Citizenship education is a phenomenological field of study that encapsulates skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, and norms of the society that a human being inhabits.
However, citizenship education plays a significant role in shaping and nurturing the future generation of leaders, as it is automatically set out to awaken the citizen’s consciousness as a bonafide member of a country to which he belongs, thereby making him active as a full-fledged citizen, making him be responsible and takes responsibility, as well as being well informed of the dos and don’ts of the society.
In recent times, researchers have proved that citizenship education can become a powerful tool that when properly used can go a long way in shaping the next generation of leaders.
That is why citizenship education should be prioritized by the government and institutions for students from the
early stage of their lives.
UNDERSTANDING CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
Citizenship education can be defined as the process of teaching the bonafide members of the country as well as the students, their identity, roles, and responsibilities as a member of the country.
It is imperative to take cognizance of the fact that if citizenship education is properly taught, it makes the citizens to be active, responsible, and up and doing as well as bringing their quota to the societal table during decision-making in a democratic state or setting.
Citizenship education prepares a citizen to take part in the decision-making process of
the government.
This is purely evident in a democratic state which advocates the fundamental human rights of the members of the country which paves the way for the citizens to become part of the decision-making body in the government.
In contrast to this assertion, though citizenship education may still thrive in a military government, there is
no doubt that the limitations to practically exercising knowledge freely are marred resulting from the process of governing in a military government because the citizens are ruled through the signing of a ‘decree’ by the Military Head Of State.
By implication, practical citizenship education that is capable of empowering future generations of leaders is best
practiced in a democratic setting.
VARIOUS METHODS OF EFFECTIVE CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION CAN
EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS
There are different methods and mediums through which citizenship education can be effectively taught in such a way that it can empower, incite, and motivate the next generation of leaders.
These methods have been proven through several types of research from different scholars who measured civil affairs on their efficacy in propagating well-mannered, informed, and nurtured future leaders who will be masters in the art of leadership
Some of these methods include:
1. Formal Education: Citizenship education that can effectively empower the next generation of leaders can be achieved through formal education.
Meanwhile, formal education is a systemic structured form of education that is carried out in schools, polytechnics, colleges, and universities.
One attractive feature of this method of unleashing citizenship education is that it is well-planned and organized
in the curricula of the educational system.
Curriculum planners, ranging from the local level to the state level, then to the national level come up with ideas on citizenship education which are added to the school curricula at all levels of education and make sure that it is properly implemented through the curriculum implementers who make sure that the subject teachers are equipped with the contents of the subject, its aims and objectives.
It is worth knowing that awards or degrees are issued by the end of this academic program.
2. Informal Education: Through this medium of informal education, citizenship education can also be taught in such a way that a wider range of young people can be reached and empowered with the necessary skills and knowledge which when they possess will inspire their potentials in becoming competent future leaders that will change the narrative of leadership in our present world.
The next generation of leaders, through informal education, can be empowered with citizenship education
through engagements in community activities such as community youth groups, volunteer opportunities, and discussions during community celebrations.
When youths participate in community services, a little bit of power and authority are entrusted to them which when they exercise them awaken their consciousness in fostering peace and unity in their region of authority.
This helps them to assess and examine their conduct and judge themselves as it is said that ‘leaders lead by
example ‘.
By so doing, they are being inspired to become their best in leadership and transfer such leadership qualities to the next generation that will lead after them.
This way, citizenship education is achieved through informal education as they work among themselves as checks and balances to make sure that decision-making and code of conduct are observed without prejudice.
Citizenship education through informal education can also be carried out through inculcating the elements of citizenship education into community ceremonies. This can be achieved when opportunities are given to the awareness creators to have a moment of civil awareness creation amidst the community ceremony.
This can go a long way in inspiring young people who will become the next generation of leaders.
3. Social Organizations: Another significant method through which citizenship education can be propagated to empower the next generation of leaders is through social organizations. Some of these social organizations are built on the tenets of youth development and responsible citizenship.
They engage in volunteer services like paying the school fees of indigent students who want to aspire higher in their academic pursuits, thereby creating a kind of atmosphere that will breed the next generation of leaders.
These social organizations also recruit unemployed youths who are vulnerable to juvenile delinquencies and engage them in different skill acquisitions which help to stir up their potential to become their dream selves.
After such rigorous exposure to skill acquisition, these young people are equipped with materials to start up their own enterprises.
The Rotary Club is a good example of such a social organization which is made up of a group of people who volunteer to help
their communities and the world at large.
It is important to acknowledge that Rotary clubs are part of Rotary International which has a network of more than 1.4 million membership across the globe.
They aim at producing responsible potential leaders through citizenship education which is evident in skill acquisition and equipment, awarding of scholarships to indigent students, and lots more.
Meanwhile, the Rotary World has its headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, USA with several branches worldwide.
Another example of a social organization is the Lion Club International which is a service-based organization that helps communities in need all over the world.
It is worthy of emphasis that Lion Clubs engage in humanitarian services that attract young people to become profitable in life and become the next generation of leaders.
They conduct workshops and seminars to educate the students and young people on their civil responsibilities and their high potential to become the next generation of good leaders.
The Lion Club has over 46,000 local clubs all over the world that empower students and young people through citizenship education and humanitarian support to become the next generation of leaders.
Through these, citizenship education is achieved as they also undergo several workshops and seminars where they are taught to become responsible citizens who can as well become future leaders.
KEY COMPONENTS OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
There are basic key components of citizenship education that produce well-rounded leaders if given a holistic approach.
These components are not far-fetched as they form the rudiments of citizenship education. Some of these components include:
1. Civic Knowledge: This refers to the citizen’s understanding of how his political system works. It informs the citizens on the basic tenets of government and the circulation of power within the state.
It is under civic knowledge that these young people who would become future leaders learn their responsibilities as citizens and how to take part in the decision-making of their country.
They learn their fundamental human rights which are inherent and natural.
They also learn the rules of law, separation of power, and the supremacy of the constitution. They come to
understand what patriotism is all about and the need for the spirit of nationalism which gives rise to a peaceful democracy.
In fact, civic knowledge prepares the young people who will become future leaders to understand their citizenship and lead a well-balanced civil life.
2. Civic Skills: Citizenship skills are those abilities that allow a citizen to participate effectively in civil affairs. These citizenship skills empower and inspire the next generation of leaders to lead efficiently.
Communication as one of these civic skills enables a citizen to gain competence in the art of speaking, writing and listening. Critical thinking is another important skill in civic skills that prepares the next generation of leaders as it helps them to analyze and evaluate issues around them.
Problem-solving skill which seems to be the heartbeat of the masses helps the citizens to fully identify and address issues that pose problems to the masses. Decision-making is another skill that follows immediately when the problem is
identified.
Decision-making skill enables citizens to make informed decisions in public.
3. Civic Values: Civic values can be viewed as those beliefs and fundamental principles that guide the conduct of a citizen in a democratic state. Such fundamental principles are: honesty, dignity, respect, justice, personal responsibility, equality, and communal service.
Civic values equip potential leaders to pay their taxes regularly and maintain cleanliness. With civic values through citizenship education, students and young people who are potential leaders imbibe civic dispositions
which includes: empathy, critical-mindedness, willingness to negotiate, and listening to
others, etc.
Civic values as one of the key components of citizenship education can go a long way to empower and inspire the next generation of leaders.
HOW CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION DEVELOPS LEADERSHIP SKILLS
What distinguishes a leader from the other is the capacity of leadership he has. The role of citizenship education is to encourage critical thinking and problem-solving strategies.
It helps young and prospective promising leaders to analyze societal issues and make informed decisions. Some of these leadership skills are:
1. Promoting Communication and Collaboration: The ability to communicate ones idea effectively is one of the skills that citizenship education equips students with.
Communication is very essential in every faculty of life. It is very imperative to realize that good communication fosters good collaboration in leadership.
When young people are equipped with good communication skills it brings about a kind of collaboration that helps to inspire the next generation of leaders.
2. Enhancing public speaking, teamwork, and negotiation: Through citizenship education, students learn how to engage in constructive discussions and lead effectively when they are entrusted with leadership positions.
A leader can not suddenly become equipped with such skills if he has not been exposed to such training through citizenship education. The goal of achieving teamwork cannot be realistic if one does not have the skill of public speaking.
This is because it allows others to know what one has in mind and work towards it. Through teamwork, effective negotiation is achieved because teamwork allows members to put their heads together and find solutions to their problems in the best possible way.
3. Cultivating Ethical and Responsible Leadership: Citizenship education enables students to inculcate etiquettes that prepare them for leadership positions in the future. This is achieved as citizenship education teaches integrity and accountability to students.
It helps them to acquire the necessary morals that a good leader should possess. A leader without morals is a tyrant and can never be productive in the act of leadership. That is why citizenship education is also set to
unleashing these etiquettes to students.
It also helps young people to advocate for change in their society. Citizenship education emphasizes these etiquettes as they empower and foster good leadership through accountability and the realization of
social responsibility.
4. Strengthening Democratic Institutions: Citizenship education strengthens young people to take part in democracy and its institutions. In countries where citizenship education is practically evident in practice, wide range of youths take an active part in the democratic processes of such countries.
Thereby, bringing their quota as citizens to the government which helps to improve the civil life of those
countries. Civic empowerment also ensures that future leaders uphold democratic principles as it helps them to lead with integrity and ensure the stability of democratic institutions.
CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
Inasmuch that citizenship education has helped in several quarters over the years in empowering students and young people to become effective leaders in the future, researchers have proven that its effort may be truncated through the following ways:
1. Lack Of Standardized Curricula: Substandard curricula have posed so many problems to the achievement of citizenship education across the globe. Some curriculum planners neglect the fact that citizenship education can inform the kind of leadership that the world will have in the future.
Probably, that is why much attention is not given to the standardization of curricula in such a way that citizenship
education will thrive in our modern world.
2. Political And Ideological Biases: Politics is one of the strongest factors that poses a challenge to the progress of citizenship education. If the government buys the ideology of fostering citizenship education, they can go to the extent of financing it and making laws that will make citizenship education formidable in the country.
Politics can pose a challenge to Civic Empowerment through corruption and abuse of power. They can even restrict some sensitive and controversial information that may expose them.
They can even manipulate facts that should be reached to the citizens without compromise, thereby, altering the accuracy of the education that should be given to the students and young people who are potential leaders.
3. Limited Student Engagement: Interest is very important in every endeavor of life. When young people are not interested in citizenship education, they cannot be forced into it, thereby, posing a challenge to citizenship education. Limited interest can make a student not to have a focus in the context of citizenship education.
This makes even the teachers and organizations that may want to recruit students and young people into citizenship education discouraged from coming up with ideas on how to engage the students.
Overall, the thriving of citizenship education among students and young people revolves around their individual interests.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO THE CHALLENGES OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION
To make citizenship education more productive and effective, some strategies should be put in place to combat the on-ground and potential challenges that have posed problems to citizenship education over the years.
For citizenship education to thrive, educators can incorporate the following measures.
1. Experiential Learning Methods: Giving Civic Empowerment a practical approach can go a long way in solving the problems of citizenship education.
It exposes the students to direct civic activity such as local government participation in community services, engagement in humanitarian activities to their capacities, and volunteering to help the needy world around them.
Applying the theoretical concept of what they have been taught in citizenship education through classroom
teachings, seminars, and workshops, in real-life situations, students and young people can develop a deeper understanding of the issues around them and come up with practical solutions to them.
2. Encouraging Youth Participation In Policymaking: Creating platforms for youths to take part in leadership positions in their society at all levels can help to solve the problem of citizenship education. This makes them to have a sense of responsibility which attracts social responsibilities to them.
This way, they become critical thinkers who look clearly into the issues facing society and analyze such
issues and afterward come up with a long-lasting situation that will ameliorate those problems.
Policy-making helps young people to take part in the decision-making process of their country.
3. Promoting Non-Partisan, Inclusive Approaches: Advocating non-partisan, inclusive approaches to the teaching of citizenship education can help to solve the problem of citizenship education as it will help to accommodate people from different backgrounds and races to partake in whatever citizenship education has for
them.
Avoidance of discrimination and segregation in the learning of Civic Empowerment helps to solve the problem of citizenship education at all levels.
When young people from every field of life are allowed to partake in citizenship education, it results in a wider effect on the society which helps to promote and internalize citizenship education in the society and the world at large.
CONCLUSION
Citizenship education has over the years, tremendously helped leadership development. Students are equipped with the correct mindset of what leadership is all about through formal education, informal education, and social organizations.
These potential leaders are exposed to a variety of skills that make them to be competent leaders in the future.
They cultivate the skill of communication which fosters good collaboration among the people in a given society. Citizenship education helps these students to gain expertise in the art of public speaking which helps to bring about good flow of information among the people and facilitate teamwork and negotiation when issues arise.
Citizenship education strengthens the democratic processes of the government because young people actively take part in the decision-making of their country by critically analyzing problems and finding the best solution to such problems.
The impact of citizenship education in empowering the next generation of leaders cannot be overemphasized. The
global world look forward to a better government in the future and citizenship education is the answer to that yearning.
By prioritizing citizenship education, there is no doubt that the next generation of leaders will not fail at tackling global challenges at all levels.
Curriculum innovators and implementers, social organizations, communities, and government should rise and prioritize citizenship education because it is the only possible way to secure the next generation of leaders.
