The theory of resilience citizenship education

Citizenship Education Civic Education Theory Community Resilience Critical Resilience Resilience Citizenship

Authors

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2026)
Original Article

Citizenship education is often reduced to transmitting knowledge about citizens' rights and obligations, an approach that seems increasingly inadequate in a world marked by disasters, conflict, political instability, and economic crises. This article develops a theory of resilience citizenship education that focuses on preparing citizens and communities to anticipate, adapt to, and recover from such disruptions. Using a qualitative integrative literature review, the study analysed books, journal articles and academic documents on resilience, citizenship and civic education, and synthesised them thematically. The review is organised around four themes: (1) the terminology of resilience and the shift from classical and contemporary citizenship towards resilience citizenship; (2) resilience citizenship education as a set of dynamic, collective and narrative capacities; (3) the classification of resilience indicators—ecological, social, economic, institutional, infrastructural and community-competence; and (4) critical responses to resilience, including security-driven resilience and the critique of resilience as a neoliberal or depoliticising discourse. The synthesis shows that resilience citizenship education extends the aims of civic education from compliance and participation to preparedness, adaptive capacity, solidarity, and collective action, while requiring critical safeguards so resilience does not normalise inequality or shift responsibility from the state to citizens. The article proposes a conceptual framework linking individual, community, and institutional resilience with the personally responsible, participatory, and justice-oriented dimensions of citizenship, and outlines implications for civic education curricula in Indonesia.