Abstract
Children’s civic lives are increasingly shaped by digitally mediated learning, communication and participation, yet elementary citizenship education still gives limited attention to the competencies required for responsible online life. Existing research is dispersed across digital literacy and rights, online safety, cyberbullying, family mediation, teacher competence and digital participation, leaving no age-progressive curriculum architecture for elementary citizenship education. This critical literature review examined how that curriculum should be reconstructed. A purposive corpus of 28 core studies published mainly from 2020 to 2025 was analyzed, with nine conceptual and policy sources used for contextual support. A hybrid deductive-inductive coding process produced six analytical categories, while thematic overlap was managed through multiple descriptive codes and one primary category for corpus mapping. The synthesis indicates that digital citizenship is best understood as digital civic competence rather than a set of technical skills or safety rules. Four interdependent competencies are proposed: digital awareness, digital ethics, digital security and digital participation. Each is translated into developmental indicators for lower, middle and upper elementary grades and linked to authentic cases, role-play, guided simulations, reflective inquiry, family activities and performance assessment. The review contributes an integrated framework that connects civic knowledge, skills and dispositions with children’s digital experiences. Its implementation requires sustained teacher development, a supportive school digital culture and consistent parent-school partnership.
Keywords: Citizenship Education, Civic Competence, Curriculum Reconstruction, Digital Citizenship, Digital Participation, Elementary Education.