Fostering Critical Thinking about Citizenship Education in Particular Contexts: Notes from an Anglo-Turkish Student Teachers' Exchange Programme

Hugh Busher,Tony Lawson,Chris Wilkins

doi:10.2304/rcie.2012.7.2.260

Hugh Busher, Tony Lawson + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2304/rcie.2012.7.2.260

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Abstract

Student teachers and staff from three universities in Turkey and from Leicester University, England took part in an exchange programme in Turkey and Britain in 2008–2009. Funding for this from the European Union (EU) and Turkey was in part related to Turkey's application for EU membership and currently contested discourses about the nature of citizenship, citizenship education and European identity. The views of participating student teachers' on these topics were collected before the exchange visits, during the preparation phase, by a questionnaire and during the exchange visits by focus groups. Staff reflections on the programme were gathered after it was completed. Students' understandings of citizenship, the education processes of the Other and their own definitions of appropriate pedagogy were challenged by their experiences during the exchange visits. They also questioned the construction of knowledge engendered by the programme choosing atypical school sites for their visits. Participating staff reflected critically on the impact of the programme on different institutional agendas.

Highlights

In 2008-2009 student teachers from three universities in Turkey and from Leicester University, England took part in an exchange programme focused on the nature of citizenship, citizenship education and European identity in the two countries
As well as helping student teachers to gain some limited experience of schooling in another country, the project investigated student teachers’ views of citizenship and citizenship education in a European context and how this was affected by their experiences on the exchange programme
Student teachers’ perspectives on the substantive issues and the exchange programme were gathered in two phases, through a questionnaire that was carried out before the exchange visits, and focus-group interviews that were conducted during the exchange

Summary

Introduction

In 2008-2009 student teachers from three universities in Turkey and from Leicester University, England took part in an exchange programme focused on the nature of citizenship, citizenship education and European identity in the two countries. The theoretical constructs that frame this article are threefold: the impact of national policy contexts on education, citizenship education; the construction of critical thinking and reflection on practice; and the impact of strange encounters, such as exchange programmes, on developing people’s thinking – in this case, that of the student teachers and university staff taking part in the exchange. Schools are sites in which different macro and local policy perspectives intersect to create micro educational policies and practices (Riley & Docking, 2002) that reflect the particular but contested values of their participants and stakeholders (Begley, 1999), and through which contestation participants and stakeholders can construct dynamic communities of learners (Starratt, 2007) This has led some authors to argue cautiously that teachers may develop particular nationally identifiable approaches to teaching (Givvin et al, 2005) through their ‘apprenticeship’ as students in their country’s schools. They encourage students to work together in particular contexts to (re)construct their understandings of practice, and of the values embedded in practice, and to reflect on the appropriateness of those values and practices in particular (policy) contexts (McGregor, 2000)

Methodology and Methods

Conclusions