Gistered Muleya, Civic Education and Civics: Where do we Draw the Line?.pdf

Abstract

Defining Civic Education and Civics is rather getting problematic especially in Zambia. There are two schools of thought with regard to what constitutes Civic Education and Civics. Experts alike in the field at times are embarrassingly not very clear on the dividing line between the two concepts. This is because of the different schools of thought surrounding the two concepts where people tend to view Civic Education as Civics and the other way round. One tends to agree with what Muleya (2017) and Evans (2009: 410-435)( as cited by Muleya (2015)who have contended that, contemporary conceptions of Citizenship Education or Civic Education reflect a certain level of ambiguity due to various views that have come into play. Therefore, in this article I attempt to discuss the meaning of Civic Education and Civics. What is the dividing line between the two concepts? How should the two concepts be viewed? Once these key questions have been addressed it will be very easy to draw a clear cut line between Civic Education and Civics. That done, I will draw the conclusion by way of stressing the point that Civic Education and Civics can indeed be confusing if the two concepts are viewed from uninformed positions. In this article I am using Civic Education and Citizenship Education interchangeably.