethical stance. Thus, it is important to understand how some European powers—Germany, Finland, France—as well as the United States conceive of being a good citizen.