Features

Positive Relationships: All about ... Citizenship

Best practice at early years settings that are treating young children as citizens now, with rights, responsibilities and community participation, is highlighted by Pat Gordon-Smith.

What does it mean to be a citizen? It's a term which really ought to be obvious, but it's a slippery concept. At one level, a citizen is 'a legally recognised subject of a nation state' - that's what it says in the Compact Oxford English Dictionary - but it's not a very satisfying definition. We expect rather more.

'In a democracy,' says David Archard (2004: 98), 'a citizen is someone who participates in the government of their society.' That's an exciting idea. Combine it with the dictionary definition, and it suggests that any legally recognised subject can be involved in the decisions that affect them, no matter who they are.

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