Students For Citizenship Research Articles

Sowing the seeds of citizenship and social justice

Students enrolled in two sections of the public speaking courses at a small liberal arts university were required to do 10 hours of service in a local not for profit agency. Student comments indicate that doing service-learning in these courses affected their self-perceptions and expectations as deaf persons in a local community. This article will also discuss the ways the university is responding to the service-learning pedagogy to encourage citizenship and social justice values for students who tend to be somewhat alienated from the surrounding community.

Violências e representações de gênero no cotidiano escolar

Violence leaves insecure and concerns the population, to understand it on daily school becomes frightening. Often this violence is directed to girls. The objective of this study is to unveil the expression of violence in daily school implications/barriers in the construction of gender identity and complete citizenship of students from public schools. The case study, the participant observation and semistructured interviews conducted with the non-probabilistic intentional sample broaden the understanding of the phenomenon and the construction of identity and gender of students of the State School Jorge Amado, N. S. do Socorro-SE. Preliminary results show the violence as an expression of masculinity. The school is located opposite the urgent challenges, the study on violence in schools and gender as a category of analysis, presents itself as a possibility for expansion and understanding of the phenomenon with a view to their confrontation.

THE INSIGHTS FOR IMPROVEMENTS OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS ACTIVITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF CHANGES

The purpose of this article is to reveal the possibilities to improve the quality of the university’s activities and studies. Methodology – the article is prepared on the basis of systemic and comparative analysis of scientific literature, case studies, conclusions of domestic and world-wide experiences in quality assurance of Universities, Bologna process documentation analysis and their implementation experiences. Scientific problem and novelty – there are gaps in the research of management of improvement processes in Universities in the context of dynamic changes. The article discusses the impact of globalization processes that make impact to Universities and study quality assurance methods and tools. Peculiarities, problematic areas and obstacles of effective quality management system (QMS) implementation are defined in the article. There are defined models of University’s management systems, departmental interactions, identification and achievement of general goals, customer requirements. Authors of the article propose evolutionary change of study quality and improvement of university as a whole. It is advised to implement general principles of quality management and subsystem of control of main study processes in the first stage. Second stage shall include the implementation of requirements defined by European University Association. The third stage shall achieve continuous improvement based on EFQM Excellence model, recognized international standards for Universities and accreditation requirements. Recent globalization in economy, science and studies require additional efforts to integrate newest management methods, principles of sustainability and social responsibility. The quality outcomes shall be achieved throughout systematic processes of integrated QMS, and shall develop citizenship of students and academic community as a whole.

Active Student Participation and Citizenship Education

What are the possibilities for active student participation in citizenship education and how are students involved in the school as a community? We researched active student participation in schools and in out-of-school learning activities: students’ own lessons, their own school, their own community, but also society beyond the school. The study shows that in particular participation in one’s own lessons and in society outside one’s own community is often disregarded by teachers when they consider citizenship education. But it are precisely these forms of participation that affect the life world of students and which enhance the world view of students outside their own local community. The analysis is complemented by looking at the goals of the activity: is the focus on carrying out the activity, on organizing it, or on analysis and social change?

‘Trusting’ schools to meet the academic needs of African‐American students? Suburban mothers’ perspectives

According to Tschannen‐Moran, ‘Principals and teachers need to build trusting relationships with students and parents in order to accomplish their essential goal of fostering student achievement and equipping students for citizenship.’ In the context of organizational trust, this study explored such relationships with six, middle‐class African‐American mothers. The mothers openly and honestly shared their thoughts regarding the suburban public education system’s ability to adequately partner with them in building the reciprocal trusting relationships necessary to promote school performance and better meet the academic needs of their sons and daughters.

Circles of Influence: The Role of School-Community Partnerships in the Character Formation and Citizenship of Secondary School Students

Partnerships between schools, families, and communities provide a support net for each student and play a role in promoting academic success (Epstein, 1995; Shapiro, Ginsberg, & Brown, 2002) and moral development. This article is based on a qualitative study of a secondary school with numerous partnerships selected from a southern Ontario school board characterized by economic and cultural diversity. Drawing on the analysis of archival data, observations, and 19 interviews with the educators and community partners at one of the schools, it was found that the study participants shared an understanding of education as the joint responsibility of the school and the community. This article discusses the partnership practices and in so doing, the roles of community partners in encouraging moral development by supporting students academically, emotionally, and socially. When community partners provided learning opportunities and resources not available in the school, the students enhanced their skill sets and were exposed to diverse community values. Through partnership activities, civic responsibility was promoted, and students’ social capital was strengthened as they established their own links with the community in which they lived.

Advancing critical thinking about adult basic education through academic service learning

To educate university students to be critical engagers of ABET requires the reorganisation of the educational sites in ways that enable students to make rulings about how society is historically and socially constructed. Academic service-learning is a pedagogy that lends itself to such reorganisation and outcomes. In this article I report on research that I conducted on how an academic service learning module can advance critical citizenship in students. After the initial lecture sessions in the university classroom, the students are placed at an ABET center where they experience first hand the academic and social environment of the ABET learner. Data was collected through reflective journals and a focused reflective interview with the students after their service period was completed. Based on my analysis of their reflective journal entries and transcriptions, the findings show that the B Ed Honours students grew personally and professionally. The narratives that they produced were emancipatory in that s...

Social Justice Through Service Learning: Community Colleges as Ground Zero

Community colleges educate students from both oppressed and marginalized groups, yet there is almost no literature on community colleges and issues of social justice. Student participation in service learning has been tentatively linked to development of a social justice lens. In this study, I analyze community college students' post-course civic engagement surveys to investigate the effect of service learning experiences on the emergence of any of three types of citizenship: personally responsible citizenship, participatory citizenship, or justice-oriented citizenship. Findings were mixed for personally responsible citizenship, but there were significant data supporting the development of participatory citizenship and justice-oriented citizenship in students who had taken between two and five previous courses that had included service learning. These encouraging findings support the idea that service learning plays a role in helping community college students transform inequitable structures in their communities.

Global citizenship: abstraction or framework for action?

This paper explores whether the notion of ’global citizenship‚ is too abstract to be valuable in driving curriculum policy and active citizenship for students. The paper looks firstly at three of the key aspects of an active role: a concern for social justice; rights; and culture and cultural conflict. It then examines actual curricula and programmes of study for global citizenship, and compares the conceptual frameworks, progression routes and emphases within these curricula. It moves on to review the research on teachers' practices and orientations in teaching global citizenship, finding some variation and problems, particularly in areas such as teaching controversial issues. Factors in successful impact of global citizenship education are outlined, such as various forms of democratic decision-making and community service. Constraints are nonetheless identified of curriculum overload, resources, time and confidence. The paper then describes existing research on the needs and wishes of learners within global citizenship. The conclusion confirms the consensus on the importance of global citizenship and argues that it can be turned into a more radical and politicised curriculum area; however, more research is needed on impact of the learning, including research by students themselves.

Institutional Culture and Civic Responsibility: An Ethnographic Study

Student citizenship development is an important goal of higher education that is rarely considered through a cultural lens. This ethnographic study of a research university is an examination of campus ideologies and cultural forms that address five dimensions of civic responsibility. The findings illustrate how the beliefs and cultural equipment specific to a campus can result in a unique institutional approach to the development of student civic responsibility.

Building a Public Scholarship: The Capacity of Service-Learning Instruction to Foster Student Learning and Engaged Student Citizenship in the Biological Sciences

Building a Public Scholarship: The Capacity of Service-Learning Instruction to Foster Student Learning and Engaged Student Citizenship in the Biological Sciences

Using Outdoor Experiential Training To Stimulate Emotional Intelligence Competencies and Group Leadership Skills Among Undergraduate Students

This study reports on the use of outdoor experiential training as a methodology for accelerating the group citizenship and leadership behaviors of undergraduate students. Using the emotional intelligence foundational skills of interpersonal competence and intrapersonal insight as a frame of reference for skill acquisition and measurement, it outlines the results of a self-assessment instrument and a small group problem solving exercise. Students reported a significant increase in group citizenship skills and the problem solving exercise indicated behavioral manifestations of these skills. The importance of incorporating the lessons of outdoor experiential training into an engaged classroom environment, mythological limitations, and opportunities for further research are discussed.

“Outing” Social Justice: Transforming Civic Education Within the Challenges of Heteronormativity, Heterosexism, and Homophobia

Civic education and its call for social studies to prepare students for citizenship in a participatory democracy have been limited to the political domain and touted as participation with the already existing political domain. This paper is a reflection of how engaging with and challenging heterosexism, homophobia, and heteronormativity in a Diversity in Social Studies Course taught in a large university in New York City can create a “disruptive voice” to challenge the hegemonic discourse of democratic citizenship. This type of challenge provides the space for preservice and in-service teachers to reconceptualize participation in democratic citizenship as social justice to fight for human rights and equality by changing the existing political domain rather than just participating within it.

DETERMINANTS OF PERSISTENCE OF GRADUATE STUDENTS IN PH.D. PROGRAMS

ABSTRACTThis study utilizes longitudinal data on individual students enrolled in doctoral programs from 1989 to 1993 to identify patterns and determinants of their persistence. For each of five disciplines (biochemistry, economics, English, mathematics, and mechanical engineering), a survival model is specified to explain student persistence through the first four years of graduate study. Variables hypothesized to explain persistence include student aptitude and achievement, financial support, and demographic characteristics, as well as characteristics of the programs in which students were enrolled. The statistical estimates reveal significant differences across disciplines, but several general results are apparent: a student with given characteristics is more likely to persist at more selective institutions; other things being equal, a student is more likely to persist if he or she has greater financial support, higher GRE Verbal or Quantitative scores, and a master's degree. Student citizenship, gender, ethnicity, and age are not consistently related to persistence across disciplines.

Rationale, Benefits, and Methods of Service-Learning in Marketing Education

This article presents a service-learning method in which students combine community service with academic study. Service-learning, which enhances the teaching/learning process and college/community relations, can be integrated in a variety of marketing courses as internship assignments, consultancies, or participant/observer volunteer activities. The learning outcomes include development of leadership and problem-solving skills, connecting the theoretical with the practical, and educating students for citizenship.

Once and Future Partners: The State and Its University

Public universities, their states and the citizenry have a long established social contract of partnership in American higher education, and this relationship has been enormously productive. However, it is now in the process of being “reinvented” within a climate of changing attitudes and priorities; and the partners need to work at improving the partnership. Four steps for so doing are proposed—lifting the public dialogue about higher education, addressing the meaning of accountability, providing universities with greater management flexibility, and preparing students for citizenship.

Academic Freedom and the Preparation of Social Studies Teachers

By its very nature the social studies curriculum has as a major emphasis the task of preparing students for citizenship. In order to successfully prepare students for this task, teachers must be adequately prepared to provide a learning environment that encourages inquiry and that deals with the most pressing problems facing each group. As a result of dealing with controversial issues, teachers must also be prepared to deal with possible challenges to the curriculum content. To what degree should social studies preservice teachers be prepared to deal with the issue of academic freedom? A recent survey of social studies methods professors indicated general agreement that preservice teachers should be required to investigate academic freedom issues and most reported that they provided the experience in their methods courses. Social studies methods professors were less certain, however, as to whether preservice teachers were aware of academic freedom issues that occurred within their field placements.

Return of the Citizen: A Survey of Recent Work on Citizenship Theory

There has been an explosion of interest in the concept of citizenship among political theorists. In 1978, it could be confidently stated that "the concept of citizenship has gone out of fashion among political thinkers" (van Gunsteren 1978, p. 9). Fifteen years later, citizenship has become the "buzz word" among thinkers on all points of the political spectrum (Heater 1990, p. 293; Vogel and Moran 1991, p. x). There are a number of reasons for this renewed interest in citizenship in the 1990s. At the level of theory, it is a natural evolution in political discourse because the concept of citizenship seems to integrate the demands ofjustice and community membership-the central concepts of political philosophy in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively. Citizenship is intimately linked to ideas of individual entitlement on the one hand and of attachment to a particular community on the other. Thus it may help clarify what is really at stake in the debate between liberals and communitarians. Interest in citizenship has also been sparked by a number of recent political events and trends throughout the world-increasing voter apathy and long-term welfare dependency in the United States, the resurgence of nationalist movements in Eastern Europe, the stresses created by an increasingly multicultural and multiracial population in Western Europe, the backlash against the welfare state in Thatcher's England, the failure of environmental policies that rely on voluntary citizen cooperation, and so forth. These events have made clear that the health and stability of a modern democracy depends, not only on the justice of its 'basic structure' but also on the qualities and attitudes of its citizens:' for example,

Discovering Innovative Curricular Models for School Geography

Abstract Over the next decade or so, the National Assessment for Educational Progress in Geography and the Geographic Education Standards Project promise to give geography a new definition as a school subject. This will challenge the educational community to re-examine how geography is taught and learned across all the grade levels, K-12. If geography is to be perceived as an essential subject in preparing students for citizenship as adults, not only must its image change, but its content and the pedagogy that delivers it must be modified as well. To achieve those ends, new curricular models grounded in cogent and applicable research must develop through partnerships of teachers, teacher educators, learning theorists, and professional geographers.

Student Citizenship Participation

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsNancy C. BrownNancy C. Brown is the executive director of the Citizenship Education Clearing House in St. Louis.