There has been a significant interest amongst immigrants in obtaining Canadian citizenship, dating all the way back to the end of World War Two in 1945. This thesis is particularly interested in what knowledge and skills these immigrants obtain as a result of their experiences in the citizenship education programs provided by the federal government prior to them becoming official citizens of Canada.<p>This thesis has a number of objectives. First, it intends to track the evolution of citizenship policy in Canada from 1945 to the present time, with a particular focus on the changes made to the citizenship education system. Secondly, an assessment of the adequacy of the changes made to the citizenship education system will be conducted, focusing primarily on whether or not those changes have provided newcomers to Canada with the knowledge and skills necessary to be active and informed citizens. Finally, suggestions will be offered as to how citizenship education programs can best provide new Canadians with a more well-rounded quality of citizenship. <p>The evolution of citizenship policy and the assessment of the changes made to citizenship education from 1945 to the present time reveal a number of findings, with many of them pointing to citizenship education policy and programming in Canada as being inadequate. The findings identify a lack of political leadership and financial resources provided for citizenship training initiatives, as well as a painfully basic citizenship education curriculum provided for newcomers to Canada. <p>The central contention of this thesis is that the federal government regards citizenship education as little more than a short-term goal. In other words, the priority is to speed up the processing of newcomers rather than to develop good citizens. Immigrants are provided with basic knowledge and language skills, but are largely left to fend for themselves once official citizenship has been attained. This short-term focus has resulted in a diminution of the quality and importance of Canadian citizenship and has impaired the ability of new citizens to feel comfortable participating in Canadian society. <p>The significance of these findings is that policy makers need to develop a long-term citizenship education strategy that focuses on providing long-term benefits to new citizens to Canada. Such a strategy will help to maximize the potential contributions of the growing immigrant population to Canadian society and will provide much needed clarity of roles and responsibilities to citizenship education service providers and instructors.

The overall objective of this thesis is to examine in what way ethical theory and ethical analysis can contribute to further understanding of the ethical challenges of the multicultural classroom. Based on the fact that the world is going through a process of globalization and migration, the education-system and daily praxis of teaching is put in front of new ethical challenges. The teacher in the multicultural classroom is on a daily base confronted with various dilemmas regarding for example conflicting duties, universal and conflicting values and citizenship. Martha Nussbaum´s theory of world citizenship is used as an analytical framework for the thesis and student interviews from upper secondary school is used as a complementary perspective to Nussbaum´s theory. The research questions of the thesis are: Can the theory of World Citizenship Education, when structured and analyzed, give guidance for teaching citizenship in a multicultural classroom? Is it a plausible theory confronted with the ethical challenges of the multicultural classroom? In what way can a student perspective from a multicultural classroom try the relevance and present a complementary perspective to the theory of World citizenship education? The theory and the interviews are analyzed and structured out of the research questions and by the three ethical challenges of universal values, conflicting values and sense of belonging. The conclusion of the thesis states that, even though Nussbaum´s theory does have some constraints, it is to a large degree applicable and possible to relate to the ethical challenges of the multicultural classroom and as a guide for teachers. The theory is plausible in some aspects because it presents reasonable arguments on the necessity of educational reform in an interconnected world and because it makes educational proposals of instrumental worth of the teacher. The theory is however not plausible in other aspects because; the universal values presented are to vague and not specified which makes the theory difficult to use in practise, it does not pay enough attention to the conflicting perspective of the ethical challenges in classroom nor the pedagogical importance of social inclusion when discussing conflicting values and finally the theory demonstrates a contradiction regarding how to act as a teacher about sense of belonging and recognising identity of the students. The interviews demonstrate similar but also different responses to the ethical challenges in comparison with the theory. The students recognize the existence of universal values across cultural borders in a similar way as Nussbaum, even though the values put forward are of another character than Nussbaum´s. They do however present a sceptical view towards the idea of a world citizenship and stresses the importance of bringing up discussions about nationhood, migration and belonging without being afraid of breaking any taboos. At the end the thesis presents some practical guidelines for the teacher in the multicultural classroom that follows logical out of the conclusion. The final discussion highlight the fact that the challenges of the multicultural classroom in Sweden will likely continue, and emphasizes the potential of using ethics as an analytical tool for further developing a professional teaching approach.

There has been a significant interest amongst immigrants in obtaining Canadian citizenship, dating all the way back to the end of World War Two in 1945. This thesis is particularly interested in what knowledge and skills these immigrants obtain as a result of their experiences in the citizenship education programs provided by the federal government prior to them becoming official citizens of Canada.<p>This thesis has a number of objectives. First, it intends to track the evolution of citizenship policy in Canada from 1945 to the present time, with a particular focus on the changes made to the citizenship education system. Secondly, an assessment of the adequacy of the changes made to the citizenship education system will be conducted, focusing primarily on whether or not those changes have provided newcomers to Canada with the knowledge and skills necessary to be active and informed citizens. Finally, suggestions will be offered as to how citizenship education programs can best provide new Canadians with a more well-rounded quality of citizenship. <p>The evolution of citizenship policy and the assessment of the changes made to citizenship education from 1945 to the present time reveal a number of findings, with many of them pointing to citizenship education policy and programming in Canada as being inadequate. The findings identify a lack of political leadership and financial resources provided for citizenship training initiatives, as well as a painfully basic citizenship education curriculum provided for newcomers to Canada. <p>The central contention of this thesis is that the federal government regards citizenship education as little more than a short-term goal. In other words, the priority is to speed up the processing of newcomers rather than to develop good citizens. Immigrants are provided with basic knowledge and language skills, but are largely left to fend for themselves once official citizenship has been attained. This short-term focus has resulted in a diminution of the quality and importance of Canadian citizenship and has impaired the ability of new citizens to feel comfortable participating in Canadian society. <p>The significance of these findings is that policy makers need to develop a long-term citizenship education strategy that focuses on providing long-term benefits to new citizens to Canada. Such a strategy will help to maximize the potential contributions of the growing immigrant population to Canadian society and will provide much needed clarity of roles and responsibilities to citizenship education service providers and instructors.

This quantitative study explores string teachers’ perceptions of citizenship education and its use in the private lesson. Guided by Westheimer and Kahne’s (2004) model of citizenship education the study sought to identify (a) how private string teachers perceive citizenship education, and (b) the factors that influence these perceptions. Four hundred and fifteen (415) members of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) participated in this study by completing an on-line survey that contained both closed and open-ended questions. The resulting data was coded and organized according to the survey questions and the conceptual framework. Research findings revealed that, although teachers did not explicitly consider citizenship education a part of their lessons, their intentions and their report on pedagogical practices could be described as citizenship education when viewed through the conceptual framework used in the study. Indeed, nearly all of the participant responses revealed intentions to include attributes of what Westheimer and Kahne refer to as the Personally Responsible Citizen in their music lessons with students. Educating for traits of other types of citizenship was also reported. Factors deemed influential in string teachers’ perceptions of citizenship education included the following: If the teachers had earned certification in Suzuki pedagogy; the number of years of teaching experience; if teachers self-identified as primarily educators, performers, or both; the age of the students who are taught. Additionally, the study addresses teachers’ statements about the use of competitions, dialogue in lessons, and general attitudes about the appropriateness of citizenship education in several different learning environments. The study findings add to a small but growing body of research that furthers understandings of the links between citizenship education and music education. In addition, the findings contribute to our understanding of the complexity of the relationship between private teachers and their students.

The overarching theme of this thesis concerns the possibility of balancing the values of unity and pluralism in education in developed nation states characterized by an increasing pluralism when it comes to the beliefs and values of its citizens. The author suggests that democracy has a normative basis in the principle of reciprocity which can be supported in an overlapping consensus by reasonable persons who differ in their moral, religious and philosophical beliefs. It is argued that this basis mandates a deliberative kind of democracy and that certain implications follow for how to understand the relation between democracy and individual rights, between democracy and religious belief and speech, and between rationality and deliberation, among other things. The author proceeds to discuss three educational issues in relation to the principle of reciprocity and its implications: 1. The legitimacy and content of a mandatory citizenship education, 2. Children’s rights to develop personal autonomy, 3. The opportunity for parents and children to choose which school children attend. These issues are important in relation to the question of how to balance unity and pluralism in education in that they concern the promotion of certain common beliefs, values and dispositions among citizens or the creation of a system of choice between schools with different profiles. The purpose of the discussion is to construct a theoretical position which balances the values of unity and pluralism in education, by giving diversity its due (contra communitarianism) while upholding a measure of unity (contra libertarianism and radical multiculturalism) which is located in the democratic and autonomy- promoting purposes of education rather than (exclusively) in its economic/vocational purposes (contra neo-liberalism). The discussions make use of political philosophy, educational philosophy and empirical research carried out by other researchers.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-08-08Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T21:05:46Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 lima_rt_dr_rcla.pdf: 4907043 bytes, checksum: 726a4656c94a0d06d7ccf4170a2e6e9e (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Joanópolis é um dos municípios de São Paulo que faz divisa estadual com Minas Gerais. Localizado ao norte da capital paulista, conta com uma pequena e pacata cidade, construída ao redor do Largo da Igreja de São João Batista. As belezas cênicas da região e as riquezas culturais são marcantes e justificam seu título de Estância Turística. Porém, ao aprofundarmos nosso olhar para além das maravilhas, encontramos problemas urbanos comuns a quaisquer outras cidades brasileiras. Vivendo esta realidade estão os adolescentes de Joanópolis. Estes jovens, caracterizados por uma faixa etária e atitudes marcantes da etapa de vida em que estão, têm percepção e cognição dos problemas sociais e ambientais que existem ao seu redor. O presente estudo teve como objetivo mostrar que os adolescentes de Joanópolis, diferentemente do que é aceito pelo senso comum, além de perceberem os problemas sociais e ambientais, são capazes de propor soluções ou ações mitigadoras para resolvê-los ou, ao menos, minimizá-los, faltando-lhes, apenas, oportunidades para participarem de fóruns e debates e para se manifestarem, a fim de contribuírem nos processos decisórios participativos. / Joanópolis is one of the cities of São Paulo State to border Minas Gerais State. It is settled at the north of São Paulo State capital and is formed by a small and quiet town, which has been built around the Square of São João Batista Church. The beautiful sights around the place and the cultural richness are impressive and justify the title of being a Touristic Site. However, if we look beyond those wonders, we find the ordinary urban problems of any other Brazilian city. Living in this reality are the adolescents of Joanópolis. Those teenagers, characterized by their age group and distinguishing features of this time of their lives, have the perception and cognition of the social and environmental problems around them. This study aims to show that the adolescents of Joanópolis, differing from what is believed by common sense, not only see the social and environmental problems, but are also capable of proposing solutions or mitigating actions to solve, or, at least, minimize them. It lacks them the opportunity to participate in forums and debates and to express themselves, in order to contribute to the participative decision making process.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Thomas Vontz / This qualitative study explored middle school students’ conceptions of citizenship through the use of civic images. Citizenship education as the primary purpose for social studies education is firmly established; however, citizenship is an abstract concept. The definition and characteristics of citizenship, as well as research concerning the decline or evolution of civic behaviors, is inconclusive and oscillating. Recently adopted national and state social studies standards focus on inquiry and literacy skills, emphasizing the use of primary sources; namely historical documents. These texts are often insufficient curriculum drivers and generate a need to find alternative primary sources that scaffold and support students’ understanding. Images speak a familiar language and have been found to support student learning of history. This study fills a gap in the research regarding the use of images to teach citizenship, the purpose of social studies. Using a case study approach to research, multiple methods of data converged to address the research question, how do suburban middle school students understand citizenship through civic images? Twenty-seven eighth-graders enrolled in two Guided Study courses served as the research participants. The researcher spent two weeks at the start of the study, observing the students in their educational environment. Following the observations, for approximately eight weeks, students viewed a civic image and responded to a series of questions adapted from the Stanford History Education Group’s Historical Thinking Skills Chart (2006). At the conclusion of the eight weeks, the researcher conducted focus group interviews with each class and individual interviews with eight randomly selected students and the participating teacher. The results of this study support the use of images as instructional resources to teach abstract concepts, particularly citizenship, as well as support the use of images as primary sources to teach inquiry and literacy skills. The civic images deepened student understanding of civic and historical concepts and, more importantly, they informed students’ definitions of citizenship. Equality and community were revealed by the data as defining characteristics of citizenship for the students involved in this study, supporting previous research that members of younger generations are redefining what it means to be a good citizen.

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar as representações que professores de ensino médio constroem e desenvolvem sobre a educação para a cidadania no contexto escolar. Parto da premissa de que a educação, nas últimas décadas, coloca uma especial ênfase na formação de cidadãos ativos e comprometidos, mediante sua participação nas responsabilidades coletivas. Na atualidade, a educação para a cidadania se concebe desde as formas em que se trabalham os saberes escolares e se constroem os conhecimentos na sala de aula, até a participação na escola e fora dela, envolvendo a comunidade com experiências que favoreçam seu exercício. Assim, a escola é um local privilegiado de educação para a cidadania, porque é um espaço que estimula o aluno a desenvolver novas formas de participação, e que providencia oportunidades de desempenho de papéis, tanto formais como informais, e de construção de relações na sua própria dinâmica. Nesse sentido, é conveniente e fundamental analisar o papel do professor cuja prática resulta de uma interação de sua experiência profissional com o contexto escolar no qual está inserido. Utilizo como referência a teoria das representações de Lefebvre, pelo potencial em fornecer subsídios para o estudo do cotidiano escolar, proporcionando novas formas de olhar, compreender e interpretar o sentido das concepções sobre educação para a cidadania que determinam sua prática pedagógica. Esta pesquisa, de cunho qualitativo, envolve coleta de dados através de entrevistas a oito professores de ensino médio de diferentes áreas, de uma escola estadual e uma escola municipal da Grande São Paulo. Utilizo a metodologia denominada por Bardim de análise de conteúdo, para organizar, codificar e categorizar os discursos dos professores em três níveis ou categorias denominadas: cidadania, função da escola e prática docente, através das quais foi possível apreender diferentes representações, de modo a entender como elas não se definem apenas pelo conhecimento, mas sim pela relação destas com a vivência que ocorre no desvendar da própria prática profissional. Considero, ao final deste estudo, que nas representações dos professores, as categorias anteriormente mencionadas se mobilizam em um processo dialético que compreende conflitos e contradições nas práticas reiterativas; e mudanças de postura nas práticas criadoras, entre aquilo que professores concebem como explicação dos fatos e o que eles experimentam na vivência dos mesmos. / The goal of this research is to analyze representations that high school teachers create and develop about education for citizenship within the school context. In recent decades, it has been stated that education emphasizes on the formation of active and engaged citizens through their participation in collective responsibilities. At present, citizenship education is conceived based on the different ways in which school knowledge is built in the classroom to encourage participation in and outside the school context, involving the community with experiences that facilitate some of these citizenship experiences. Thus, the school is a privileged place for citizenship education because it is the place that encourages students to develop new forms of participation, provides opportunities for developing roles, both formal and informal, and creates relationships with its own individual or group dynamics. Therefore, it is essential to analyze the role of the teacher and determine which of their teaching practices results from an interaction of their professional experience within the school context in which the teachers operate. The representation theory of Lefebvre is used as a frame of reference due to the potential it offers to provide ideas for the study of everyday school life and new techniques to enable observation and the ability to understand or interpret the meaning of citizenship education including the premises that determine its pedagogical practice. This qualitative research involves data collection through interviews to eight secondary teachers from different areas of a state public school and a city public school in the area of Greater São Paulo, Brasil. The methodology of Bardin was used to prepare content analysis, organize, codify and categorize discourses of teachers in three categories. These categories were: citizenship, school´s role and teaching practices. Using these categories, it was possible to understand different representations in order to determine that they are not defined only by knowledge but by their direct co-relation with the experience that occurs in the unraveling of the professional practice. At the end of this study, the conclusion is that the representations of teachers and the three categories mentioned before are mobilized in a dialectical process comprising conflicts as well as contradictions in the reiterative practices; and ongoing changes in posture within the process of building these practices, between what teachers conceive as an explanation of the facts and what their experience is of living those facts.

This quantitative study explores string teachers’ perceptions of citizenship education and its use in the private lesson. Guided by Westheimer and Kahne’s (2004) model of citizenship education the study sought to identify (a) how private string teachers perceive citizenship education, and (b) the factors that influence these perceptions. Four hundred and fifteen (415) members of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) participated in this study by completing an on-line survey that contained both closed and open-ended questions. The resulting data was coded and organized according to the survey questions and the conceptual framework. Research findings revealed that, although teachers did not explicitly consider citizenship education a part of their lessons, their intentions and their report on pedagogical practices could be described as citizenship education when viewed through the conceptual framework used in the study. Indeed, nearly all of the participant responses revealed intentions to include attributes of what Westheimer and Kahne refer to as the Personally Responsible Citizen in their music lessons with students. Educating for traits of other types of citizenship was also reported. Factors deemed influential in string teachers’ perceptions of citizenship education included the following: If the teachers had earned certification in Suzuki pedagogy; the number of years of teaching experience; if teachers self-identified as primarily educators, performers, or both; the age of the students who are taught. Additionally, the study addresses teachers’ statements about the use of competitions, dialogue in lessons, and general attitudes about the appropriateness of citizenship education in several different learning environments. The study findings add to a small but growing body of research that furthers understandings of the links between citizenship education and music education. In addition, the findings contribute to our understanding of the complexity of the relationship between private teachers and their students.

The purpose of the investigation was two fold: first, to analyze the school excursion as a teaching and learning aid; and second, to develop a suggested school-excursion program for the social studies in the junior high schools of Dallas, base upon the findings and evaluations reported by educational observers and by experienced users of excursions.