Careful readers of educational policy, and especially those with an interest in Civics and Citizenship Education will have noted that the recent version of the Australian Goals for Schooling – the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration – has a number of significant changes from its predecessor, the Melbourne Declaration. One of the most overlooked, as far as I can tell, but also one of the most significant, is the changing to the goals of schooling – from the developing of ‘active and informed citizens’ to ‘active and informed members of the community’.
I think this change is important, because it appears to signal a movement away from the limited definitions of citizenship as a relationship between the state and the individual, and perhaps starting to embrace a definition that is more inclusive. This is something that a colleague of mine from James Cook University, Bryan Smith, has often remarked upon: what’s the meaning of civics and citizenship education for those in our classroom who, for one reason or another, may not be citizens? This resonates with my own concerns, too, about the limited nature of the definition itself. Traditionally, it has denoted a political-legal relationship, but this narrowed definition has recently been broadened with notions like ‘environmental citizenship’, ‘consumer citizenship’, and of course ‘active citizenship’. This is, I think, an attempt to escape the limited strictures and encompass a more holistic definition, which might include issues related to social justice and activism, as well as respect for democracy, other cultures and so on – akin to the ‘global citizenship’ that the United Nations, amongst others, have been promoting.
But back to the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Declaration: changing to active and informed members of the community is, I think, a bold move. It could be taken to suggest a more global meaning of ‘citizenship’; that is, one that is based on our shared humanity rather than our belong to a nation or not. This is important for our classrooms too, where teachers are likely to work with young people who may very well not be – for a myriad of reasons – Australian citizens. This more inclusive commentary ensures that they still are able to be both informed and active, and not excluded from these actions and discussions.