Í ljósi fyrri skrifa um reynslu, nám og hugmyndina á bak við það að læra þá ætti ég að vera búin að læra það að ég hef ekki sérlega dökka húð og þoli þar af leiðandi illa sól eða sólarljós. Hmmm já neinei - eða ekki. Ég fór semsagt í ljós (í fyrsta skiptið í ca 6 ár) í spa-inu og eftir gufuna góðu. Ég brann rooooooosalega. Við skulum bara segja að í þessu tilviki læri ég greinilega hvorki af reynslu né heilbrigðri skynsemi. Ég get semsagt varla klætt mig í föt og er svo rauð að það er eiginlega sprenghlægilegt að horfa á mig í speglinum.

En ég ætla að halda uppteknum hætti og setja hérna inn eitthvað tengt náminu mínu og ég var semsagt að fara yfir qualification ritgerðina mína sem ég skilaði inn til að komast inn í skólann og ákvað að setja smá hlut af henni hérna þar sem ég ætla líka að reyna að nota hluta af henni í hinar ritgerðirnar mínar sem ég kem til með að skila á þessari önn. Í sambandi við þær ritgerðir þá hef ég nokkurn vegin ákveðið að skrifa eins tengt hugtakinu borgaravitund eða citizenship og ég mögulega get í tengslum við öll námskeiðin mín.

Ég er að melta rannsóknarspurningar í ætt við þessar:
1. Hvers konar borgara þarf þekkingarþjóðfélagið á að halda?
2. Hvernig líta ungmenni á sig sem borgara eða citizens?
3. Hvað er að vera góður borgari í nútíma - þekkingarþjóðfélagi?

Hér er semsagt brot úr fyrsta kafla ritgerðarinnar þar sem ég reifa aðeins þessi hugtök citizenship og citizenship education. Þetta er án tilvitnanna eða heimilda innan sviga samkvæmt APA. Ég stelst bara til að setja þær allar í runu aftast við textann. Ég er svo vel upp alin frá Háskólanum að ég vil ekki sleppa þeim alveg.

Citizenship and Citizenship education
The definition of citizenship education has been and still remains a challenge, even to educators and researchers. In fact gaining agreement on the concept or definition of citizenship has been identified as one of the challenges that need to bee addressed in order to enable effect citizenship education. Citizenship can be a form of identification, commonly understood as membership in a nation-state but it can also be considered as a form of social co-operation or as a way of making concrete ethical commitments of care and respect to other people, the society or one self.

Robert Putnam and his colleagues investigated civic traditions in modern Italy and came up with the term "the civic community". Such community would be characterized by civic engagement, political equality, solidarity, trust among people, tolerance and a strong associational or collective life. Putnam could see a clear line between civic and non-civic regions in Italy and his main conclusion from his studies was that democracies work better in a society where there is a strong tradition for civic engagement. In his book Bowling Alone he introduces the idea of social capital. Putnam argues that social capital refers to connections between and among individuals in any given society, social networks and the norms of trustworthiness that arise from them. Social capital there fore is closely related to civic virtues, values and commitment which can be linked to democratic values or beliefs as well. This notion of a ideal and almost utopian society would be very attractive if only that simple. But Putnam points out the fact that virtues are only as powerful as the sense of social network they are embedded in. "A society of many virtues but isolated individuals is not necessarily rich in social capital". Education and personal development are powerfully shaped by social capital. According to Putnam strong and long-lasting social capital can be linked to various positive outcomes for societies and individuals in them, most particularly in relation to education.

Citizenship education can be regarded as a way of educating students towards living together and knowing about basic moral values that concern civic life in a complex society, or in an increasingly larger context, the rights and responsibilities of a European - or world citizen. Other common themes across countries, in defining citizenship education include preserving democratic society and its associated rights, enabling participation, specially by preparing young people for an active and informed contribution to their society and there by establishing more involved, richer social inclusion, human and social capital. An even broader definition would take into account fundamental concepts such as democracy education, human rights education, rights and responsibilities of the individual, tolerance, diversity and equal opportunities. Citizenship education can and should address dimensions of knowledge, understanding, skills, and last but not least social and moral values. Citizenship education's most important goal should there fore be to cultivate student's awareness of such various but very important democratic values. It is clear that developing effective citizenship education is a very complex enterprise involving the development of various citizenship dimensions (knowledge, skills, concepts, values, attitudes, believes, engagement, and participation to name few) through a range of educational approach (formal, non formal or informal) and opportunities for all students.

References
Kerr, D. Cleaver, E., Ireland, E. and Blenkinsop, S. (2003). Citizenship                     Education Longitudinal Study: First Cross-Sectional Survey 2001-2002 (DfES Research Report 416). London: DfES.
Kingwell, M. (2002). The World We Want. USA: Rowman & Littlefield.
Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling Alone. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Rúnarsdóttir, E. and Adalbjarnardottir, S. (2006). Intercultural Education: Cases of good practices in Iceland. In A. Ross (ed.) Citizenship Education and the world. London: CiCe Publication.  
Torney Purta et. al. (2001). Citizenship and education in 28 countries. Civic Knowledge and engagement at age fourteen.