In the face of the rising tension between Hong Kong and mainland China, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam blamed the city's education system for its inability to develop a sense of 'I am Chinese' national identity and vowed to step up 'national education' from preschool. This article explores how 188 young preschool teachers perceived their…

Interest in improving civic education is growing, but there's no clear definition of what civic education should be. To understand what kinds of skills civics education should promote in students, Jack Schneider, Eric Soto-Shed, and Karalyn McGovern surveyed 100 experts and 500 ordinary citizens, asking them to name the tasks that skilled citizens…

The 2018 anti-Trump protest in London is dominated by an effigy, in the form of a balloon, that morphs President Donald Trump and childhood. Whilst this can be interpreted as a humorous act to ridicule Trump, a critical reading of the scene through a postmodern lens suggests that the image is an appropriation and manipulation of childhood. Trump…

In addition to its influences across economic, geopolitical, and social spheres, globalization has given rise to the notion of a 'global citizen' who is able to understand a shifting and more internationalized world while moving fluidly through it. Education has been trumpeted as the means to achieve this globally-aware citizenry, leading to an…

This study aims to investigate the effects of early childhood Children's Rights and Democracy Education on children's democratic behaviors. The study group consisted of a total of 53 children (28 experimental, 25 control) aged between 60-72 months, who were attending two kindergartens affiliated with the Directorate of National Education in…

Children's citizenship in early childhood education and care is the root of democracy, equity, and sustainability. In Aotearoa New Zealand, "Te Whariki" has a strong aspiration for children as competent and active citizens. Early childhood settings are sites where children may have opportunities to act as powerful citizens. Employing…

This book anchors the social studies as the central unifying force for young children. Teachers use the inquiry process to foster child development of social skills and citizenship ideals in their first classroom experiences. Curriculum is built starting with children's natural curiosity to foster literacy in all its form--speaking, listening,…

Various studies point out that, in the school digital sphere, the same inequalities are (re)produced as in offline spaces. Given this reality, the article explains the results of an action research project for the building of active digital citizenship, which seeks to overcome these gaps through a democratic digital perspective. The field work was…

The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the processes of a Youth-led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) citizenship education project by examining a 2-year intervention that involved 43 Italian high school students. We collected qualitative data (focus groups with students and interviews with teachers) to capture participants'…

Effective Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) benefit from three interrelated dimensions of learning identified by UNESCO: cognitive, social-emotional and behavioural. The latter two of these are especially relevant to mindful compassion pedagogies, and the purpose of the literature review presented…

This paper reports on a praxeological investigation concerned with what conditions facilitate (or not) compassion in the daily life of one Pre-School community in England. With increasing concern for planetary well-being, it was conducted in context of compassion's global relevance to the pressing need for increased focus on well-being,…

This paper shares a participatory action research study conducted by a team of researchers at a university laboratory school in collaboration with three classroom teachers and 60 preschoolers. The team engaged in this research in order to examine the ways in which school personnel could generate more authentic community service experiences with,…

In the Nordic countries, there is a culturally rooted understanding of nature as a 'good' place for children. The aim of the article is to deconstruct this understanding by exploring how different mobile preschools -- buses that bring children to different places on a daily basis -- relate to nature spaces and children's learning and well-being in…

Background: For education to be underpinned deeply by the principles of inclusion and interculturality, there is a need for school to be reconceptualised as an institution which is strongly linked to its territory and capable of being an agent of social change. As part of a wider project exploring processes of democratic participation for social…

This article explores conflicts among toddlers in kindergarten and the impact of toys in these conflicts. The author describes these interactions as part of how children develop and express their citizenship, and argues that staff members should hesitate before interfering with rules in order to prevent such conflicts. This is based on Mouffe's…