Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / This study seeks to determine to what extent undergraduate students in a research university in South Africa are involved in activities that contribute to citizenship education. The research design involves a case study at the University of Cape Town (UCT) whereby an electronic survey, called the Student Experience at the Research University-Africa (SERU) survey, was indigenised to fit the South African context and it was conducted at UCT. The survey had a census design and all undergraduate students at the university were invited to participate. At the end of 2012 a sample of 861 surveys were analyzed using SPSS to determine the activities students were involved in during the research period.

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<p>The Westsaharian women are a civic group that during their soon to be thirty years as refugees in the Westsaharian camps in south western Algeria have become empowered as citizens and advanced strongly in political representation. In theory, empowerment of women’s democratic citizenship has been described as a complex phenomenon. To gain an understanding about this in this study, I have described the women’s perceived access to resources and attitudes, and in what way these factors play a role for their active citizenship. This has been done by the use of Axel Hadenius’ theory about the democratic citizenship and Jo Rowlands’ theory about which resources that are to be considered as essential for women’s empowerment. To be able to perform the study, a case study was performed in the Westsaharian refugee camps during April-May 2004, followed up by a second during October-November 2004.</p><p>The study shows that there are resources and attitudes within both human and social capital that the women perceive to play a significant role for their active citizenship. These factors make the women take part in societal activities, strive to reach higher political positions, and work for a common civic development as women and as Westsaharian citizens. The result of the study further shows that there are contextual inhibiting and encouraging factors that the women perceive to affect their resources and attitudes that play a significant role for their active citizenship. </p>

Magister Educationis - MEd / Schools played an important role during apartheid in shaping the mindsets of learners. In contemporary South Africa schools can now play a similar role in promoting democratic values in order to build a more just, humane and democratic society in a democratic South Africa. Through democratic citizenship, democratic schools can be created. Apple and Beane (1999, p. 10) state that democratic schools are the result of specific attempts by educators to put arrangements in place that will bring democracy to life. These arrangements and opportunities involve the production of democratic structures and processes through which life in a school is carried out and the creation of a curriculum that will allow young people the opportunity to experience the nature of democracy.

Magister Educationis - MEd / The use of literature-based reading has a significant impact on the development of critical literacy (Tung and Chang, 2009). Based on the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Vygotsky’s theory of collaborative learning, this interpretive qualitative case study aimed at exploring how Grade 10 English Home Language poetry was taught in the development of critical literacy. Research was conducted at two schools in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town in which lesson observations, focus group discussions, post-observation interviews, and field notes were used to amass data. Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, and insights from Boler’s (1999) pedagogy of discomfort were used to analyse data. This study found that despite teachers’ being favourably disposed towards poetry, they harbour covert feelings of inadequacy in teaching the genre which lead to the adoption of coping mechanisms. / 2023

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There has been both praise and vilification of religion's role in shaping democratic citizens. By focusing on individual differences, religious motivations can help explain the complex relationship between religion and good citizenship, especially concerning the important topics of political engagement and prejudice. This dissertation will demonstrate that in order to understand the connection between religion and democratic citizenship, we must consider people's religious motivations. We must go beyond traditional approaches that only consider people's beliefs and behaviors. Religious motivation is a powerful measurement tool providing a richer framework than traditional measures of religiosity when answering a variety of questions regarding democratic citizenship. It is also a unique measure of individual difference with independent effects going beyond measures of personality, open-mindedness, ideology, and religiosity. The goal of this dissertation is twofold. First, it will establish religious motivation as an important measure that can greatly aid our understanding of the relationship between religion and democratic citizenship. Second, this dissertation will demonstrate how religious motivation can clarify religion's relationship with two specific measures of democratic citizenship: prejudice and political engagement. To meet these goals, this dissertation employs nationally representative surveys including a unique survey-experiment to provide evidence of religious motivations' important explanatory power. The findings suggest it is not what religious service you attend, or even how often you attend, but the motivation for being religious that best explains the level of political engagement and prejudice. / Political Science

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.

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.