Abstract
How elementary teachers address citizenship is important in 21st century teaching and learning. Situating citizenship education within the varied global contexts of schooling and connecting content to pedagogical approach is a complex task. Even so, citizenship education can be the philosophical underpinning, or vision, for a teaching pedagogy that engages students in active, creative, and critical ways. This chapter illustrates key features and priorities for citizenship education by exploring the concepts of perspective taking, inquiry pedagogy and critical pedagogy and how they work together using the example of elementary school Social Studies in a Canadian context. Using examples from previous studies and narratives from elementary school teachers, this chapter includes portraits of classroom teachers’ work using a critical inquiry-based approach. The chapter illustrates how resources can be used in teachers’ planning to design learning that is nestled in citizenship education. Government curriculum documents as well as scholarly literature and teaching resources can support critical-inquiry for citizenship education. This teaching can lead to active, engaged citizens. There are many approaches to citizenship education; drawing awareness to perspectives and pedagogical possibilities is essential in teacher development. Teacher education is the ideal place for introducing and connecting foundations of education to best practice.
Highlights
What is citizenship education? Why teach it? How to teach it? These are common questions teacher candidates in my teacher education program wonder as they prepare to become elementary school teachers
This chapter explores how citizenship education may be developed as a perspective and pedagogical approach to teaching
To reach that understanding teachers must engage in citizenship education through critical inquiry pedagogy
Summary
What is citizenship education? Why teach it? How to teach it? These are common questions teacher candidates in my teacher education program wonder as they prepare to become elementary school teachers. What of elementary school subjects and citizenship education? Citizenship education can be the philosophical underpinning or vision for teaching in the elementary school classroom. This chapter explores how citizenship education may be developed as a perspective and pedagogical approach to teaching. By developing a vision or perspective for citizenship education teachers can incorporate contemporary approaches like critical inquiry-based pedagogy to teach citizenship in all subject areas. The first part of the chapter explores perspective taking and the contemporary pedagogical concepts of inquiry and critical pedagogy and how they work together. Drawing examples from previous studies of elementary school teachers, this chapter include portraits of classroom teachers’ work using a critical inquiry-based approach. Government curriculum documents as well as teaching resources can support perspectives when applying a critical-inquiry lens to citizenship education
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