Tacit assumptions of citizenship education: A case study in Spanish initial teacher education

Abstract

Current curricula, which organize initial teacher education programs, include, among their stated purposes, preparing teachers to help their future students to grow as global, participatory, and ethically engaged citizens. However, we know little about how teacher educators prepare their students to be citizens. This article analyses how a group of teacher educators from a public university in Spain understand citizenship education, exploring the net of metaphors and idealized visions they seem to share, regardless of their formal conceptualizations. The discussion of the findings considers the implicit hierarchies of these shared assumptions that define what is deemed as real, desirable, and possible in citizenship education. Implications for teacher education are also contemplated.

The End-Purpose of Teaching Social Sciences and the Curricular Inclusion of Social Problems

“…The present study delves into the CE beliefs shared by a group of Spanish preservice teachers with different political views and levels of civic engagement. The study is a continuation of a previous research focused on the teacher educators of the participants (Estelles and Romero 2019) where we found generalized, idealistic views of CE and difficulties in bringing the purposes of CE into teaching practices. The findings of this study have deep implications for teacher education courses aimed at fostering CE and the curricular inclusion of current social issues.…”

“…To reduce the gap between the critical purposes of CE and CE teaching practice, we need to understand the conventions of CE that go beyond the explicit will and intentions of teachers (Estelles and Romero 2019;Bougher 2014;Fischman and Haas 2012). For this reason, the present study aims to explore the CE understandings that remain beyond ideological discrepancies and civic engagement.…”

More than a matter of qualification: Teachers’ thoughts on the purpose of social studies and history teaching in vocational preparation programmes in Swedish upper-secondary school

“…The first of these research areas, education's civic and citizenship function, is undoubtedly the largest The interest in investigating how prospective and active teachers perceive concepts such as citizenship and democracy is considerable (see, e.g., Anderson et al, 1997;Estelles and Romero, 2019;Faden, 2012;Hahn, 2015;Logan, 2011;Marri et al, 2014;Martin, 2008Martin, , 2010Patterson et al, 2012). In some cases, studies have dealt with teachers' ways of viewing the meaning of good citizenship (Bramwell, 2020;Martin et al, 2013;Prior, 1999).…”

Who Needs Global Citizenship Education? A Review of the Literature on Teacher Education

“…Some scholars have also noted the shortcomings of CE models based on the assumption that education is the magic key for creating citizenship and, therefore, more democratic societies (Estellés & Romero, 2019). Apart from the fact that the causal relationship between formal schooling–citizenship–democracy is rather uncertain, 1 this assumption has some perverse implications (Estellés & Romero, 2019; Evans, 2015). The exaltation of this narrative focuses the attention on the role of individuals in creating a solid political culture, hiding the incidence of the socioinstitutional framework.…”