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Educating the 'Good' Citizen: The Politics of School-Based Civic Education Programs

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Abstract:

The notion of democracy occupies a privileged place in our society. Educators and policymakers are increasingly pursuing a broad variety of programs that aim to promote democracy through civic education, service learning, and other pedagogies. The nature of their underlying beliefs, however, differ. For some, a commitment to democracy is associated with liberal notions of freedom, while for others democracy is primarily about equality of opportunity. For some, civil society is the key, while others place their hope for social change in healthy free markets. For some, good citizens in a democracy volunteer, while for others they take active parts in political processes by voting, forming committees, or protesting. ?Educating the ?Good? Citizen" calls attention to this spectrum of ideas about what good citizenship is and what good citizens do. We underscore the political implications of education for democracy and suggest that the narrow and often ideologically conservative conception of citizenship embedded in many current efforts at teaching for democracy reflects not arbitrary choices but rather political choices with political consequences.
In this article, we detail three conceptions of the ?good? citizen: personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented. These emerged from our analysis of both democratic theory and our two year study of educational programs that aim to promote democracy. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from two of the programs we studied, we argue that these three conceptions embody significantly different beliefs regarding the capacities and commitments citizens need in order for democracy to flourish; and they carry significantly different implications for pedagogy, curriculum, evaluation, and educational policy. We conclude that politics and the interests of varied groups are often deeply embedded in the ways we conceptualize, implement, and study efforts to educate for democracy.

Most Common Document Word Stems:

student (188), educ (114), social (108), citizen (104), program (98), respons (88), justic (87), citizenship (81), communiti (78), polit (77), person (69), particip (60), differ (60), develop (57), democrat (56), work (56), civic (55), democraci (53), baysid (45), servic (45), school (45),

Author's Keywords:

Keywords: Civic Education, Democracy, Teaching, School, Political Education, Citizenship, Education, Voting, Justice, Social Justice, Participatory Democracy, Character Education, Youth, Democratic
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Name: American Political Science Association
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http://www.apsanet.org


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MLA Citation:

Westheimer, Joel. and Kahne, Joseph. "Educating the 'Good' Citizen: The Politics of School-Based Civic Education Programs" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston Marriott Copley Place, Sheraton Boston & Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, Aug 28, 2002 <Not Available>. 2008-10-10 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p65205_index.html>

APA Citation:

Westheimer, J. and Kahne, J. , 2002-08-28 "Educating the 'Good' Citizen: The Politics of School-Based Civic Education Programs" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston Marriott Copley Place, Sheraton Boston & Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts Online <.PDF>. 2008-10-10 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p65205_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The notion of democracy occupies a privileged place in our society. Educators and policymakers are increasingly pursuing a broad variety of programs that aim to promote democracy through civic education, service learning, and other pedagogies. The nature of their underlying beliefs, however, differ. For some, a commitment to democracy is associated with liberal notions of freedom, while for others democracy is primarily about equality of opportunity. For some, civil society is the key, while others place their hope for social change in healthy free markets. For some, good citizens in a democracy volunteer, while for others they take active parts in political processes by voting, forming committees, or protesting. ?Educating the ?Good? Citizen" calls attention to this spectrum of ideas about what good citizenship is and what good citizens do. We underscore the political implications of education for democracy and suggest that the narrow and often ideologically conservative conception of citizenship embedded in many current efforts at teaching for democracy reflects not arbitrary choices but rather political choices with political consequences.
In this article, we detail three conceptions of the ?good? citizen: personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented. These emerged from our analysis of both democratic theory and our two year study of educational programs that aim to promote democracy. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data from two of the programs we studied, we argue that these three conceptions embody significantly different beliefs regarding the capacities and commitments citizens need in order for democracy to flourish; and they carry significantly different implications for pedagogy, curriculum, evaluation, and educational policy. We conclude that politics and the interests of varied groups are often deeply embedded in the ways we conceptualize, implement, and study efforts to educate for democracy.

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Document Type: .pdf
Page count: 52
Word count: 14835
Text sample:
EDUCATING THE ``GOOD'' CITIZEN THE POLITICS OF SCHOOL­BASED CIVIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS Joel Westheimer University of Ottawa 145 Jean­Jaques Lussier Lamoureux Hall Rm. 486 Ottawa Ontario K1n 6n5 joelwestheimer@mac.com (613)562­5800 x4161 Joseph Kahne Mills College 5000 MacArthur Blvd Oakland CA 94613 jkahne@mills.edu (510)430­3275 Paper to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA) Boston MA August 2002 2 Abstract The notion of democracy occup ies a privileged place in our society. Educators and policymakers are
.36 21 IWILL VOLUNTEER (.80 .86) .18 3.10 3.28 .22 21 FOLLOW THE NEWS (.43 .41) .27* 3.13 3.40 .02 21 GOV'T RESPONSIBILITY FOR THOSE IN NEED (.68 .61) .29* 3.19 3.48 .05 21 EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY FOR EMPLOYEES (.83 .87) ­.05 4.37 4.32 .73 21 *p < .05 50 Table 4. Educating for Different Kinds of Citizenship PRE­POST C H A N G E FACTORS MADISON COUNTYYOUTH IN PUBLIC SERVICE BAYSIDE STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO HELP OTHERS


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