Rights and Obligations in Civic Education: A Content Analysis of the<i>National Standards for Civics and Government</i>

Gonzales, Marti Hope; Riedel, Eric; Avery, Patricia G.; Sullivan, John L.

doi:10.1080/00933104.2001.10505931

Cited by 22 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…3 3 The National Standards for Civics and Government and many state standards are essentially studies of US government. For example, the state of Pennsylvania's Academic Standards for Civics and Government does not make any mention of a global dimension to citizenship, globalisation or to changes in citizenship (Gonzales et al , 2001). …”

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confidence: 99%

‘To benefit the world by whatever means possible’: Adolescents' constructed meanings for global citizenship

Myers

2010

British Educational Res J

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This article reports on the ways that 77 students in an international studies programme constructed meanings for global citizenship. The focus was on their personal meanings for the topic and how they articulated a global identity with their national civic beliefs. Data were collected from online discussion boards, written essays and 20 interviews. A key finding was that the students' political language for global citizenship, examined here in terms of purpose, membership and relationship with national citizenship, was predominantly a moral commitment framed in universal language. A second finding was that the students understood global citizenship as a heterogeneous and complex affiliation shaped by a range of sources. The implication is that citizenship education emphasizing a narrow notion of patriotism may encourage students to disengage from civic life because it does not represent their lived experiences and identities. Insights for making citizenship education practices more inclusive are discussed.

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confidence: 99%

‘To benefit the world by whatever means possible’: Adolescents' constructed meanings for global citizenship

Myers

2010

British Educational Res J

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“…Inasmuch as curricular texts guide the teaching of citizenship in many U.S. schools (Gonzales, Riedel, Avery, & Sullivan, 1999;Gonzales, Riedel, Avery, Sullivan, & Bos, 2004), the present study shows that cultivating students' multiple civic identities necessitates teachers' scrutiny of curriculum documents in ways that reveal the nationalistic and cultural biases in these materials (Banks, 2004(Banks, , 2008. Abe Brody and Todd Roberts recognized that their "American textbooks" were predominantly "Western-centric."…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…Their observations echo researchers' contentions that social studies textbooks in the United States are skewed toward Western and "individualistic" perspectives of civic rights and obligations. While teaching students that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of individual citizens, teachers must also be respectful of the communitarian orientations that characterize many minority students' home cultures (Gonzales et al, 1999(Gonzales et al, , 2004. Some scholars have noted that American history and social studies textbooks tend to portray a grand narrative that reinforces an image of American exceptionalism (Hahn, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling Multiple Conceptions of Citizenship: International School Teachers' Beliefs and Practice

Alviar-Martin

2011

Journal of Education

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This qualitative case study examined the beliefs and practice of two teachers in an international school in order to inform debates about the potential of education for critical, transnational, and multiple citizenship. Data from interviews and observations indicated that teachers conceptualized and taught citizenship in ways that reflected the fluid and evolving nature of civic identity, rights, and obligations. However, the teachers noted challenges in linking their students' daily civic experiences and academic programs, and reconciling the school's civic ethos with the wider, nation-centric discursive practices of citizenship in the United States.

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“…Since an individual's rights, duties, and responsibilities can only be defined within the context of that individual's social roles and networks, membership of a community, therefore, provides an all-important context within which an individual operates. Individuals are not seen as "rights-bearers" removed from the context of community (Gonzales, Riedel, Avery, & Sullivan, 2001) and they do not have "equal, innate, intrinsic, and inviolate rights independent of participation in community" (Ames, 1997, p. 195).…”

Section: Harmonymentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Harmony and Diversity: The Affordances and Constraints of Harmony as an Educational Goal

2017

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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Background/Context There is a pressing need to consider how citizens should live together, especially in societies that are increasingly ethnically and politically diverse. Even though multicultural education is constructed very differently and serves very different purposes in different national contexts, relatively little attention has been paid to how education systems of countries such as China, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates give greater emphasis to the concepts of harmony and social cohesion. Purpose/Objective This study explores some of the ways in which multicultural education is defined and conceptualized in East Asian countries. This paper draws on the case study of Singapore to interrogate the concept of harmony, investigate the implications of the state incorporating this concept as an educational goal for the public education system, and examine teachers’ understandings of multicultural education. Research Design The study adhered to the qualitative case study design. The data consisted primarily of semistructured individual interviews with 24 Singapore secondary social studies teachers, as well as relevant curricular and political documents such as the national Social Studies curriculum, political speeches, and official government publications. Guided by the literature, the interviewers asked questions to surface the participants’ understandings of the definition, purposes, and practices of multicultural education. Subsequently, the interviewers used follow-up questions to probe further and elicit additional description of how the teachers arrived at these understandings. The data analysis, shaped largely by the constant comparative method, was data-driven and inductive. Conclusions/Recommendations By illustrating some of the affordances and constraints of incorporating harmony as an educational goal, this study offers multicultural education scholars and teacher educators an opportunity to better understand some of the ways in which multicultural education is conceptualized in East Asian countries with strong Confucian traditions. The findings from this study suggest that a focus on harmony as an educational goal may help facilitate a move away from programs that emphasize the development of individual students’ social and political competencies towards programs and policies designed to promote communal trust and social cohesion. Finally, this study illustrates some of the challenges teachers face when balancing the goals of building trust and harmony within society and interrogating entrenched interests, institutional inequality, and unequal power relations.

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Rights and Obligations in Civic Education: A Content Analysis of theNational Standards for Civics and Government

Cited by 22 publications

References 15 publications

‘To benefit the world by whatever means possible’: Adolescents' constructed meanings for global citizenship

‘To benefit the world by whatever means possible’: Adolescents' constructed meanings for global citizenship

Reconciling Multiple Conceptions of Citizenship: International School Teachers' Beliefs and Practice

Social Harmony and Diversity: The Affordances and Constraints of Harmony as an Educational Goal

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