essay for responsible citizenship

Skip to main content
Skip to secondary menu
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer

A Plus Topper

Improve your Grades

Essay on Responsibilities of A Good Citizen | Responsibilities of A Good Citizen Essay for Students and Children in English

February 7, 2024 by Prasanna

Essay on Responsibilities of A Good Citizen – Given below is a Long and Short Essay on Responsibilities of A Good Citizen for aspirants of competitive exams, kids and students belonging to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The Responsibilities of A Good Citizen essay 100, 150, 200, 250, 500 words in English help the students with their class assignments, comprehension tasks, and even for competitive examinations.

You can also find more Essay Writing articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Discursive Essay on Duties of a Good Citizen 500+ words for kids and students in English

A good citizen has to imbibe many qualities. The fact that he has some duties and responsibilities to bear, is true. But at the same time, he also enjoys some rights and privileges as a citizen of a free state. While he has every right to participate in the judicial, legal, political, religious and social affairs of the nation, he has also some responsibilities He must not hurt the sentiments of others and must protect the weak from the strong. Being loyal to the nation and the society, under all the circumstances, is his first and foremost duty.

A good citizen must be ready to sacrifice his life for the .sake of his motherland. He must love his nation and be a nationalist. He should have firm and deep faith in his motherland. He should obey the laws of the land. But he must also keep in mind the welfare of the state, the benefit of society and the long term interests of the nation.

A good citizen must respect the cultural heritage of his country. He should respect the heroes, the prophets, the sages and saints of his country. He must respect the race to which he belongs. He must always keep in mind the future of his country. He must raise the standard of living of his country by working honestly.

During times of aggression or foreign attacks, he must be ready to shed his blood for the sake of his motherland. Therefore, defence of the country is the supreme duty of a good citizen.

Essay on Responsibilities of A Good Citizen

A good citizen must live in peace and harmony with his neighbours and fellow citizens. He must respect the institutions of his country. A good citizen must always respect the laws of the state and should have no patience with criminals and anti-social elements.

He must be vigilant against the enemies of the country. He must not do something that may help the anti-nationalist or the enemies of the country. He must cling to high ideals. He must be aware of what is happening in his country.

Unity of the nation should be his topmost priority. He should work for the unity of the country. A goodwill for all, the protection of the weak, help for the victims and a sympathetic attitude towards his fellow citizens are the qualities that are needed in a good citizen.

A good citizen should have a spirit of co-operation, friendliness, humanity, dedication and devotion towards his family and society. He must respect other faiths. He must not do anything that brings disgrace to his society or to his country. “Greatest good of the greatest number of people” should be his principle. All these good qualities, if possessed, make us good citizens.

Picture Dictionary
English Speech
English Slogans
English Letter Writing
English Essay Writing
English Textbook Answers
Types of Certificates
ICSE Solutions
Selina ICSE Solutions
ML Aggarwal Solutions
HSSLive Plus One
HSSLive Plus Two
Kerala SSLC
Distance Education

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

Publications
Our Methods
Short Reads
Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

9. The responsibilities of citizenship

When it comes to what it takes to be a good citizen, the public has a long list of traits and behaviors that it says are important. And there’s a fair amount of agreement across groups about what it takes to be a good citizen.

Still, there are differences when it comes to which aspects are considered very important (as opposed to somewhat important), and points of emphasis differ by party identification as well as by age.

Overall, 91% say it is either very (74%) or somewhat (17%) important to vote in elections in order to be a good citizen; just 8% say this is not too or not at all important.

Large shares also say it is important to pay all the taxes you owe (92%) and to always follow the law (96%), including about seven-in-ten who say each is very important (71% and 69%, respectively).

For several other traits and behaviors, about nine-in-ten say they are at least somewhat important to good citizenship. However, the share saying each is very important varies significantly. For example, 89% say it’s important to serve jury duty if called, including 61% who say this is very important. While a comparable 90% say it’s important to follow what’s happening in government and politics as part of good citizenship, a smaller share (49%) says this very important.

Protesting government actions you think are wrong and knowing the Pledge of Allegiance are considered important parts of what it means to be a good citizen, though they rank somewhat lower on the public’s list. Displaying the American flag ranks last among the 11 items tested in the survey. Still, a majority says this is either a very (36%) or somewhat (26%) important part of what it means to be a good citizen.

Republicans and Democrats largely agree on the importance of most responsibilities of citizenship.

About three-quarters of Republicans and Republican leaners (76%) and Democrats and Democratic leaners (75%) say it’s very important to vote in elections.

Similarly, comparable majorities of Republicans and Democrats say it’s very important to pay all the taxes you owe, serve jury duty if called, respect the opinions of those you disagree with and participate in the census. There also are no partisan divides over the importance of volunteering to help others and following what’s going on in government and politics.

However, Republicans (79%) are more likely than Democrats (61%) to say it’s very important to always follow the law to be a good citizen.

Knowing the Pledge of Allegiance ranks higher on Republicans’ list (71% say it’s very important) than Democrats’ (just 34% say it’s very important). In addition to placing greater importance on the Pledge of Allegiance, Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to say it is very important to display the American flag (50% vs. 25%).

By contrast, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to think it is very important to protest if government actions are believed to be wrong: About half of Democrats (52%) this is very important to what it means to be a good citizen, compared with just about a third (35%) of Republicans.

Partisans and ‘leaners’ differ over importance of aspects of citizenship

On many items, the views of independents that lean toward one of the two major parties diverge from those of self-identifying Republicans and Democrats. In general, partisan leaners tend to be less likely than straight Republicans and Democrats to view a range of responsibilities as important to what it means to be a good citizen.

Overall, 83% of Republicans say voting in elections is a very important aspect of being a good citizen, compared with a smaller majority of Republican leaners (67%). There is an even wider 28-point gap between the share of Democrats (86%) and Democratic leaners (58%) who say this is very important.

Similarly, roughly two-thirds of both Republicans (64%) and Democrats (68%) say participating in the U.S. census every 10 years is very important to being a good citizen; slightly fewer Republican leaners (55%) and Democratic leaners (53%) say the same.

This pattern is seen across other items as well: Those who identify with a party are more likely than independents who lean to a party to say it is very important to serve jury duty if called, pay all owed taxes and to follow what is happening in government.

While large shares of Republicans (96%) and Republican leaners (87%) say it is important to know the Pledge of Allegiance, Republican identifiers are somewhat more likely than leaners to say this is very important to good citizenship.

By comparison, smaller majorities of Democrats (67%) and Democratic leaners (60%) say it’s important to know the pledge. Self-identifying Democrats (42%) are significantly more likely to say knowing the pledge is a very important part of good citizenship than Democratic leaners (24%).

There is a 22-point gap between the share of Republicans (90%) and Republican leaners (68%) who say displaying the American flag is at least somewhat important to being a good citizen. And 63% of Republicans call this very important, compared with 35% of Republican leaners. About half of Democrats (52%) think this is a very or somewhat important aspect of good citizenship; 43% of Democratic leaners say the same.

In contrast to the patterns seen on many items, Republican leaners (81%) are more likely than Republicans (66%) to say protesting government actions you think are wrong is an important part of being a good citizen. The views of Republican leaners place them closer to those of Democrats and Democratic leaners in terms of the overall importance they place on this aspect of citizenship.

Age differences in views of the responsibilities of citizenship

Young adults place less importance on many aspects of citizenship than older adults, especially when it comes to the share that describes a trait or behavior as very important for being a good citizen.

Majorities of adults across all ages say it is very important to vote in elections in order to be a good citizen. Still, a smaller majority of those under 30 say this (56%), compared with larger shares of those ages 30 to 49 (72%), 50 to 64 (76%) and 65 and older (92%).

And while fully 81% of those 65 and older say that to be a good citizen it is very important to serve jury duty if called, just about half (47%) of those under 30 say the same.

On other items, the pattern is similar. Young adults are less likely to call paying the taxes you owe, following the law, participating in the census, and following government and politics very important. Still, large majorities of young adults say each of these is at least somewhat important to being a good citizen.

There is no meaningful age gap in views of the importance of protesting government actions you think are wrong. Overall, 85% of those ages 18 to 29 say this is either very (45%) or somewhat (40%) important to being a good citizen. Views among those ages 65 and older are similar (50% very important, 36% somewhat important).

Displaying the American flag and knowing the Pledge of Allegiance do not rank particularly highly for young adults on their list of important characteristics for good citizenship. Among those ages 18 to 29, 63% say it is important to know the Pledge of Allegiance (38% very important) and 53% say it is important to display the American flag (19% very important). These items do not top the list of older adults either, though those 65 and older are more likely than the youngest adults to say both are important parts of being a good citizen.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Fresh data delivery Saturday mornings

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

Most Popular

901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 | Media Inquiries

Research Topics

Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

Responsible Citizenship and College Experience Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Qualities of a person

Aspects of life to focus on.

Every person needs to have certain qualities to mingle with and be responsible towards the society in which he lives. He should be able to recognize and perform his duties as a citizen. Qualities like humanity, social responsibility, and respect for fellow people and the country should guide and influence one’s lifestyle. Moreover, it becomes imperative for every person to be well prepared to respond actively as and when needed by the country’s interests.

Also, the person and society have a mutually complementary relationship. The person learns the ways of living from the people and environment around him and molds his attitude and lifestyle accordingly. Not surprisingly, student life plays an important role in every person’s life. In particular, college life has a major influence on a person’s psychological orientation, as it is the time his mind attains maturity and begins to perform activities in a balanced manner. Thus, every experience and moment become an important aspect in bringing out the exact adult personality in due course of time.

It is important to focus on various aspects of college life that influence one’s character. Firstly, discipline and punctuality are the much-desired qualities to lead a responsible life and also to evolve as a successful person in the chosen field. These two qualities can be attained and improved through college life. Activities like attending classes, completing assignments may superficially as mere mandatory activities as required by the course of a student.

However, such activities help in harnessing the ability to take up tasks in life and perform them efficiently. The best way a citizen can perform his duties towards his country and the world is that he should lead his own life effectively without becoming a burden to society. However, it requires a lot of character that is mostly attained and improved through the experiences in life. As the student enters and spends the part of his life in college at a time when his physical and mental abilities begin to attain maturity. Hence, every activity at this stage plays an important role in his life. He is and should be guided by the faculty and peers towards developing good character.

Apart from regular classroom activities, off-campus tours with friends and fellow students help the student to get mingled with people and surroundings. It teaches him the ways of leading a mutually cooperative lifestyle in society. Moreover, occasional social service campaigns that are conducted as a part of student life help the student to learn various dimensions of the society and develop a positive proactive as well as reactive attitude in him.

For example, I saw one of my friends responding to the call by his college to play their part in helping the tsunami victims. It not only made him become an active person at that time but also brought a recognizable change in his attitude towards society. The human concern in his attitude has been more evident from then. The more a student involves with college life, the better he attains the necessary qualities for a proper life. Not only this, the decisions that the student takes regarding his career are naturally affected by college life. A student who wants to become a sports person and concentrates sincerely on it may bring laurels for the country.

All in all, college life has a major influence on an individual’s character and responsiveness towards society. It makes him become a good citizen and handle issues of life with great attitude and performance.

Ethics of Stem Cell Research Creating Superhumans
Safety and Code of Ethics in Engineering
The Concept of European Citizenship
Creating and Implementing Do-Type Learning Activities
Defining of Citizenship and Its Aspects
The Right to Suicide: Arguments in Favor
Anthropocentric and Non-Anthropocentric Environmental Ethics
Publishing Controversial Photographs: To Be or Not To Be?
Artificial Intelligence and Ethical Issues at Workplace
Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Behavior
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, August 22). Responsible Citizenship and College Experience. https://ivypanda.com/essays/responsible-citizenship-and-college-experience/

"Responsible Citizenship and College Experience." IvyPanda , 22 Aug. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/responsible-citizenship-and-college-experience/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Responsible Citizenship and College Experience'. 22 August.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Responsible Citizenship and College Experience." August 22, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/responsible-citizenship-and-college-experience/.

1. IvyPanda . "Responsible Citizenship and College Experience." August 22, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/responsible-citizenship-and-college-experience/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Responsible Citizenship and College Experience." August 22, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/responsible-citizenship-and-college-experience/.

Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Columbian College of Arts & Sciences

Document Type Abbreviations
Repository and Source Abbreviations
Fellowships & Internships
News & Events
Support ERPP
Walking Tour: Eleanor Roosevelt's Washington
Works by Eleanor Roosevelt
Reading Eleanor Roosevelt's Handwriting
Glossary: The People in Eleanor Roosevelt's World
A Short Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt
Historical Introduction
Aids to Reading the Documents
Browse the JFK Documents
Editorial Method
Browse If You Ask Me Columns
Search If You Ask Me Columns
Browse My Day Columns
Search My Day Columns
My Day Index
The Pond's Dance Program
The Simmons Program
Americans of Tomorrow
It's a Woman's World
Talks by Mrs. Roosevelt
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's Own Program
Over Our Coffee Cups
The Eleanor & Anna Roosevelt Program
Today With Mrs. Roosevelt
Mrs. Roosevelt Meets the Public
The Eleanor Roosevelt Program
Prospects of Mankind
Touring the British Homefront (1942)
In the South Pacific War Zone (1943)
Postwar Europe: A Haunting Horror (1946)
Europe Again: A Magna Carta for All Mankind (1948)
Travelling Around the World (1952)
Promoting Democracy in Japan (1953)
The Long Way Home (1953)
On Soviet Soil (1957)
Audio Materials
Miscellaneous Documents
Universal Search
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Volume 1
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Volume 2
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Volume 3
Resources for Teachers

Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education

What Is a “Good Citizen”? a Systematic Literature Review

Open Access
First Online: 01 September 2021

Cite this chapter

You have full access to this open access chapter

Cristóbal Villalobos 23 ,
María Jesús Morel 23 &
Ernesto Treviño 24

Part of the book series: IEA Research for Education ((IEAR,volume 12))

11k Accesses

4 Citations

The concept of “good citizenship” has long been part of discussions in various academic fields. Good citizenship involves multiple components, including values, norms, ethical ideals, behaviors, and expectations of participation. This chapter seeks to discuss the idea of good citizenship by surveying the academic literature on the subject. To map the scientific discussion on the notion of good citizenship, a systematic review of 120 academic articles published between 1950 and 2019 is carried out. The review of the literature shows that good citizenship is broadly defined, incorporating notions from multiple fields, although these are mainly produced in Western countries with comparatively higher income levels. Additionally, although there is no single definition of good citizenship, the academic literature focuses on three components: the normative, active, and personal dimensions. This systematic review informs the estimation of citizenship profiles of Chap. 3 using the IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016.

You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF

Values Education and the Making of “Good” Citizens in Australia

What are the Qualities of Good Citizenship in Post-genocide Rwanda? High School Teachers Speak Through a Q-Methodological Approach

Reflections on the Good Citizen

Citizenship norms
Good citizenship
Systematic review
International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS)

1 Introduction

The concept of “good citizenship” is part of a long-standing discussion in various academic fields, such as political science, education, sociology, anthropology, evolution, and history, among others. In addition, good citizenship involves various components, including values, norms, ethical ideals, behaviors, and expectations of participation. Finally, the idea of good citizenship is related to diverse contemporary issues, such as patterns of political participation, the meaning of democracy and human rights, the notion of civic culture, equal rights, and the role of technology in the digital era (Bolzendahl and Coffé 2009 ; Dalton 2008 ; Hung 2012 ; Noula 2019 ).

In this regard, the notion of good citizenship can be considered as a concept with three basic characteristics: multidisciplinary, multidimensional, and polysemic. Therefore, the definition of good citizenship is a topic of constant debate and academic discussion. This chapter seeks to discuss the idea of good citizenship, with the aim of contributing to the understanding of this phenomenon and its social, political, and educational implications. In this way, this chapter aims to map the academic discussion and literature regarding the notion of good citizenship, presenting the key debates about the limits and possibilities of this concept in the framework of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016.

In order to organize this complex debate, we start from the premise that any notion of good citizenship is composed of the interaction of two definitions. On the one hand, it involves a certain notion of membership, that is, of belonging to a community. As Stokke ( 2017 ) shows, the definition of who is (and who is not) a citizen is, in itself, a subject of debate, since the definition of citizenship implies political, social, cultural, and legal components. On the other hand, the definition of good citizenship always implies a conceptual position regarding how citizens are expected to act and what they are expected to believe (the “public good” component). In this sense, the debate focuses on the types of behaviors that should be promoted and their ethical-political basis, which is highly dynamic depending on the cultural and historical context (Park and Shin 2006 ). Finally, in order to answer the question about the meaning of good citizenship, it is necessary to first decide who qualifies as a citizen, and how they are expected to behave.

Considering these objectives, the chapter is structured into five sections, including this introduction. The second section describes the systematic review methodology used to select the literature and analyze the discussion regarding the concept of good citizenship. The third and fourth sections describe the results of the analysis, mapping the main trends and characteristics of the academic discussion on good citizenship and exploring its different meanings. Finally, the fifth section presents the conclusions, focusing on the conceptual challenges and methodological limitations to be considered in future research.

2 Methodology

2.1 the systematic review.

We conducted a systematic review to map the academic discussion on good citizenship. This review seeks to identify, evaluate, and analyze the publications in relevant fields of study, in order to determine what has already been written on this topic, what works and what does not, and where new studies are needed (Petticrew and Roberts 2006 ). Through the definition of eligibility criteria, the systematic review is an explicit and reproducible methodology that allows for both an evaluation of the validity of the results of the selected studies (Higgins and Green 2011 ) and the objective valuation of evidence by summarizing and systematically describing the characteristics and results of scientific research (Egger 1997 ). In this regard, the systematic review, unlike other forms of literature review, allows for recognizing “gray” spaces in the literature, describing trends in academic research, and analyzing conceptual and methodological aspects of studies.

2.2 Procedure

The systematic review was conducted using five academic databases, including the main journals in the fields of education, social science, and the humanities. These databases are: (i) Journal Storage, JSTOR ( https://www.jstor.org ); (ii) Educational Resource Information Center, ERIC ( https://eric.ed.gov ); (iii) Springerlink ( https://link.springer.com ); (iv) WorldWideScience ( https://worldwidescience.org ); and (v) Taylor & Francis Group ( https://www.tandfonline.com ). For each search engine, the keywords used were: “good citizen” and “good citizenship.” Additionally, each search engine was tested with other related concepts, such as “citizenship norms,” “citizenship identities,” or “citizen norms.” The results showed that articles containing these latter concepts represented no more than 10% of new articles. For this reason, we decided to concentrate on the two keywords described above.

Considering the importance of these key concepts, the search was limited to those articles that contain these terms in the title, abstract, and/or full text. Of the five search engines, only two had the full-text option in the advanced search and only one allowed searching by keywords, then all results were filtered manually. The search was conducted from May to July 2019, obtaining 693 academic articles.

The search was restricted to those academic articles written in English and published between 1950 and 2019, as a way to study contemporary conceptualizations of good citizenship. We discarded letters to the editor, responses to articles, and book reviews. As a result, we obtained 693 articles to which, based on a full-text review, we applied an additional criterion, excluding those articles about other subjects or from other disciplines. Included in the first search exclusively for having the word “citizenship” in the abstract, there is a wide range of articles including studies on biology, entomology, and film studies. Similarly, with this search strategy we retrieved articles on a related topic but not specifically about citizenship (e.g., leadership, public participation, social values, and immigration), articles on the concept of corporate or organizational citizenship, and articles on social studies in the school curriculum and its contribution to the education of citizens.

After applying the abovementioned selection criteria, we analyzed the abstracts of the articles to verify that they were related to the general objective of the study. As a result, all articles were selected that sought (directly or indirectly) to answer the question, “what is a good citizen?” Specifically, this involved incorporating studies that: (i) study or analyze citizen norms in conceptual, historical, political, educational, or social terms; (ii) generate models or analytic frameworks that define variables or dimensions that should make up the concept of a good citizen; (iii) explore factors on how good citizenship occurs, studying the educational, institutional, and cultural factors that would explain this phenomenon; (iv) relate the expectations (or definitions) of a good citizen with other dimensions or aspects of the political or social behavior of the subjects. The research team, which was comprised of two reviewers, held a weekly discussion (six sessions in total) during which the selection criteria were discussed and refined. This analysis resulted in the selection of a total of 120 articles (see list in Appendix A ).

2.3 Analytical Strategy

The data collected in a systematic review may allow for a wide variety of studies, but the analysis depends on the purpose and nature of the data. Given that the review included quantitative and qualitative studies, as well as both theoretical and demonstrative essays, such heterogeneous literature does not allow for statistical analysis. As a result, the recommended methodology is to carry out a narrative synthesis and an analysis that focuses on relationships between different characteristics and the identification of gaps (Grant and Booth 2009 ; Petticrew and Roberts 2006 ).

The narrative synthesis is a process that allows for extracting and grouping the characteristics and results of each article included in the review (Popay et al. 2006 ), and can be divided into three steps: (i) categorization of articles; (ii) analysis of the findings within each category; and (iii) synthesis of the findings in the selected studies (Petticrew and Roberts 2006 ). The first step towards the narrative synthesis consisted of reading, coding, and tabulating the selected documents in order to describe their main characteristics. A set of categories was designed to classify documents according to four dimensions: general characteristics, purpose, methodology, and results.

To analyze these categories, we transformed data into a common numeric rubric and organized it for thematic analysis, using the techniques proposed by Popay et al. ( 2006 ). The first category was used to summarize the quantity and characteristics of the published studies, while the thematic analysis focused on systematically identifying the main, recurrent, and/or most important concepts of good citizenship.

3 The Concept of Good Citizenship in Academia

Despite being a topic of interest for several decades, academic production on good citizenship tends to be concentrated in the second decade of the 21st century. Since 2009, there has been an explosive increase in the number of scientific papers published on this topic (Fig. 1 ). Although an important part of this growth may be due to the global pressures of academic capitalism to publish in academic journals (Slaughter and Rhoades 2009 ), it could also be the case that academic communities have cultivated a growing interest in studying this issue.

Academic papers by year of publication

Although few in number, the earliest articles published represent a landmark for the discussion. Thus, for example, the text of Almond and Verba ( 1963 ), which analyzes through interviews the perceptions of individuals in communities in five countries (United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and Mexico) and highlights their different participation profiles, has been repeatedly cited in the discussion with 263 references (as of August 2019), according to Google Scholar. Another classic text is Ichilov and Nave ( 1981 ), which aims at understanding the different dimensions of citizenship by surveying young Israelis. To this end, it generates the following five criteria, which have been widely used in academic discussions: (i) citizenship orientation (affective, cognitive, or evaluative); (ii) nature of citizenship (passive or active); (iii) object of citizenship (political or non-political); (iv) source of demand (mandatory or voluntary); and (v) type of guidance (support principles or behavior).

The selected articles are geographically concentrated in two aspects: by institutional affiliation and by the location of their studies. Considering the institutional affiliation of the authors, 32.77% of the articles were produced in the United States, a figure that rises to more than 60% when the countries of Western Europe and Australia are included. This bias is maintained, although to a lesser extent, when analyzing the countries where the studies were carried out. Moreover, more than 50% of the studies were carried out in the United States, England, and the democracies of Western Europe. Africa (4.24%) and Latin America (2.54%) were the regions least represented in the studies. These characteristics, which tend to be representative of global academic production in the social sciences (Connell 2007 ), may encourage certain notions of good citizenship that are anchored in Anglo-Saxon traditions, such as the liberal conception of citizenship studied by Peled ( 1992 ), or more recently, the conception of active citizenship (Ke and Starkey 2014 ), both of which have had an important influence on academic discussion about good citizenship.

Finally, the third characteristic of academic production is related to the multiple research fields and diverse purposes of the studies that deal with the concept of good citizenship. Research on good citizenship is published in multiple disciplines. Of the articles included in the review, 82.29% are concentrated in three disciplines: education, political science, and sociology. However, there are also articles associated with journals of history, philosophy, anthropology, and law. Additionally, we identified six main objectives from the articles reviewed (Table 1 ). The most common objectives are related to bottom-up research, which seeks to gather information on how diverse populations understand good citizenship, and top-down research, which seeks to conceptualize and/or define the idea of good citizens based on conceptual, historical, or political analysis. In addition, there are a wide variety of studies that seek to explain good citizenship, as well as studies that use the idea of a good citizen to explain other behaviors, skills, or knowledge. In other words, in addition to being multidisciplinary, research on good citizenship has multiple purposes.

In sum, although the academic discussion on good citizenship has been mainly developed during the last two decades in the most industrialized Western countries, the academic research is a field of ongoing and open debate.

4 Understanding the Meaning of “Good Citizenship”

As an academic field with a lively ongoing discussion, the notion of good citizenship is associated with different sets of ideas or concepts. Some keywords were repeated at least three times in the articles reviewed (Table 2 ). Only those articles that used a keyword format were included. The most frequent concepts are related to education, norms, social studies, political participation, and democracy.

This indicates that, first, studies tend to associate good citizenship with civic norms and citizen learning, highlighting the formative nature of the concept. Second, studies that associate good citizenship with other dimensions of citizenship (such as knowledge or civic attitudes) or contemporary global problems (such as migration) are comparatively scarcer.

Another way to approach the concept of good citizenship is by analyzing the definitions proposed by the authors in the articles studied. Most of the articles propose characteristics or aspects of good citizenship (in 43.8% of the cases) that, instead of creating new definitions, are often based on existing political, non-political, liberal, or philosophical concepts. In this regard, many papers define good citizenship based on specific behaviors. In contrast, other authors (18.6%) refer to citizenship rules when it comes to voting or participating in politics, thereby seeking to relate the concept of the good citizen with a specific civic attitude—participation in elections. Finally, a large group of studies define good citizenship in terms of the values, virtues, or qualities of a good citizen (22.6%). Within the group of studies that propose new definitions, it is possible to identify two main categories: studies that propose types of citizenship, such as Dalton ( 2008 ), distinguishing between “duty” and “engaged” citizenship, and works, such as Westheimer and Kahne ( 2004 ), which differentiate between “personal responsible citizenship,” “justice-oriented citizenship,” and “participatory citizenship.”

Finally, the meaning of good citizenship can be analyzed by studying the variables used in the studies. Among the quantitative studies included in the review, only 28.3% use international surveys such as ICCS, the Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS), the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), the United Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy (CID) Survey, and the European Social Survey (ESS). Each of these surveys contained a slightly different definition of good citizenship and the variables used to measure the concept (Table 3 ).

In general, the indicators used to measure citizenship in the different surveys share certain similarities. Variables associated with rules (such as obeying the law or paying taxes) are present in all surveys. Additionally, variables related to participation also have an important presence, especially (although not only) related to voting in national elections. To a lesser extent, surveys include variables related to solidarity (supporting people who are worse off than yourself) as well as attitudes related to critical thinking and civic culture (knowing the history of the country, thinking critically).

5 Discussion and Conclusions

The concept of good citizenship can be considered an umbrella term, which includes ethical, political, sociological, and educational aspects and discussions about who qualifies as a citizen and how they should act. The systematic review has shown that good citizenship is broadly defined, although these notions are mainly valued in Western countries with comparatively higher income levels.

For this reason, the definition of good citizenship used is, in large part, highly dependent on the research objective of the academic endeavor. In our case, the analysis is based on ICCS 2016, which defines good citizenship in relation to notions such as conventional citizenship, social movement citizenship, and personal responsibility citizenship (Köhler et al. 2018 ). The variables included in ICCS 2016 are related to the three main dimensions of good citizenship: normative, active, and personal. These three components of good citizenship have been essential in the academic discussion in the last seven decades, constituting the central corpus of the concept, although this definition does not incorporate current discussions on good citizenship, which focus, for example, on the notion of global citizenship (Altikulaç 2016 ) or the idea of digital citizenship (Bennett et al. 2009 ). These latter concepts are part of the ongoing debate on good citizenship, although it seems that more work is needed to better understand how these notions of citizenship are related to the ways in which individuals or groups in society relate to power and exercise it to shape the public sphere.

This systematic review has mapped the academic discussion to date on good citizenship. However, despite its usefulness, this review has a number of limitations. Firstly, it summarizes and analyzes the academic discussion, ignoring the gap between the scientific debate on good citizenship and the social discussion related to this subject. Secondly, it focuses on English-language literature, which may result in a bias towards publications produced in Western countries. In spite of these limitations, the review allows us to study the process of defining the concept of good citizenship, and to identify the main debates related to this notion, which is the central focus of this book.

Almond, G. A., & Verba, S. (1963). The civic culture. Political attitudes and democracy in five nations . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Book Google Scholar

Altikulaç, A. (2016). Patriotism and global citizenship as values: A research on social studies teacher candidates. Journal of Education and Practice, 7 (36), 26–33.

Google Scholar

Bennett, W. L., Wells, C., & Rank, A. (2009). Young citizens and civic learning: Two paradigms of citizenship in the digital age. Citizenship Studies, 13 (2), 105–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621020902731116 .

Article Google Scholar

Bolzendahl, C., & Coffe, H. (2009). Citizenship beyond politics: The importance of political, civil and social rights and responsibilities among women and men. The British Journal of Sociology, 60 (4), 763–791.

Connell, R. W. (2007). Southern theory: The global dynamics of knowledge in social science . Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Dalton, R. J. (2008). Citizenship norms and the expansion of political participation. Political Studies, 56 (1), 76–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00718.x .

Egger, M. (1997). Meta-analysis: Potentials and promise. BMJ, 315 (7119), 1371–1374.

Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 26 (2), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x .

Higgins, J., & Green, S. (2011). Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions . London, United Kingdom: The Cochrane Collaboration.

Hung, R. (2012). Being human or being a citizen? Rethinking human rights and citizenship education in the light of Agamben and Merleau-Ponty. Cambridge Journal of Education, 42 (1), 37–51.

Ichilov, O., & Nave, N. (1981). The Good Citizen as viewed by Israeli adolescents. Comparative Politics, 13 (3), 361–376.

Ke, L., & Starkey, H. (2014). Active citizens, good citizens, and insouciant bystanders: The educational implications of Chinese university students’ civic participation via social networking. London Review of Education, 12 (1), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.12.1.06 .

Köhler, H., Weber, S., Brese, F., Schulz, W., & Carstens, R. (Eds.). (2018). ICCS 2016 user guide for the international database . Amsterdam, the Netherlands: International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).

Noula, I. (2019). Digital citizenship: Citizenship with a twist? Media@LSE Working Paper Series. London, United Kingdom: London School of Economics and Political Science.

Park, C.-M., & Shin, D. C. (2006). Do Asian values deter popular support for democracy in South Korea? Asian Survey, 46 (3), 341–361.

Peled, Y. (1992). Ethnic democracy and the legal construction of citizenship: Arab citizens of the Jewish state. The American Political Science Review, 86 (2), 432–443.

Petticrew, M., & Roberts, H. (2006). Systematic reviews in the social sciences: A practical guide . Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishing.

Popay, J., Roberts, H., Sowden, A., Petticrew, M., Arai, L., Rodgers, M., et al. (2006). Guidance on the conduct of narrative synthesis in systematic reviews. A product from the ESRC Methods Programme . Lancaster, United Kingdom: Lancaster University.

Slaughter, S., & Rhoades, G. (2009). Academic capitalism and the new economy. Markets, state, and higher education . Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.

Stokke, K. (2017). Politics of citizenship: Towards an analytical framework. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift, 71 (4), 193–207.

Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41 (2), 237–269. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312041002237 .

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank their research sponsors, the Center for Educational Justice ANID PIA CIE160007, as well as the Chilean National Agency of Research and Development through the grants ANID/FONDECYT N° 1180667, and ANID/FONDECYT N° 11190198.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Centro de Estudios de Políticas y Prácticas en Educación (CEPPE-UC), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Cristóbal Villalobos & María Jesús Morel

Center UC for Educational Transformation, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Ernesto Treviño

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristóbal Villalobos .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Center for Educational Justice, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Centro de Medición MIDE UC, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Diego Carrasco

Centre for Political Research, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Ellen Claes

University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

Kerry J. Kennedy

The following list of publications is the reviewed references for the systematic review conducted in this chapter.

Adler, S. A., & Kho, E. M. (2011). Educating citizens: A cross-cultural conversation. Journal of International Social Studies , 1 (2), 2–20.

Agbaria, A. K., & Katz-Pade, R. (2016). Human rights education in Israel: Four types of good citizenship. Journal of Social Science Education , 15 (2), 96–107. https://doi.org/10.4119/UNIBI/jsse-v15-i2-1455 .

Ahmad, I. (2017). Political science and the good citizen: The genealogy of traditionalist paradigm of citizenship education in the American school curriculum. Journal of Social Science Education , 16 (4), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.4119/UNIBI/jsse-v16-i4-1581 .

Ahmad, I. (2004). Islam, democracy and citizenship education: An examination of the social studies curriculum in Pakistan. Current Issues in Comparative Education , 7 (1), 39–49.

Ahrari, S., Othman, J., Hassan, S., Samah, B. A., & D’Silva, J. L. (2013). Role of social studies for pre-service teachers in citizenship education. International Education Studies , 6 (12), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n12p1 .

Alazzi, K., & Chiodo, J. J. (2008). Perceptions of social studies students about citizenship: A study of Jordanian middle and high school students. The Educational Forum , 72 (3), 271–280.

Almond, G. A., & Verba, S. (1963). The obligation to participate. In The civic culture: Political attitudes and democracy in five nations (pp. 161–179). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Altikulaç, A. (2016). Patriotism and global citizenship as values: A research on social studies teacher candidates. Journal of Education and Practice , 7 (36), 26–33.

Al-Zboon, M. S. (2014). Degree of student’s assimilation to the meaning of the term citizenships in the schools high grade basic level in Jordan. International Education Studies , 7 (2), 137–144. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v7n2p137 .

Angell, A. V. (1990). Civic attitudes of Japanese middle school students: Results of a pilot study [Paper presentation]. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council for the Social Studies, Anaheim, CA.

Atkinson, L. (2012). Buying into social change: How private consumption choices engender concern for the collective. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , 644 (1), 191–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716212448366 .

Avery, P. G. (2003). Using research about civic learning to improve courses in the methods of teaching social studies. In J. J. Patrick, G. E. Hamot, & R. S. Leming (Eds.), Civic learning in teacher education: International perspectives on education for democracy in the preparation of teachers (Vol. 2, pp. 45–65). Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education.

Baron, J. (2010). Cognitive biases in moral judgments that affect political behavior. Synthese , 172 (1), 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-009-9478-z .

Bass, L. E., & Casper, L. M. (2001). Differences in registering and voting between native-born and naturalized. Population Research and Policy Review , 20 (6), 483–511.

Bech, E. C., Borevi, K., & Mouritsen, P. (2017). A ‘civic turn’ in Scandinavian family migration policies? Comparing Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Comparative Migration Studies, 5 (1), 7.

Bickmore, K. (2001). Student conflict resolution, power. Curriculum Inquiry , 31 (2), 137–162. https://doi.org/10.1111/0362-6784.00189 .

Bolzendahl, C., & Coffé, H. (2009). Citizenship beyond politics: The importance of political, civil and social rights and responsibilities among women and men. British Journal of Sociology , 60 (4), 763–791. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2009.01274.x .

Bolzendahl, C., & Coffé, H. (2013). Are “good” citizens “good” participants? Testing citizenship norms and political participation across 25 nations. Political Studies , 61 (SUPPL.1), 63–83. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12010 .

Boontinand, V., & Petcharamesree, S. (2018). Civic/citizenship learning and the challenges for democracy in Thailand. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 13 (1), 36–50.

Capers, I. B. (2018). Criminal procedure and the good citizen. Columbia Law Review , 118 (2), 653–712. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004 .

Chávez, K. R. (2010). Border (in)securities: Normative and differential belonging in LGBTQ and immigrant rights discourse. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies , 7 (2), 136–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791421003763291 .

Chimiak, G. (2004). NGO activists and their model of the good citizen empirical evidence from Poland. Polish Sociological Review , (1), 33–47.

Chipkin, I. (2003). ‘Functional’ and ‘dysfunctional’ communities: The making of national citizens. Journal of Southern African Studies, 29 (1), 63–82.

Clarke, M. T. (2013). The virtues of republican citizenship in Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy. The Journal of Politics, 75 (2), 317–329.

Coffé, H., & Van Der Lippe, T. (2010). Citizenship norms in Eastern Europe. Social Indicators Research, 96 (3), 479–496.

Conger, K. H., & McGraw, B. T. (2008). Religious conservatives and the requirements of citizenship: Political autonomy. Perspectives on Politics, 6 (2), 253–266.

Connell, J. (2007). The Fiji Times and the good citizen: Constructing modernity and nationhood in Fiji. The Contemporary Pacific, 19 (1), 85–109.

Conover, P. J., Crewe, I. M., & Searing, D. D. (1991). The nature of citizenship in the United States and Great Britain: Empirical comments on theoretical themes. The Journal of Politics , 53 (3), 800–832. https://doi.org/10.2307/2131580 .

Cook, B. L. (2012). Swift-boating in antiquity: Rhetorical framing of the good citizen in fourth-century Athens. Rhetorica - Journal of the History of Rhetoric , 30 (3), 219–251. https://doi.org/10.1525/RH.2012.30.3.219 .

Costa, M. V. (2013). Civic virtue and high commitment schools. Theory and Research in Education , 11 (2), 129–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878513485184 .

Crick, B. (2007). Citizenship: The political and the democratic author. British Journal of Educational Studies , 55 (3), 235–248.

Dalton, R. J. (2008). Citizenship norms and the expansion of political participation. Political Studies , 56 (1), 76–98. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00718.x .

Damrongpanit, S. (2019). Factors affecting self-discipline as good citizens for the undergraduates of Chiang Mai University in Thailand: A multilevel path analysis. Universal Journal of Educational Research , 7 (2), 347–355. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2019.070206 .

Damrongpanit, S. (2019). Factor structure and measurement invariance of the self-discipline model using the different-length questionnaires: Application of multiple matrix sampling. Universal Journal of Educational Research , 7 (1), 133–145. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2019.070118 .

Davidovitch, N., & Soen, D. (2015). Teaching civics and instilling democratic values in Israeli high school students: The duality of national and universal aspects. Journal of International Education Research (JIER) , 11 (1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.19030/jier.v11i1.9093 .

Dekker, P. (2019). From pillarized active membership to populist active citizenship: The Dutch do democracy. Voluntas , 30 (1), 74–85. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-00058-4 .

Denters, B., Gabriel, O. W., & Torcal, M. (2007). Norms of good citizenship. In J. W. van Deth, J. R. Montero, & A. Westholm (Eds.), Citizenship and involvement in European democracies: A comparative analysis (pp. 112–132). London, United Kingdom: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203965757 .

Develin, R. (1973). The good man and the good citizen in Aristotle’s “Politics.” Phronesis , 18 (1), 71–79.

Dynneson, T. L., Gross, R. E., & Nickel, J. A. (1989). An exploratory survey of four groups of 1987 graduating seniors’ perceptions pertaining to (1) the Qualities of a Good Citizen, (2) the Sources of Citizenship Influence, and (3) the Contributions of Social Studies Courses and Programs of Study to Citizens . Stanford University, California: Citizenship Development Study Center. ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 329481.

Eder, A. (2017). Cross-country variation in people’s attitudes toward citizens’ rights and obligations: A descriptive overview based on data from the ISSP Citizenship Module 2014. International Journal of Sociology , 47 (1), 10–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207659.2017.1265309 .

Enu, D. B., & Eba, M. B. (2014). Teaching for democracy in Nigeria: A paradigm shift. Higher Education Studies , 4 (3), 64–71. https://doi.org/10.5539/hes.v4n3p64 .

Ersoy, A. F. (2012). Mothers’ perceptions of citizenship, practices for developing citizenship conscience of their children and problems they encountered. Kuram ve Uygulamada Egitim Bilimleri , 12 (3), 2120–2124.

Fernández, C., & Jensen, K. K. (2017). The civic integrationist turn in Danish and Swedish school politics. Comparative Migration Studies , 5 (1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-017-0049-z .

Garver, E. (2010). Why can’t we all just get along: The reasonable vs. the rational according to Spinoza. Political Theory , 38 (6), 838–858. https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591710378577 .

Goering, E. M. (2013). Engaging citizens: A cross cultural comparison of youth definitions of engaged citizenship. Universal Journal of Educational Research , 1 (3), 175–184. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2013.010306 .

Green, J., Steinbach, R., & Datta, J. (2012). The travelling citizen: Emergent discourses of moral mobility in a study of cycling in London. Sociology , 46 (2), 272–289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511419193 .

Gutierrez, R. (2002). What can happen to auspicious beginnings: Historical barriers to ideal citizenship. The Social Studies , 93 (5), 202–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377990209600166 .

Haas, M. E., Laughlin, M. A., Wilson, E. K., & Sunal, C. S. (2003, April). Promoting enlightened political engagement by using a citizenship scenario with teacher candidates and experienced teachers [Paper presentation]. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Hammett, D. (2018). Engaging citizens, depoliticizing society? Training citizens as agents for good governance. Geografiska Annaler, Series B: Human Geography , 100 (2), 64–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353684.2018.1433961 .

Hébert, M., & Rosen, M. G. (2007). Community forestry and the paradoxes of citizenship in Mexico: The cases of Oaxaca and Guerrero. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies , 32 (63), 9–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/08263663.2007.10816914 .

Hoekstra, M. (2015). Diverse cities and good citizenship: How local governments in the Netherlands recast national integration discourse. Ethnic and Racial Studies , 38 (10), 1798–1814. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2015.1015585 .

Hooghe, M., Oser, J., & Marien, S. (2016). A comparative analysis of ‘good citizenship’: A latent class analysis of adolescents’ citizenship norms in 38 countries. International Political Science Review , 37 (1), 115–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512114541562 .

Hoskins, B., Saisana, M., & Villalba, C. M. H. (2015). Civic competence of youth in Europe: Measuring cross national variation through the creation of a composite indicator. Social Indicators Research , 123 (2), 431–457. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0746-z .

Hunter, E. (2013). Dutiful subjects, patriotic citizens, and the concept of “good citizenship” in Twentieth-Century Tanzania. Historical Journal , 56 (1), 257–277. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X12000623 .

Ibrahimoğlu, Z. (2018). Who are good and bad citizens ? A story-based study with seventh graders. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research , 0 (0), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2018.1523709 .

Ichilov, O. (1988). Citizenship orientation of two Israeli minority groups: Israeli-Arab and Eastern-Jewish youth. Ethnic Groups , 7 (2), 113–135. https://doi.org/10.1109/ultsym.1996.584088 .

Ichilov, O. (1988). Family politicization and adolescents’ citizenship orientations. Political Psychology , 431–444.

Ichilov, O., & Nave, N. (1981). “The good citizen” as viewed by Israeli adolescents. Comparative Politics , 13 (3), 361–376.

Jarrar, A. G. (2013). Positive thinking & good citizenship culture: From the Jordanian Universities students’ points of view. International Education Studies , 6 (4), 183–193. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n4p183 .

Kariya, T. (2012). Is everyone capable of becoming a ‘Good Citizen’ in Japanese society? Inequality and the realization of the ‘Good Citizen’ Education. Multicultural Education Review , 4 (1), 119–146. https://doi.org/10.1080/23770031.2009.11102891 .

Ke, L., & Starkey, H. (2014). Active citizens, good citizens, and insouciant bystanders: The educational implications of Chinese university students’ civic participation via social networking. London Review of Education , 12 (1), 50–62. https://doi.org/10.18546/LRE.12.1.06 .

Kennelly, J. (2009). Good citizen/bad activist: The cultural role of the state in youth activism. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies , 31 (2–3), 127–149. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714410902827135 .

Kennelly, J. (2011). Policing young people as citizens-in-waiting: Legitimacy, spatiality and governance. British Journal of Criminology , 51 (2), 336–354. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azr017 .

Kuang, X., & Kennedy, K. J. (2018). Alienated and disaffected students: Exploring the civic capacity of ‘Outsiders’ in Asian societies. Asia Pacific Education Review , 19 (1), 111–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-018-9520-2 .

Kwan Choi Tse, T. (2011). Creating good citizens in China: Comparing grade 7–9 school textbooks, 1997–2005. Journal of Moral Education , 40 (2), 161–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2011.568098 .

Lefrançois, D., Ethier, M. -A., & Cambron-Prémont, A. (2017). Making “good” or “critical” citizens: From social justice to financial literacy in the Québec Education Program. Journal of Social Science Education , 16 (4), 84–96. https://doi.org/10.4119/UNIBI/jsse-v16-i4-1698 .

Lehning, P. B. (2001). European citizenship: Towards a European identity? Law and Philosophy, 20 (3), 239–282.

Leung, Y. W., Yuen, T. W. W., Cheng, E. C. K., & Chow, J. K. F. (2014). Is student participation in school governance a “mission impossible”?. Journal of Social Science Education , 13 (4), 26–40. https://doi.org/10.2390/jsse-v13-i4-1363 .

Li, H., & Tan, C. (2017). Chinese teachers’ perceptions of the ‘good citizen’: A personally-responsible citizen. Journal of Moral Education , 46 (1), 34–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2016.1277341 .

Liem, G. A. D., & Chua, B. L. (2013). An expectancy-value perspective of civic education motivation, learning and desirable outcomes. Educational Psychology , 33 (3), 276–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.776934 .

Long, D. H. (1990). Continuity and change in Soviet education under Gorbachev. American Educational Research Journal, 27 (3), 403–423.

Mara, G. M. (1998). Interrogating the identities of excellence: Liberal education and democratic culture in Aristotle’s “Nicomachean Ethics”. Polity, 31 (2), 301–329.

Martin, L. A., & Chiodo, J. J. (2007). Good citizenship: What students in rural schools have to say about it. Theory and Research in Social Education , 35 (1), 112–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2007.10473328 .

Martin, L. A., & Chiodo, J. J. (2008). American Indian students speak out: What’s good citizenship? International Journal of Social Education , 23 (1), 1–26.

McGinnis, T. A. (2015). “A good citizen is what you’ll be”: Educating Khmer Youth for citizenship in a United States Migrant Education Program. Journal of Social Science Education , 14 (3), 66–74. https://doi.org/10.2390/jsse-v14-i3-1399 .

Meltzer, J. (2013). “Good citizenship” and the promotion of personal savings accounts in Peru. Citizenship Studies , 17 (5), 641–652. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2013.818382 .

Mills, S. (2013). “An instruction in good citizenship”: Scouting and the historical geographies of citizenship education. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , 38 (1), 120–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00500.x .

Morris, P., & Morris, E. (2000). Constructing the good citizen in Hong Kong: Values promoted in the school curriculum. Asia Pacific Journal of Education , 20 (1), 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/0218879000200104 .

Mosher, R. (2015). Speaking of belonging: Learning to be “good citizens” in the context of voluntary language coaching projects in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Journal of Social Science Education , 14 (3), 20–30. https://doi.org/10.2390/jsse-v14-i3-1395 .

Murphy, M. (2004, April). Current trends in civic education: An American perspective [Paper presentation]. Paper presented at the philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain Annual Meeting, Oxford, England.

Niemi, R. G., & Chapman, C. (1999). The civic development of 9th- through 12th-grade students in the United States: 1996. The National Center For Education Statistics , 1 (1), 39–41.

Nieuwelink, H., Ten Dam, G., & Dekker, P. (2019). Adolescent citizenship and educational track: a qualitative study on the development of views on the common good. Research Papers in Education , 34 (3), 373–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2018.1452958 .

Nurdin, E. S. (2015). The policies on civic education in developing national character in Indonesia. International Education Studies , 8 (8), 199–209. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v8n8p199 .

Orton, M. (2006). Wealth, citizenship and responsibility: The views of “better off” citizens in the UK. Citizenship Studies , 10 (2), 251–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621020600633218 .

Peled, Y. (1992). Ethnic democracy and the legal construction of citizenship: Arab citizens of the Jewish state. American Political Science Review, 86 (2), 432–443.

Perlmutter, O. W. (1953). Education, the good citizen, and civil religion. The Journal of General Education, 7 (4), 240–249.

Phillips, J. (2004). The relationship between secondary education and civic development: Results from two field experiments with inner city minorities. CIRCLE Working Papers , 14 (14), 1–8.

Prior, W. (1999). What it means to be a “good citizen” in Australia: Perceptions of teachers, students, and parents. Theory and Research in Social Education , 27 (2), 215–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.1999.10505879 .

Reichert, F. (2017). Young adults’ conceptions of ‘good’ citizenship behaviours: A latent class analysis. Journal of Civil Society , 13 (1), 90–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2016.1270959 .

Reichert, F. (2016). Who is the engaged citizen? Correlates of secondary school students’ concepts of good citizenship. Educational Research and Evaluation , 22 (5–6), 305–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2016.1245148 .

Russell, S. G., & Quaynor, L. (2017). Constructing citizenship in post-conflict contexts: The cases of Liberia and Rwanda. Globalisation, Societies and Education , 15 (2), 248–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2016.1195723 .

Sasson-Levy, O. (2002). Constructing identities at the margins: Masculinities and citizenship in the Israeli army. The Sociological Quarterly , 43 (3), 357–383. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2002.tb00053.x .

Schoeman, S. (2006). A blueprint for democratic citizenship in South African public schools: African teacher’s perceptions of good citizenship. South African Journal of Education , 26 (1), 129–142.

Sim, J. B. Y. (2011). Social studies and citizenship for participation in Singapore: How one state seeks to influence its citizens. Oxford Review of Education , 37 (6), 743–761. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2011.635103 .

Siphai, S. (2015). Influences of moral, emotional and adversity quotient on good citizenship of Rajabhat Universitys Students in the Northeast of Thailand. Educational Research and Reviews , 10 (17), 2413–2421. https://doi.org/10.5897/err2015.2212 .

Stokke, K. (2017). Politics of citizenship: Towards an analytical framework. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift , 71 (4), 193–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2017.1369454 .

Stuteville, R., & Johnson, H. (2016). Citizenship education in the United States: Perspectives reflected in state education standards. Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice, and Research , 6 (1), 99–117. https://doi.org/10.5929/2016.6.1.7 .

Sumich, J. (2013). Tenuous belonging: Citizenship and democracy in Mozambique. Social Analysis, 57 (2), 99–116.

Sweeney, E. T. (1972). The A.F.L’.s good citizen, 1920–1940. Labor History , 13 (2), 200–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/00236567208584201 .

Tan, C. (2008). Creating “good citizens” and maintaining religious harmony in Singapore. British Journal of Religious Education , 30 (2), 133–142. https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200701830921 .

Terchek, R. J., & Moore, D. K. (2000). Recovering the political Aristotle: A critical response to Smith. American Political Science Review , 94 (4), 905–911. https://doi.org/10.2307/2586215 .

Thapan, M. (2006). ‘Docile’ bodies, ‘good’ citizens or ‘agential’ subjects? Pedagogy and citizenship in contemporary society. Economic and Political Weekly , 4195–4203.

Theiss-morse, E. (1993). Conceptualizations of good citizenship and political participation. Political Behavior , 15 (4), 355–380.

Thompson, L. A. (2004). Identity and the forthcoming Alberta social studies curriculum: A postcolonial reading. Canadian Social Studies , 38 (3), 1–11.

Tibbitts, F. (2001). Prospects for civics education in transitional democracies: Results of an impact study in Romanian classrooms. Intercultural Education , 12 (1), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/14675980124250 .

Tonga, D., & Keles, H. (2014). Evaluation of the citizenship consciousness of the 8th year students. Online Submission , 4 (2), 59–72. https://doi.org/10.13054/mije.14.10.4.2 .

Torres, M. (2006). Youth activists in the age of postmodern globalization: Notes from an ongoing project. Chapin Hall Working Paper. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.

Tupper, J. A., Cappello, M. P., & Sevigny, P. R. (2010). Locating citizenship: Curriculum, social class, and the “good” citizen. International Education Studies , 38 (3), 336–365. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v8n8p199 .

Van Deth, J. W. (2009). Norms of citizenship. The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior , (June 2018), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199270125.003.0021 .

Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal , 41 (2), 237–269. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312041002237 .

White, M. (2006). The dispositions of ‘good’ citizenship: Character, symbolic power and disinterest. Journal of Civil Society , 2 (2), 111–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448680600905882 .

Wilkins, C. (1999). Making ‘good citizens’: The social and political attitudes of PGCE students. Oxford Review of Education , 25 (1&2). https://doi.org/10.1080/030549899104224 .

Wong, K. L., Lee, C. K. J., Chan, K. S. J., & Kennedy, K. J. (2017). Constructions of civic education: Hong Kong teachers’ perceptions of moral, civic and national education. Compare , 47 (5), 628–646. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2016.1262756 .

Woolf, M. (2010). Another mishegas: Global citizenship. Frontiers. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad , 19 , 47–60.

Worku, M. Y. (2018). Perception of Ethiopian students and educators on the responsibility for good citizenship. Journal of International Social Studies , 8 (2), 103–120.

Yesilbursa, C. C. (2015). Turkish pre-service social studies teachers perceptions of “Good” citizenship. Educational Research and Reviews , 10 (5), 634–640. https://doi.org/10.5897/err2014.2058 .

Zamir, S., & Baratz, L. (2013). Educating “good citizenship” through bilingual children literature Arabic and Hebrew. Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn) , 7 (4), 223. https://doi.org/10.11591/edulearn.v7i4.197 .

Rights and permissions

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Villalobos, C., Morel, M.J., Treviño, E. (2021). What Is a “Good Citizen”? a Systematic Literature Review. In: Treviño, E., Carrasco, D., Claes, E., Kennedy, K.J. (eds) Good Citizenship for the Next Generation . IEA Research for Education, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75746-5_2

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75746-5_2

Published : 01 September 2021

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-75745-8

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-75746-5

eBook Packages : Education Education (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Find a journal
Track your research

Home / Essay Samples / Sociology / Citizenship / Becoming a Responsible Citizen: Significance of Active Citizenship

Becoming a Responsible Citizen: Significance of Active Citizenship

Category: Sociology , Law , Social Issues
Topic: Citizenship , Civil Law , Refugee

Pages: 3 (1290 words)

Downloads: -->

Refugee Law

Refugee in school, role of civil society, conclusion .

--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.

Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?

are ready to help you with your essay

You won’t be charged yet!

Immigration Reform Essays

Gender Wage Gap Essays

Privacy Essays

Gender Discrimination Essays

Migration Essays

Related Essays

We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Your essay sample has been sent.

In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->