Second National Forum of the Citizenship
Education Research Network
Deuxième Forum national du
Réseau de recherche sur l'éducation à la citoyenneté May 27-28, 2000
THÈME DU FORUM
Globalisation, cultures, sociétés: L'apport de la
recherche à l'éducation à la citoyenneté
FORUM THEME
Globalization, Cultures, Societies: The Contribution
of Research on Citizenship Education
Equipment needed:
Overhead needed throughout, plus see below
specific abstracts for additional audio-visual requirements.
Day 1
8:30-9:45
Session I
Séance I
Opening Presentation
Conférence d'ouverture
Citizenship
Education and Globalization: Experiences, Models, and Lessons
Learned (tentative title)
Graham Pike (University of Prince Edward Island) and David Selby (OISE/FEUT,
U Toronto)
10:00-11:15
Session II
Séance II
Citizenship Behaviours,
Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge
Comportements, attitudes, habiletés et connaissances de la
citoyenneté
Children's and Young People's
Understanding of the Ideas of Citizenship
Alan Sears, Gerry Clarke and Andy Hughes (Univeristy of New Brunswick)
In the past several years there has been an explosion of interest in citizenship education
around the world. In several western liberal democracies, most notably the United States
(Quigley & Bahmueller, 1991), Australia (Kennedy, 1997; Print, 1997) and England (Advisory
Group on Citizenship, 1998), significant national initiatives are underway to raise the profile
of citizenship education and improve teaching and learning in the area. In Canada, the Council
of Ministers of Education, Canada has recently put citizenship education on its research
agenda. It is not only relatively long term democracies which are showing an interest in
democratic citizenship education, however. Many new democracies in Europe, Asia, Latin
America, and Africa are also moving to develop curricula and implement programs in the field
(see, for example, Torney-Purta, Schwille & Amadeo, 1999; Cogan & Derricott, Kennedy, 1997;
Oldenquist, 1996).
While all of this policy and curriculum development activity goes forward, there is a very
limited research base to inform it. One of the problems for educators is that they are charged
with the responsibility of communicating an amorphous concept and little guidance is available
in terms of processes that give rise to effective citizenship education. The difficulties
confronting educators could be summarized as follows: There is no generally accepted concept
of citizenship to give direction to the enterprise, nor are there generally accepted indicators
of performance. Little is known about how children, young people and adults understand the
ideas of citizenship; or how such understanding varies with age, gender, class nationality and
culture. The mechanisms through which such understandings are developed are not well
understood.
The work being reported on here seeks to address the second of these difficulties by
"mapping" the way children and young people understand some key ideas and concepts related to
citizenship. The research approach falls under the general rubric of phenomenography which is
"an empirically based approach that aims to identify the qualitatively different ways in which
different people experience, conceptualize, perceive, and understand various kinds of
phenomena." Specifically, data collection involves the use of semi-projective technique
(Greenstein & Tarrow, 1970) supplemented by clinical interviewing (Damon, 1977) emphasizing a
think-aloud component (Torney-Purta, 1994; 1995). The data is analyzed using content analysis
and concept mapping (Torney-Purta, 1994; 1995).
The research, which is being conducted with students between 7 and 18 years of age, is
ongoing and this paper will report on preliminary findings particularly related to the concepts
of dissent and freedom. Early evidence indicates that, while there are a range of
understandings for these concepts among students - even those of the same age - these
understandings tend to cluster into categories. In regard to freedom, for example, some grade
eight students seem to have a very simplistic understanding of the concept seeing it as the
absence of any restraint. Others, however, exhibit a more complex understanding of freedom
existing in tension with legitimate societal interests which limit it.
References
Advisory Group on Citizenship (1998). Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of
Democracy in Schools. London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.
Cogan, John & Derricott, Ray (1998). Citizenship for the 21st Century: An International
Perspective on Education. Stylus Publishing.
Damon, W. (1977). The Social World of the Child. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Greenstein, F.I. & Tarrow, S. (1970). Political Orientations of Children: The Use of
Semi-Projective Technique in Three Nations. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Kennedy, K. (1997). Citizenship Education and the Modern State. London: Falmer Press.
Oldenquist, A (1996). ed., Can Democracy be Taught? Perspectives on Education for Democracy
in the United States, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, South Africa, and Japan.
Bloomington, Indiana: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
Print, M. (1997). Phoenix or Shooting Star? Citizenship Education in Australia. In K.
Kennedy, ed., Citizenship Education and the Modern State. London: Falmer Press, pp.
126-136.
Torney-Purta, J. (1994). Dimensions of Adolescents' Reasoning about Political and Historical
Issues: Ontological Switches, Developmental Processes and Situated Learning. In M. Carretero
and J.F. Voss, eds., Cognitive and Instructional Processes in History and the Social
Sciences. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Torney-Purta, J. (1995). Psychological Theory as a Basis for Political Socialization
Research: Individuals' Construction of Knowledge. Perspectives on Political Science 24:
23-33.
Torney Purta, Judith; Schwille, John & Amadeo Jo-Ann (1999). Civic Education Across
Countries: Twenty four National Case Studies from the IEA Civic Education Project.
Amsterdam: IEA.
The Enactment of Friendship in Identity Formation among Immigrant Youth
as Forms of Citizenship / Le rôle de l'amitié dans la formation
identitaire parmi les jeunes immigrés en tant que formes
de la citoyenneté
Christine Racicot, Christopher I-ming
Chen and Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary)
Drawing upon our on-going qualitative research project on identity formation among Canadian
adolescents residing in a western Canadian city, we examine the enactment of friendship among
these youth who, in moving locally, provincially, nationally or internationally, seek to make
new friends and associations so as to create attachments to the new context.
Analyzing the sociograms of sixty-seven youth, we describe the participants and their drawings
by means of a statistical analysis making use of SPSS, in terms of race, language, gender,
ethnicity, religion and other salient variables, such as friends within the same institutions,
neighbourhoods, and other forms of networks. Then, moving beyond the youth's profile, we attempt a
content analysis by exploring the concepts of 'selectivity'and 'reflexivity' at play in the youth's
choice of friends, in terms of the temporal and spatial proximity of association, as well as the
degree and intensity of friendship, as well as its reciprocal and mutual nature. Next we link these
two forms of analysis to the concepts of 'connectivity' and 'spatiality' explored earlier (Hébert
et al, 1999) in terms of other visual data dealing with drawings of spaces which the same youth
occupy, so as to apply all three concepts to the larger data set.
Then in order to understand the significance of the findings, we set the data analyses so as to
interpret them within theoretical contexts, dealing with identity formation, with civic, political
and social participation, as well as with postmodern views of realities and of the future.
References
Hébert, Yvonne, Christine Racicot and Christopher I-ming Chen. 1999. Paper presented to
the Symposium on Citizenship Education and Identity at the Fourth International Metropolis
Conference, December 7-12, 1999, in Washington, D.C.
Equipment needed: Overhead plus data analysis
connector for Power Point presentation.
11:30-1:00
Séance III
Session III
L'analyse des pratiques de l'éducation à la citoyenneté,
Partie I : Modèles, défis et réalités
Analysis of Citizenship Education Practices, Part I: Models,
Challenges and Realities
Chair/Président: Robert Courchêne (U Ottawa)
Des modèles d'intervention éducative:
une grille d'analyse des pratiques vis-à-vis de la citoyenneté
/ Models of Educational Intervention:An
Analytic Grid of Teacher Practices in Relation to Citizenship
Yves Lenoir et François Larose
(CRIFE/CRIFPE, Faculté d'éducation, Université de Sherbrooke)
La communication présentera succinctement une typologie des pratiques enseignantes
directement inspirée des travaux de Louis Not (1979, 1987) et réaménagée par les intervenants
(Larose et Lenoir, 1995, 1998; Lebrun, Lenoir, Larose et Désilets, 1999; Lenoir, 1991a, 1991b,
1992, 1998, 1999). En s'appuyant sur les travaux de Not (1979, 1987), quatre principaux
modèles d'intervention éducative (MIE) ont pu être dégagés et analysés au sein de plusieurs
recherches subventionnées menées au sein du GRIFE. Le choix de cette typologie, parmi bien
d'autres propositions existantes, découle du fait qu'elle est centrée "sur l'identification
des rapports entre l'élève, les objets d'apprentissage et l'enseignant, en relation avec les
finalités qui sous-tendent ces rapports" (Lenoir, 1991a, p. 256). Cette classification des MIE,
quelque peu adaptée par Lenoir, puis par Lenoir et Larose, a ainsi l'avantage de prendre en
compte les composantes de la relation psychodidactique et leurs interactions. Elle retient
comme paramètres de base les conceptions des finalités et des processus éducationnels adoptés
et leurs modalités d'opérationnalisation, c'est-à-dire comment se conçoivent et s'actualisent
les différentes interactions entre les composantes de la relation psychodidactique.
Sur la base de cette classification des pratiques enseignantes, une grille d'analyse a été
conçue et testée à plusieurs reprises auprès des enseignants québécois du primaire. Cette
grille permet de dégager, non les pratiques spécifiques et singulières de chaque enseignant,
ainsi que Bru (1991) les considère par exemple, mais un profil des tendances exprimées par
les praticiens du primaire en tant que représentations sociales. Ainsi que le souligne Audigier
(1996), la «représentation sociale est un moyen de prendre en charge et d'étudier la
spécificité de nos savoirs scolaires et de leurs relations avec leurs références notamment
scientifiques» (p. 61). Ces représentations peuvent ensuite être confrontées aux planifications
de l'enseignement par le biais d'entrevues) et aux pratiques effectives qui se déroulent en
classe (par le biais d'observations directes).
Cette méthodologie de recherche, qui repose sur un cadre théorique et d'analyse éprouvé,
peut être aisément transféré à l'analyse des pratiques enseignantes ayant pour objet les
dimensions relatives au concept de citoyenneté. Dans ce contexte spécifique, cependant, il
importe, en plus de prendre en considération le rapport que ce concept entretient à celui de
discipline scolaire (analysé par des auteurs tels que, par exemple, Audigier, Baron, Chervel,
Develay ou Sachot du côté francophone, et Hoskin, Goodson, Messer-Davidow, Shumway et Sylvan,
Tanner et Tanner du côté anglosaxon), les particularités interdisci-plinaires qui le
caractérise. À cet égard, Lenoir, seul et de concert avec Larose et d'autres chercheurs du
GRIFE, a mené plusieurs recherches au regard des conceptions et des prati-ques
interdisciplinaires et a largement diffusé leurs résultats et les analyses critiques qui en
découlaient.
Soulignons enfin que la perspective ici adoptée n'est pas de confronter le concept de
citoyenneté enseigné dans les classe du primaire à un système référentiel considéré a priori
comme adéquat et pertinent, mais bien plutôt de dégager les différentes tendances de
l'enseignement du concept de citoyenneté sur la base de l'étude des représentations et des
pratiques effectives. Toutefois, pour guider la démarche, une recension critique des
différentes conceptions véhiculées dans la documentation scientifique, issues de travaux
théoriques et d'études empiriques, s'avère une préalable indispensable.
Références
Audigier, F. (1996). Recherches de didactiques de l'histoire, de la géographie, de
l'éducation civique. Un itinéraire pour contribuer à la construction d'un domaine de
recherche (note de synthèse pour le dipl-ôme d'habilitation à diriger des recherches).
Paris: Université Denis Diderot paris VII.
Bru, M. (1991). Les variations didactiques dans l'organisation des conditions
d'apprentissage. Toulouse: Éditions universitaires du Sud.
Larose, F. et Lenoir, Y. (1995). L'interdisciplinarité didactique au primaire: étude
de l'évolution des représentations et des pratiques chez des titulaires du premier cycle
du primaire dans le cadre d'une recherche-action-formation - Rapport final (volet
recherche). Sherbrooke: Faculté d'éducation (Rapports de recherche du LARIDD, n° 4).
Larose, F. et Lenoir, Y. (1998). La formation continue d'enseignants du primaire à
des pratiques interdisciplinaires: résultats de recherches. Revue des sciences de
l'éducation, XXIV(1), 189-228.
Lebrun, J., Lenoir, Y., Larose, F., Désilets, M. (1999). L'utilisation de matériaux
didactiques par les enseignants du primaire: une approche interdisciplinaire. Contexte,
problématique, objectifs et cadre théorique de la recherche. Sherbrooke: Université de
Sherbrooke, Faculté d'éducation (Documents du GRIFE n° 7).
Lenoir, Y. (1991b). Des conceptions de l'intervention éducative en sciences humaines
dans l'enseignement primaire au Québec et quelques implications. Pédagogies, 4, 43-102.
Lenoir, Y. (1992). Les représentations des titulaires du primaire sur la conception
et la pratique de l'interdisciplinarité et l'intégration des matières: résultats d'une
recherche exploratoire. In R. Delisle et P. Bégin (dir.), L'interdisciplinarité au
primaire, une voie d'avenir? (p. 17-57). Sherbrooke: Éditions du CRP.
Lenoir, Y. (1999). Compétences didactiques et formation didactique des enseignantes
et des enseignants du primaire. Rapport de recherche déposé auprès du Conseil de
recherches en sciences humaines du Ca-nada (CRSH N° 410-95-1385). Sherbrooke: Faculté
d'éducation, Université de Sherbrooke.
Not, L. (1979). Les pédagogies de la connaissance. Toulouse: Privat.
Not, L. (1987). Enseigner et faire apprendre. Éléments de psycho-didactique
générale. Toulouse: Privat.
Locating and Imagining Spaces
for Enacting Citizenship Education: Challenges for Teacher
Education / Espaces réels et imaginés pour vivre l'éducation
à la citoyenneté : Défis pour la formation des enseignants
Hans Smist (University of Calgary), Rosa
Bruno-Jofre (University of Manitoba) et Yvonne Hébert (University of Calgary)
The focus for this project and its presentation grew out of discussions at the Prairie
Centre for Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration workshop held at the
University of Calgary on Oct. 21-23, 1999. Citizenship education was one of the areas of
education domain given extensive discussion, and from that, it was agreed to focus on the
question of how citizenship is conceptualized and enacted within various cultural,
geographic, social and educational spaces, and in particular, how such understanding may
inform teacher education across different disciplines and grade levels. As the topic for
the presentation suggests, a challenge for teacher education has several dimensions:
becoming attuned the lifeworlds of children and students, creating interesting
possibilities for learning, and creating learning situations that encourage and allow
students to enact their understandings of citizenship, as well as understanding the
different dimensions of citizenship and how that is lived.
The presentation, based on participation of researchers across the prairies, will
report on initial work on the development of a questionnaire and interview protocol for
a multi-site study, based on an extensive literature review on teacher education and
citizenship education, models and approaches to researching various aspects of this
topic, and further collaboration on building forms of knowledge which inform curriculum
development and teacher education practices.
1:30-2:45
Séance IV
Session IV
L'analyse des
pratiques de l'éducation à la citoyenneté, Partie II : Voix
et stratégies des ensignants en contextes globalisés
Analysis of Citizenship Education Practices, Part II: Voice
and Strategies of Teachers in Global Contexts
Chair/Président: Ian Wright (UBC)
Citizenship Education as Democratic
Schooling in Comparative Globalized Contexts: Experiences
and Attitudes of Teachers in South Africa / L'éducation
à la citoyenneté en tant que scolarisation démocratique
en contextes internationaux globalisés : Les expériences
et les attitudes des enseignants en Afrique du sud
Jackie Kirk (McGill University)
This paper will consider current experiences and attitudes of South African teachers
with respect to the significant changes that are occurring both within and outside of the
education system. The changing nature of society at large impacts in many ways at the
school level, and is perceived and interpreted differently by the different communities
involved. Changes to the school curriculum, to the organization and governance of schools,
for example, are experienced first-hand by teachers; their own lives and those of their
students are influenced at different levels by increasing globalization. Discussion of
'Democratic Schooling' is encouraging teachers to promote democracy, teach the skills
necessary for living responsibly within a democratic society and to transform schools into
democratic organizations. Teacher voices are however, rarely heard in discussions based on
policy and curriculum implementation, despite growing acknowledgement of the role of the
teacher in mediating between the 'official', written curriculum and the actual experience
of the students in class.
Drawing on data collected from recent fieldwork with teachers at the University of
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, I will consider ways in which the experience of South African
teachers may be read in the context of Canadian work on citizenship education. The role of
'citizenship education' within the developing Curriculum 2005 and its conceptualization by
South African teachers will be explored, as will perceptions of the link between the
democratization of schools and the democratization of society.
The paper will begin with a brief contextual introduction and then focus on the
presentation of a variety of perspectives, experiences and strategies developed or desired
by practising teachers. The research is situated within a local-global dynamic and in
conclusion some links will be made between the South African context and current
educational reform in Quebec.
Mailing Address:
Jackie Kirk
Department of Educational Studies
McGill University
3700 McTavish
Montreal
Quebec
H3A 1Y2 Telephone: 514-398-6746 Fax: 514-398-4529
Email: jkirk2@po-box.mcgill.ca
Audio-visual requirements: I hope that I will have some slides and a sound-track to
accompany this presentation - I will be able to confirm nearer the time.
Citizenship education: "Not what?
but who?" / L'éducation à la citoyenneté: Pas quoi mais
qui?
Jean-Claude Couture (Alberta Teachers' Association) and George
Richardson (University of Alberta)
'Citizenship education' is a mantra increasingly invoked by education policy makers.
Yet scanning current high school programming across Canada suggests that high school has
become a fragmented and intense social space less and less amenable to creating
opportunities for citizenship education. In this environment, how do teachers even attempt
develop responsible citizens? The answer lies in recovering the real possibilities of
citizenship education by telling the stories of individual teachers who remain committed
to civic education despite the constraints they face.
3:00-4:15
Séance V
Session V
L'analyse des
pratiques de l'éducation à la citoyenneté, Partie III : Visionnement
d'un avenir démocratique
Analysis of Citizenship Education Practices, Part III: Visioning
a democratic future
Chair/Président: Yves Lenoir (U Sherbrooke)
Living Democracy: Renewing our
Vision of Citizenship Education: A Panel and Discussion
Vivre la démocratie : Le renouvellement de notre vision
de l'éducation à la citoyenneté : un panel suivi de discussion
Marita Moll, Heather-Jane Robertson and Damian Solomon (Canadian Teachers'
Federation)
This participatory session will describe a teacher-initiated, multi-year, multi-sector
project to engage teachers and the broader community in a discussion about citizenship
education. The objectives of the project are to examine the state of citizenship
education in Canadian schools, to give Canadians an opportunity to describe their visions
of citizenship education, develop principles and guidelines for policy makers and to help
implement the activities and ideas envisioned in the dialogue. The unique approach to
consensus building underpinning the project will be discussed. An environmental scan and
related literature review produced by the project will be made available.
This 1 ½ hour session would begin with a four-person panel representing the project
staff, the project advisory committee, Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Teachers'
Federation. There would be a generous question and answer period. The goal of this
session would be to provide opportunity for input and expressions of interest from
CERN members to this important national project. Project co-ordinators hope that this
session will extend the research network that will follow this process through its
many phases.
Day 2
8:30-9:45
Session VI
Séance VI
Citizenship
Values
Valeurs de la citoyenneté
Chair/Président: Alan Sears (University of New Brunswick)
The Centrality of Critical Thinking
in Citizenship Education
La centralité de la pensée critique en éducation à la citoyenneté
Ian Wright
(University of British Columbia)
Critical thinking has to do with using contextual and general standards and criteria
to determine what to believe (epistemology) and what to do (ethics). In deciding how
citizenship is to be defined (as national, as global), we have to determine who shall
hold certain rights and what responsibilities 'citizens' shall have. As 'citizens' we
will have to make decisions about what to do based on the believablity of the available
evidence. Thus, critical thinking is central to citizenship education.
From Genocide to Altruism: Students'
Responses to Refugees
Du génocide à
l'altruisme : La réaction des étudiants face aux réfugiés Wanda Cassidy
(Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University)
Background to Study
In recent years educators have begun to re-examine what is meant by "citizenship
education" for students in schools. Nel Noddings (1992, 1995) argues that citizenship
education must encompass "the private realm" of personal relationships--caring for
others and building a more just and humane world. According to Noddings and others,
this focus should be infused into all that schools do, including curricula like social
studies education which traditionally has been about young people acquiring the
knowledge, skills and values required of caring, reflective and proactive citizens.
Purpose of This Study
Despite this focus on caring as an integral part of citizenship education, the notion
of "caring" is somewhat elusive, lacking a practical conceptualization which would
allow teachers to identify, measure, and foster caring among their students.
In this study a working definition of caring was developed, based on six common
themes identified in the literature: desire to help; other-directedness;
perspective-taking; empathy; thoughtful analysis; concrete act. This theoretical
model was used as the basis for two scales which were developed to measure students'
responses to an important societal issue, that of: "What should Canada's response
be to the plight of world refugees?"
Methodology
Four teachers were trained to apply the two caring scales to a random sample of
British Columbia social studies students' responses to a refugee scenario (N=449).
Coders independently rated each set of responses twice, according to each caring
scale. These results were then examined in relation to student background
characteristics and other factors: age, gender, cultural background, academic
achievement, socio-economic status, geographic location, critical thinking ability,
world view. In addition, a qualitative analysis of students' responses at the high
and low end of the caring scales added a richness of detail and common themes to
students' attitudes towards refugees.
Results
These analyses revealed a range of students' responses across all scale points of
both scales, from very low to very high, with a mean on the attribute scale of 3.27
(SD=1.72; range 0-6), and a mean on the holistic scale of 3.4 (SD=0.94); range 1-5).
Although more responses fell in the upper half of both scales, 39% of responses were
rated at scale point 3 or below on the holistic scale, and 53% of the response lacked
3 or more of the 6 attributes of caring. Further, empathy was the least present
attribute, with only 11% of students' responses showing empathy. Five percent of
students expressed derogatory, racist or genocidal comments, plus negative themes
and misinformation pervaded half of all responses. Several students at the low end
also drew pictures to reinforce their views.
Students at the upper ends of the scales, however, emulated many of the
citizenship values and attitudes hoped for in our public education system. Five
themes pervaded their responses: all human beings have the right to life and
well-being; the advantaged should help the disadvantaged; everyone has a personal
responsibility to make the world better; we were all immigrants or refugees, and;
a multi-cultural society enriches a nation.
Multiple regression analyses revealed that gender (girls), critical thinking
ability, mid-range ses, and a mutualistic world view are predictors of caring.
Girls, in fact, were over-represented in the high caring group 7 to 1, while boys
dominated the group which conveyed very negative attitudes. Only boys drew
pictures. Factors which were not significant included school achievement, rural
or urban location, or cultural background.
As a theoretical model to measure caring, the two scales developed showed a
reasonably high correlation between caring ratings (r - 0.76), as well a high
level of inter-rater reliability.
Educational Significance
There are two primary benefits to this study.
The model of caring based on six identified attributes presents a working
definition of caring which can be used to foster this important dimension of
citizenship education. The teachers who worked with the model commented that
it was extremely useful--as a framework for understanding caring, as a tool for
measuring students' level of care (towards various issues or situations or people),
and as a clear set of objectives to aim towards in fostering caring among students.
This study presents a picture of students' attitudes towards refugees, as well
as identifies certain predictors of caring. A subsequent study is being
undertaken with a different data set (same age group, another refugee scenario) to
determine if similar results occur. (These results may be available in time for
CSSE conference). The issue of refugees and Canada's response will continue to be
an important one in the coming years.
Educating for Citizenship: Whose
Culture, Whose Beliefs, Whose Values
Éduquer à la citoyenneté: Quelle culture? Quelles croyances?
Quelles valeurs?
Robert Courchêne (Second Language Institute, University of Ottawa)
Educating for citizenship in the ESL classroom involves the presenting, sharing
and negotiating of culture in an ethnocultural and linguistically diverse community.
Whereas the transmission of culture (values, beliefs, traditions, etc.) in L1
contexts is done within the family, the peer-group and the cultural community
through a rich variety of experiences over an extended period of time, the
transmission of culture in L2 contexts is radically different for a number of
reasons.
Assumptions: Everyone brings
to the classroom a well developed culture anchored in a
coherent set of values and most frequently from another
geopolitical linguistic and cultural community. Depending
on their cultural origin, learners will have varying degrees
of openness to accepting a new culture and its underlying
value system.
Pedagogical challenges:
It is difficult to create contexts in the classroom similar
to those for L1 to teach/communicate the underlying values,
beliefs, norms of our society and, by extension, our vision
of citizenship; i.e. how does one communicate to students
our notions of time, our relationship to nature, the environment.
In many cases, we are not able to even articulate such values.
Even for more overt manifestations of culture such as traditions
and rituals, explanation of, and participation in them does
not guarantee that students will connect them with a set
of underlying values.
Canadian culture: In a country
as culturally diverse as Canada whose set of values is one
going to teach in the classroom? What definition of citizenship
will be used to identify a common underlying set of values
that should be taught? What are the commonalities of Canadian
culture that infuse our concept of citizenship? To arrive
at consensus will we be reduced to legalistic definitions
of citizenship?
Measures of integration:
When cultural values and traditions are presented/discussed
how does one determine what happens at the borders of the
two intersecting cultures? What constitutes evidence that
specific cultural values have been transmitted, negotiated
and integrated in a meaningful way?
In this paper, the author will explore these issues with reference to
theoretical research and practical classroom teaching.
10:00-11:15
Session VII Séance VII
Citizenship Conceptions and Contexts, Part I: Resilience and
Idealisation Conceptions et contextes de la citoyenneté, Partie I : Résilience et
idéalisation Chair/Président: Michel Pagé (U Montréal)
École et société en milieu autochtone montagnais: les facteurs
de résilience scolaire comme indice de non identification à la citoyenneté autochtone?
/ School and Society among Montagnais Aboriginals: Factors of School Resilience as
Indicators of Non-Identification to Aboriginal Citizenship
François Larose et Jimmy Bourque (Faculté d'éducation, Université de Sherbrooke)
Dans cette communication, nous posons la question de l'éducation à la citoyenneté
au sein de société dont les codes de conduites sociales ne sont pas équivalents à
ceux de la société dominante, ou la structure de scolarisation est déterminée de
façon externe (curriculum scolaire et personnel enseignant provenant de la société
majoritaire). En nous basant les résultats de deux (2) recherches distinctes menées
en milieux montagnais, nous tenterons de distinguer:
Quels sont les facteurs d'identité qui sont partagés par les autochtones
montagnais en âge de scolarisation ainsi que ce qui distingue ces facteurs de ceux
qui caractérisent des populations régionales non-autochtones d'âge équivalent;
Quels sont les facteurs de résilience (succès et persévérance scolaire) qui
caractérisent les étudiants montagnais du secondaire en la relation entre ces
caractéristiques et la probabilité de non intégration sociale des individus
performants au sein d'un environnement de réserve;
Nous dégagerons, ensuite, une série de conclusions mettant en relation les
finalités ainsi que les critères d'orientation de l'éducation à la citoyenneté dans
le cadre du nouveau curriculum (Gouvernement du Québec, 1997a, 1997b) en tant que
compétence transversale développée dans le cadre de divers programmes d'une part et
d'autre part, la réalité identitaire et sociale telle qu'elle se vit actuellement
dans l'environnement des réserves.
Nous terminerons en soulevant une série de questionnements que pose l'intégration
du construit de citoyenneté dans les curricula québécois lorsque ceux-ci servent de
référents à l'enseignement au sein de collectivités en plein processus de
restructuration identitaire distincte.
"As the Child Grows, so is the Nation Formed:" Exhibiting Democratic Ideals in
Schools, 1935-1950 / 'Tel grandit l'enfant, tel est formée la nation': La
représentation des idéaux démocratiques dans les écoles, 1935-1950
E. Lisa Panayotidis (University of Calgary)
In this paper, I propose to analyse the way in which the Canadian Federal
government promoted an aesthetically-embodied form of democracy, cultural identity,
and community cohesion in schools through the visual imagery in photographic and
fine art exhibitions. Tacitly promoted by the National Gallery of Art, the Wartime
Information Board, and the National Film Board of Canada, this agenda was linked to
Social Reconstruction discourses in the closing years and aftermath of the Second
World War.
At the heart of this social reconstruction discourse was the notion that Culture
- and more specifically the arts - had a significant part to play in the
re-organization of the home-front and the world-both in a practical way and in
philosophical contemplation. Canadian Social Reconstructionists linked their
conception of the democratic personality, characterized as individualist in nature
exhibiting free expression, autonomy, and creativity, with that of the artist and
the practice of artistic expression. As one commentator noted "In the idea of
democracy...the arts have a greater scope for development and can thus make a
greater contribution to the life of the people than under any form of government we
have known." In contrast, a non-democratic personality, in this case, the
"totalitarian personality," characterized best by the Nazis and Fascists, was
defined by Reconstructionists as "repressive and angry," brandishing feelings of
loneliness, isolation, powerfulness, and most certainly as having few creative
expressive outlets. Canadian schools meanwhile became sites in which Culture was
viewed as a battleground, where images were considered a powerful weapon.
In this paper, I take up through contemporary theories of pictorial
representation and visual culture-the social construction of visual experience in
everyday life-the way in which provincial education systems, framed through the
popular discourse and language of Federal Social Reconstruction agendas, served as
sites where future citizens of the new Post-war Canada were to be imperceptibly
instructed both through language and the visual. While the attempted enculturation
of student populations, especially in regard to social and political initiatives,
has been a consistent feature in the twentieth century schooling, this paper will
illustrate the importance of interdisciplinary approaches and theories in
rethinking our traditional explanations of the relationship among schooling,
state-formation, personal and community values, and cultural relations.
Equipment needed: Slide Projector
11:30-1:00
Session VIII Séance VIII
Citizenship Conceptions and Contexts, Part II: Debates and
Key Questions Conceptions et contextes de la citoyenneté, Partie II : Débats et
questions clés Chair/Président: François Larose (Université de Montréal)
The Citizenship Debates: Conceptual, Policy, Experimental and
Educational Issues / Les débats de la citoyenneté : Problématiques conceptuelles,
politiques, expérientielles et éducationelles
Yvonne M. Hébert (University of Calgary) and Lori Wilkinson (University of Alberta)
Citizenship is in transformation, experiencing an explosion of interest and an
expansion of meaning. Citizenship has moved from being closed to being open, from
exclusion to inclusion. Once having a unitary, stable meaning, citizenship is now
diffuse, multiple and ever-shifting. Originally defined clearly by geographical
borders and a common history, albeit of different perspectives, citizenship is
increasingly in question as frontiers become permeable in the midst of massive social
changes, including international trade agreements and ententes as well as global
migration. These transformations are occurring in open, pluralist and democratic
societies, including Canada, which are in turn preoccupied with their significance.
Crucially concordant with social change, the transformation of citizenship is
important because it concerns who we are, how we live together in the same country,
how the country is constituted, what kind of people our children are to become, and
how schools and educational institutions contribute to the creation of citizens.
A concept referring to the relationship between the individual and the state, and
between individuals within a state, citizenship is a complex part of collective
identity as it defines a person's attachment to a particular state. In Canada, a
state that is both multinational and polyethnic, First Nations peoples and
Francophones hold special status as nations since they were in place prior to
Confederation, whereas polyethnic groups who have for the most part chosen to settle
in the country, have representational status. Situated critically within a pluralist
democratic country with two official languages and a policy of multiculturalism,
Canadian citizenship is as a result located today within multi-layered belongings
and complex understandings. Within this rich context, the notions of citizenship,
identity and civic education are hotly contested and interest abounds in conceptions,
participation and common values which are seen as the means with which to assure a
cohesive future. Which conceptions of self and of society are best suited for an
unknown future? Which political and liberal values would best serve the expression of
Canadian youth, their creativity and diversity, as well as their regeneration of the next
decade? Why would this be so? How would this be achieved and lived?
Much of the citizenship debate is concerned with four dimensions of citizenship: (1)
the conceptual foundations of citizenship, identity and citizenship education; (2)
policies and institutional goals; (3) citizenship set within the realities of Canadian
society; and (4) the organization of citizenship knowledge, skills, dispositions, and
pedagogical practice in the classroom. The debate engages many disciplinary
perspectives and has given rise to an increase in writings, all of which explore the
topic, examine options and propose action plans.
In a liberal pluralist democracy, such as Canada, the major dimensions of the debate
pull together four sets of questions. More specifically, (1) philosophical concerns
give rise to conceptual questions: What basic conception underlies citizenship? How
has the shift from unitary to multiple citizenship occurred? How is citizenship
linked to national identity? Which conceptions of citizenship education will assure
the creation of free and equal citizens, with an enabling strength to create meaningful
lives for themselves and with a strong, yet reasonable, sense of collective self-rule
and attachment to the state? (2) Institutional perspectives and policies give rise to
practical concerns: What governmental policies and institutional goals are reasonable
within a dynamic understanding of citizenship? What are the responsibilities of
governments to assure the socialization of citizens and the social cohesion of the
country? (3) A body of laws, policies and institutional goals however are not the same
as lived experience, giving rise to another set of questions: How is citizenship lived
within the realities of Canadian society? Does everybody have the same understandings
and opportunities as other citizens? (4) And the importance of citizenship education
in times of transformation bring us to ask: What counts as citizenship education? How
is citizenship learned? How are citizenship knowledge, behaviours, attitudes, skills,
values and practices represented, taught and experienced in classrooms?
In our paper, we deal with the four major dimensions each in turn and while doing
so, situate the complex chapters within the citizenship debate, while paying particular
attention to education for citizenship. Taken altogether, our analysis presents and
acknowledges current complex realities in support of the view that there are various
interpretations and multiple identifications which are compatible with democratic
citizenship rather than a single, undifferentiated notion of citizenship, a perspective
that we term 'multiple citizenship'. Today, identity is plural, with each person
belonging to many groups and defining his/her self in these multiple belongings,
without necessarily hierarchizing the levels and forms of belonging. We no longer live
in a society that can be defined and understood in terms of one group, one territory,
one language, one religion, one economy. As we shall see, these realities create
exciting challenges in attempting to determine what would count as essential in the
education of citizens and no easy solutions are readily available as the debate has
hardly come to a close. Our analysis addresses multi-faceted issues and advocacy
positions which are at the forefront of contemporary political, social and educational
thought and that are of particular concern to policy makers and practitioners.
Equipment needed: Overhead
plus data analysis connector for Power Point presentation.
Questions clés de la recherche sur l'éducation à la citoyenneté: Pistes pour le
réseau. Key research issues on citizenship education: Future Directions for the
Network. Michel Pagé (Université de Montréal)
J'ai envie d'élaborer une réflexion de fond sur ce sujet, comme contribution aux
travaux du comité formé pour diriger le Réseau de recherche sur l'éducation à la
citoyenneté, dans le prolongement de ma contribution au dernier chapitre du livre sur
la citoyenneté en transformation portant sur des problématiques conceptuelles et
éducationnelles.
1:30-2:45
Session IX
Séance IX
CERN Annual General
Meeting
Assemblée générale annuelle du RRÉC
Chair/Présidente: Yvonne Hébert (Coordinatrice, Réseau de
recherche sur l'éducation à la citoyenneté; Coordinator, Citizenship
Education Research Network)