Schools are the primary vehicle for civic education,
where the goal is to help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives (CIRCLE, 2003: 6).
This ties into what we learned from why teach social
studies. Its about us doing the job to help prepare them to be proper citizens and take part in the goings on in their country.
The companion question of What are the qualities of
a good citizen? yielded responses that were inconsistent with the high rank teachers placed on the citizenship purpose of social studies.
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Involvement was characterized by attention to issues
in the local community and beyond. Their concern was not communicating what they knew to students, but rather helping them gain a broader understanding of perspectives uncommon to them This study shows that teachers conceptualizations of citizenship education can have a tremendous impact on the sorts of citizenship learning experiences students receive, and that these conceptualizations may pose barriers to effective social studies teaching This news can be taken as good or bad.
This I think shows diversity amongst teachers in what is
important to being a good citizen. I do not believe this is a bad thing because intellectual diversity is extremely important. Why kids hate Social Studies can also be rebutted with this information as it can be used to show how kids need to be aware as citizens. When it comes to helping students gain a broader content I think this is extremely important because it helps people open their minds. This makes me think I would register well in the participatory group, that said the other groups have their point. This fits well into the point Ive been making with my notes and concepts up to this point, how we teach has tremendous effect on our students and how well adjusted they are to the world we live in.
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What I mean is it is good that teachers have a set way of
approaching a class, and I believe that if you blend these you have a formula for success. It is when we bend too hard
Formatting:
to one extreme or another that we run into trouble.
Dopen, Frans, Thomas Misco, and Nancy Patterson. Beyond personally responsible: A study of teacher conceptualizations of citizenship education. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice. 2012, pp. 191-206.