Justice-Oriented, “Thick” Approaches to Civics and Citizenship Education in Australia: Examples of Practice

Abstract

There has been extensive research into formal approaches to civics and citizenship education which has identified different typologies (e.g., justice-oriented and participatory) and underlying philosophies (“thick” vs. “thin”). However, research remains limited in regards to the pedagogical possibilities that enable such approaches. This chapter explores a range of different examples of justice oriented and thick approaches to citizenship education. It begins by identifying both formal and informal examples from schooling before broadening the debate to discuss examples from civil society, such as refugee advocacy groups and cycling social movements. In doing so, this chapter explicates a typology that frames different forms of citizenship education from passive to active and participatory and then to justice-oriented.