Civic Education Versus Citizenship Education: Where is the Point of Convergence?

Abstract

Defining Civic Education and Citizenship Education is rather problematic especially to the practitioners and researchers in the field of Civic Education. Based on anecdotal evidence, the practitioners and researchers in the field of Civic Education, tend to view them as one and at times they apply them interchangeably. It is important to state note that the two terminologies are not the same as they carry different meanings. Admittedly, they can be used interchangeably depending on the context upon which one wants to use them, provided the point of convergence is created or attained. Otherwise, by any stretch of the imagination, there is need to examine the daily application of the two concepts and arrive at the correct point of convergence. In other instances, it would be counterfactual for one to try and use them under the guise of implying Civic Education to mean Citizenship Education or the other way round. No wonder Muleya (2017b:125-148) argues that contemporary conceptions and assumptions of Civic Education and Citizenship Education tends to reflect some level of ambiguity in the manner the two concepts are taken or viewed. Therefore, in this article the author wants to demonstrate that Civic Education and Citizenship Education though have a point of convergence might in fact not mean one and the same thing. In this article, the author distinguishes between Civic Education in its broadest definition and Citizenship Education in its implicit position of belonging to a particular discipline in schools. It is this implicit and broadest position between the two concepts that tend to create confusions among the practitioners and researchers in the field on how they apply them in formal and non formal learning settings. The author is aware that such a distinction is not easy to sustain because the two concepts are always driven by the ideological strands which might not be addressed in this particular article. What characterises Civic Education and Citizenship Education is an issue of particular interest in this article. The distinction between Civic Education and Citizenship Education allows the author to show the shifts as well as the points of convergence between the two concepts. Before discussing the characteristics of the two concepts, the author intends to address the definitions associated with these two concepts. The author noted that in this article, he intends to clarifications on the similarities and differences between Civic Education and Citizenship Education. The reason for this is simply meant to bring out the useful points of convergence between two concepts.