Issue-Centered Education for Democratic Citizenship: Promise and Practice of Project Citizen

民主國家需要其公民具有能力、肯負責任地去面對、討論、終至能解決公共議題；此種說法一點也不為過。公民教育正是社會傳遞民主公民所應該具備的公民知識、公民性與技能極其重要的方法；藉此，民主社會才得以代代相承。 在國際間頗具吸引力的公民教育課程「公民行動方案」有著議題中心教學的優點，同時改善了批評者們所指陳的不少問題。此一方案值得我們重新思考議題中心教學對培育民主公民的可能性。

In a democracy, the need for a body of informed and responsible citizens capable of confronting, debating, and ultimately deciding current issues of public policy cannot be overstated. Civic education is a vital means by which our society transmits to the next generation the core knowledge, dispositions, and skills of democratic citizenship. It is what allows democratic societies to reproduce themselves across generations. Project Citizen represents a considered effort to take advantage of the benefits of issue-centered civic education while resolving many of the problems that critics have found with that approach. The program's appeal around the world suggests that educators need to reconsider the positive role that the issue-centered approach can have in forming the knowledge, dispositions, and skills of democratic citizenship.