You know how there are certain words that just look wrong? Like, when you spell them out and look at them for a while, they come to seem fake or misspelled or something? To me, “citizenship” is one such word. No, this has nothing to do with this week’s blog prompt, but I felt the need to get that off my chest. With that out of the way, we can now proceed to our regularly scheduled programming.
When reflecting back upon my own experiences with citizenship education in school, I was surprised at just how prevalent it was, and how little I was aware of it. It’s kind of like how, often when you get a new vehicle, you suddenly start noticing that particular make and model of vehicle everywhere when previously you hadn’t even known of its existence. Once you gain that awareness, it’s suddenly all you notice.
Still, my experiences with citizenship education came in fits and starts; sometimes it was all we talked about, while other times there was nary a whisper. I don’t know if nary is the proper word for this context but it sounds good so I’m sticking with it. Anyways, I want to get into a few examples of the various ways citizenship education appeared in my own schooling, and touch upon certain implications of such.
When I was in elementary school, our citizenship education largely fell under the Participatory Citizen category–as per Westheimer and Kahne’s categorizations in their article, “What Kind of Citizen?” (2004). Here, we focused immensely on how governments operate, and participated in a variety of political activities such as creating our own political parties and running election campaigns for them, as well as acting out the process of turning a bill into a law. We also participated in a mock vote during one of the federal elections, setting up voting booths in the library and printing off “official” ballots to mark off (we even practiced how to properly mark the ballot, and what to do if you make a mistake). Of course, with this “election” we mostly just voted for who our parents were going to vote for (with the exception of that one group of boys who voted Green Party just for laughs), but at least we still learned some of the practical steps in voting and were encouraged to participate in the future once of age.
While I’m sure there was some degree of citizenship education present during my middle school years, I cannot recall any specific examples right now–perhaps as I have repressed many of those memories pertaining to my “dark age” of education. The only situation I vaguely remember was sitting on the floor of our library one afternoon, gathered around the TV cart as we watched Obama’s inauguration–but even then I don’t recall the actual purpose of the experience or if I was even in middle school at the time. It might’ve been elementary still.
Moving on, my high school experience had a blend of both the Participatory Citizen and Personally Responsible Citizen–with the latter the primary focus. It was in high school that we were required to volunteer within our community, and we engaged in a variety of social endeavors to help out in other communities as well–including collecting food bank donations, raising money for the SK Cancer Society, and participating in Operation Christmas Child. We also spent a few PE classes performing odd jobs in the community–maybe raking leaves for an older couple, or picking up garbage from the streets. There were even campaigns within the school to build a more unified student body, with the older students going down to the elementary end and helping out those students with reading and other simple activities.
Still, there was the Participatory Citizen category evident–most apparent while taking Law 30. Here, we continued to learn about government and such, but we also got to sit in on youth court and visit the RCMP depot. There was also a point in my Grade 12 year where our entire high school end–a whopping 40 of us, if I’m being generous–became our school’s SRC, and as such we learned how to and were tasked with effectively leading meetings and debates.
Throughout my schooling, there was no aim of creating the Justice Oriented Citizen, and I have a couple of ideas on why that might be. First, I noticed that the Saskatchewan curriculum itself is not oriented towards social justice, so it follows then that teachers would be less apt to conduct their teaching as such. The SK curriculum’s Broad Areas of Learning include building a “Sense of Self, Community, and Place” and creating “Engaged Citizens.” In addition, one of the cross-curricular competencies is developing social responsibility. In each of these cases, the curriculum speaks to making a positive difference in the lives of others and within communities, but neglects the imperative to address the cause of the needs. In a way, it encourages students to treat the symptoms instead of the true problem, and limits the possibilities for enacting meaningful and long-lasting change.
Second, I feel that teachers may shy away from a Justice Oriented teaching as they do not wish to teach the “difficult stuff.” It is easy enough to encourage students to be kind to others and to help out in the community, and although it can be a trickier subject, analyzing the roles of government and the different styles of democracy is still well-attainable. However, many teachers are hesitant to delve deeper into such topics as they a) feel unequipped to deal with such loaded ideas, b) fear backlash from students’ parents and other points of authority within the school division, and/or c) do not see the necessity for bringing such highly politicized topics into the supposedly neutral school space.
There are several implications that arise from these reasonings, but I really just want to look at the final point for now. This excuse is problematic in that it assumes the neutrality of school spaces, as though schools exist in some sort of social vacuum wherein the influences of society–the governing bodies, the students’ upbringings and statuses, the teachers own biases, etc.–have no effect on education. It’s a ridiculous notion, especially when considering how prevalent political messaging is within schools–as exemplified previously. Therefore, it is important that we acknowledge the true nature of schools and use that acknowledgment as a means of creating more authentic and meaningful learning experiences within the classroom.
Overall, despite the lopsided prevalence of the Personally Responsible and Participatory Citizens over the Justice Oriented Citizen, we must recognize the need for an integration of all three orientations in schools. The ideal citizen will have several of the characteristics emphasized within each of these categories, with none more significant than the others. Thus, if we want our students to become advocates for positive change, we need to ensure that they are equipped with all the necessary tools for enacting such change–not just bits and pieces, but the full arsenal of citizenship. That is the key to creating change that is truly meaningful.
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