Book chapter
The Struggle for ‘Thick’ or Transformative Citizenship: A Global Perspective on Educators’ Views on Democracy and Citizenship
Global Citizenship Education in Teacher Education: Theoretical and Practical Issues, pp.56-82
Taylor and Francis
2020
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Abstract
This chapter reports on the research of the international Global Doing Democracy Research Project, (GDDRP) which currently has more than 50 scholars in over 25 countries examining perspectives and perceptions of democracy in education among pre- and in-service teachers, teacher education academics and educators, in general. The focus of the project is on how education supports, cultivates and engages in, and with, democracy. Using a critical pedagogical framework the research compares and contrasts these findings and implications across diverse political contexts, including the old democracies, emerging democracies (those countries coming out of autocratic, military or other dictatorships and/or colonial rule) and what we have termed the new democracies (places and countries that are doing democracy differently as a result of public initiatives found in Latin America). Using a critical pedagogical framework datum from online surveys and focus group discussions, global scholars have collected, between 2008 and 2017, both quantitative and qualitative responses of contrasting understandings of democracy from teachers and pre-service teachers. I begin by outlining the development of the GDDRP, the concepts of thick and thin democracy and why this is important in relation to contemporary debates about the state of civics and citizenship education (CCE), and then explain the conceptual framework of critical pedagogy and methodology. The datum analyzed is discussed in relation to neoliberalism and indicates that the teachers in these studies too often view democracy in a narrow or thin way and that this may impact on their classroom practice where they would be teaching about but not for democracy. A more critical and thicker understanding of democracy is suggested as essential if we desire our students to become active and transformative citizens. As a conclusion I present a reconceptualization of W estheimer and Kahne’s (2004b) “Three Kinds of Citizens” that is expanded to include five distinct kinds of citizenship.
Details
- Title
- The Struggle for ‘Thick’ or Transformative Citizenship: A Global Perspective on Educators’ Views on Democracy and Citizenship
- Creators
- David Zyngier - Southern Cross University
- Contributors
- Daniel Schugurensky (Editor of compilation)Charl Wolhuter (Editor of compilation)
- Publication Details
- Global Citizenship Education in Teacher Education: Theoretical and Practical Issues, pp.56-82
- Publisher
- Taylor and Francis
- Identifiers
- 991012870598802368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Education; School of Education
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Book chapter