Student teachers' perceptions of their role as civic educators: evidence from a large higher education institution in England

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a study concerned with student teachers' perceptions of their role as civic educators. Focusing on student teachers undertaking one-year, pre-service programmes within the secondary age range (11-to 18-years-old) at a large higher education institution in the south of England, the study adopted a mixed methods approach involving a cross-sectional, whole cohort questionnaire and follow-up individual interviews with a small sample of the original cohort.Here we explore the expectations and perceptions of students regarding both preparing pupils for responsible and active citizenship as a general curricular aim, and teaching pupils citizenship education as a statutory subject within the English National Curriculum for secondary schools. The research is presented in the context of a mixed picture (in terms of both policy and practice) in English secondary schools, with evidence suggesting that education for citizenship is often taught by non-specialists and that practice is inconsistent across schools. The findings of our research show that the student teachers perceived their role as civic educators to be important, believed that this was a key part of their role as teachers, and that the strength of both perceptions increased over the course of their programmes. The findings also suggest, however, that the student teachers conceptualised education for citizenship in varied and contrasting ways.

Exploring Teacher Candidates’ Civic Efficacy Through Civic Engagement And Critical Literacy In A Literacy Methods Course

“…Consistent with prior research, these teacher candidates viewed citizenship in ways that could be described as participatory and personally responsible (Peterson, Durrant, & Bentley, 2015;Tupper, 2006;Martin, 2004). A theme that came through in analyzing the teacher candidates' comments about community resources was that they had a strong sense that they needed to help and fix the problems they assumed were present in the community.…”

“…Westheimer and Kahne's work was useful to them in that it gave them a framework to describe the types of citizenship education they were seeing in schools or that they had experienced themselves. Consistent with prior research, they were seeing their responsibility to teach active citizenship and that they saw themselves as civic educators (Peterson, Durrant, & Bentley, 2015), mostly described as being helpful and fixing problems in their communities by teaching and encouraging their students to be participatory citizens but not yet articulating a need to challenge the unjust systems that are at the root of the problems they hoped to fix.…”

“…A study conducted in England surveyed the teacher candidates in their program about their roles as civic educators. They found that as the teacher candidates progressed through a program with mandated "democratic citizenship education" (Peterson, Durrant, & Bentley, 2015, p. 344) they had a strong sense of responsibility to teach active citizenship and viewed themselves as civic educators. However, there was some variation on how they were defining active citizenship.…”

“…The rationales they gave about their teaching decisions and the descriptions of what they were learning reflected the ways in which they were willing and able to enact civic behaviors (Serriere, 2014;Watts & Flanagan, 2007). Much of what the teacher candidates wrote revealed dispositions and behaviors related to participatory and personally responsible citizenship (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004;Peterson, Durrant, & Bentley, 2015). They were also beginning to believe that teachers were responsible for educating citizens; something they said was a new idea to them.…”

Political assumptions underlying pedagogies of national education: The case of student teachers teaching ‘British values’ in England

“…We agree that the role of education and teacher education is essential in preparing student teachers from all specialisms to fulfil their role as civic educators (Peterson et al ., ; Elton‐Chalcraft et al ., ). We argue for a teacher education curriculum that focuses not only on the cognitive but also on the affective domain of citizenship education.…”