The implementation of education for citizenship in Scotland: recommendation of approaches for effective practice

Abstract

This article reviews how education for citizenship could be implemented and practised in Scottish primary schools at whole school, classroom and community level within the context of the new Curriculum for Excellence. It draws upon the advice and information given in existing key literature to provide an overview of the approaches that develop effective practice in education for citizenship. It then analyses and compares the underlying theories that seem to underpin the approaches to citizenship education of the 5—14 Curriculum and the new Curriculum for Excellence. The article concludes by acknowledging that implementing the recommended approaches of education for citizenship in key literature will lead schools into following and achieving the aspirations of the new Curriculum for Excellence but that it will require a change in teachers' thinking and practice as the underlying theories between the 5—14 guidelines and the new Curriculum for Excellence seem to have shifted.