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Developing Responsible Citizens
by Don Alexander
Graduate School of Education, University of Queensland
Introduction / Developing / Responsible / Citizenship / Purposes of Schooling

Don Alexander is a senior lecturer in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Queensland. He has explored citizenship issues as a teacher, a researcher and an inservice provider over the last 30 years. Most of his citizenship education teaching was as a high school teacher. As a researcher, he wrote a PhD thesis entitled 'From Citizen to Individual', a study of the subject called 'citizenship education' from 1966-1986. As an inservice provider, along with several colleagues, he has recently finished the 'Informed Citizenship Project'. The content of this article was presented as a talk at the 5th national conference of Curriculum Corporation in Brisbane in May 1998.
Introduction
This opportunity is very appropriate for discussing some of the things that have been on my mind for some time. Among these are the purposes of schooling and what I'll call 'worthwhile individuality'. I'll make the case that they go together in much the same way as the words in the title of the seminar go together. Each of the three words in the title deserves a small amount of elaboration and then I would like to link them with the purposes of schooling and the development of worthwhile individuality.
Developing
The word 'developing' suggests a work in progress. It lets us know that something has been started but that it has not been finished. In the case of a boy or girl, they have ten years of compulsory schooling in which to develop according to a set of standards, both explicit and implicit, which they have not had a hand in designing. This makes the notion of developing a bit of a 'mystery tour' for those outside the conventional reproductive cycle. Being white, middle class and male used to be important in determining the legitimacy of this reproductive cycle but much of this is now being challenged by many recent and dynamic influences on Australian society. Multiculturalism, globalisation and economic rationalism are among these influences. Living among many cultures at a time when global capital is disfiguring local commerce and practically all forms of daily involvement are put to the test of either saving on costs or increasing profits must pass on a message about what kinds of developments are needed. Challenges face the young of today which could not have been imagined a decade ago. Developing along what lines and how much deviation will be allowed are questions we must consider in order to make meaning of this seminar task.
Responsible
The word 'responsible' is another word with intriguing possibilities, especially since we are considering school children, most of whom would not be allowed responsibility for most, if any, of the important aspects of their lives. The regulation of the lives of young people in years 1-10 of schooling is pretty close to comprehensive. From the time they get up in the morning until they go to bed at night, most of their activities have been circumscribed by an adult. When regulation drops, quite often the parents or guardians, or the school, may be accused of irresponsibility, the opposite of responsibility, which we are supposed to be developing in young people. Without opportunities to practise responsibility, and this may mean allowing risky choices to be made by children, how is this to be developed?
Citizenship
The final word in the presentation title is 'citizenship', a quite vexatious word because of the demands being put on its meaning by disparately motivated groups of people. Its origin relates to a time when cities were what we now mean by the state. Residency in these city-states evolved to mean citizenship and, with the emergence of nations only a couple of hundred years ago, residency and citizenship were contextualised within the nation. At least, this is true in nations like Australia where the legalistic meaning of citizenship tends to be favoured. The Australian High Court has said that the ability to hold a passport constitutes the major test of citizenship. We may have the Peace of Westphalia to blame, following the Thirty Years War in Europe, for the prominent legalistic notions of citizenship because from this has evolved principles of territoriality, sovereignty, autonomy and legality to govern relationships among countries. The concept of citizen has evolved in conjunction with these developments. That is, citizens have legal status within autonomous, sovereign nations which occupy a designated territory.
In places such as the Basque country of Spain, or the Province of Quebec in Canada, loyalties to the local region are often stronger than those to the nation. There are also strong loyalties attached to languages and religions. While not citizenship in the legal sense, a type of belonging has developed over the years in a way similar to that of shared legal citizenship. Citizenship has rarely been intended as more than a loose affiliation among people who share a common geography and a relatively small number of common rights and responsibilities. Even with such modest ambitions as these, most rights and responsibilities are distributed unequally among the citizens of a country. Rights and responsibilities associated with the legal and political systems, for example, are not in fact evenly allocated, even though in theory this can occur. What I'm trying to say is that citizenship may need to go beyond the traditional, minimalist notions to include many of the lasting and profound associations to which people belong. The meaning evolved from belonging to a city to belonging to a country, so another transition is probably possible, one that embraces more than simply holding a passport or being able to vote in occasional elections. The real problem may lie with the term citizen rather than the sentiment many of us would feel needs a more tangible expression. I will use the term 'worthwhile individuality' while recognising that it too is clumsy and not without its flaws.
Purposes of Schooling
A very prominent social theorist by the name of Ulrick Beck has offered the concept of 'individualisation'. I think what he means by this is that when authority is absent or multiple, one is left to oneself to provide answers to meaningful questions, such as 'How to lead a good life?', 'What should the ethics be in a variety of social situations?', or more simple and basic, 'Am I leading the life I want to lead?' Another prominent social theorist, Jean Baudrillard, in his book Revenge of the Crystal, says something like, 'You may not understand what I say, so make of it what you will'. By this, he seems to be acknowledging the contemporary difficulty with common meanings and shared understanding.
What schooling can do about developing responsible citizens is threefold. It can provide the venue, it can provide the encouragement and it can provide the opportunities. Certainly, the Discovering Democracy project can play a central role in all of these because it has generated networks for influencing practice, funding for professional development in tandem with state and territorial authorities and it has funded curriculum development through the Curriculum Corporation. The ideal outcome from all this is what I would call 'worthwhile individuality'.
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