(Re)creating citizenship Saskatchewan high school students' understandings of the 'good' citizen

Citizenship education is of central importance in curriculum and schooling, as evidenced by the proliferation of research and writing in the area over the last 20 years. Building on existing citizenship literature, this paper discusses one aspect of a larger project exploring the ways in which citiz...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of curriculum studies Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 37 - 59
Main Authors Tupper, Jennifer A, Cappello, Michael P
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Routledge 01.01.2012
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Beliefs
Citizenship
Citizenship Education
Citizenship Responsibility
Cultural Pluralism
Curricula
Curriculum
Discourse Analysis
Environmental Education
Familiarity
Focus Groups
Foreign Countries
Gemeinschaftskunde
High School Students
Interpersonal Relationship
Knowledge Level
Lifelong Learning
multiculturalism
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Multikulturalität
Nationalism
Nationalismus
Perceptions
Politische Bildung
Relevance (Education)
Saskatchewan
Secondary school students
Social Studies
Student Attitudes
Visual Aids
Canada
Saskatchewan Canada
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Summary:Citizenship education is of central importance in curriculum and schooling, as evidenced by the proliferation of research and writing in the area over the last 20 years. Building on existing citizenship literature, this paper discusses one aspect of a larger project exploring the ways in which citizenship is discursively produced in officially mandated school curriculum and the ways in which students themselves understand and take up narratives of 'good' citizenship in light of their diverse experiences and social locations. Using an image-based approach to research, students visually represented and then discussed with researchers their perceptions of good citizenship. What became apparent through the analysis of images and focus group transcripts was the ease with which students, regardless of their social locations, reproduced commonsense narratives of 'good' citizenship, including socially sanctioned concern for the environment, a sense of nationalism and national pride, respect for relationships and a communal ethos, and the official discourse of multiculturalism. Missing from students' understandings of 'good' citizenship was any kind of social analysis, suggesting that they largely accepted citizenship as universally realized and experienced by individuals.
ISSN:0022-0272
1366-5839
1366-5839
DOI:10.1080/00220272.2011.618951