How is citizenship education relevant to office management

Citizenship education is as important today as at any other time in our history. Citizens in the twenty-first century must be prepared to deal with rapid change, complex local, national, and global issues, cultural and religious conflicts, and the increasing interdependence of nations in a global economy.

For our democracy to survive in this challenging environment, we must educate our students to understand, respect, and uphold the values enshrined in our founding documents. Our students should leave school with a clear sense of their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Sant, E. Global Citizenship Education. A critical introduction to key concepts and debates.

London: Bloomsbury. Schugurensky, D. An Introduction. Schugurensky and C. Theoretical and Practical Issues pp. New York: Routledge. Schulz, W. Becoming Citizens in a Changing World.

Tarozzi, M. Educating teachers towards global citizenship: A comparative study in four European countries. London Review of Education, 17 2 , — Yemini, M. Trends and caveats: Review of literature on global citizenship education in teacher training. Teaching and Teacher Education, 77, 77— Curriculum Innovation Network 4. Inclusive Education Network 5. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures. Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education Network 8.

Research on Health Education Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement Network Teacher Education Research Network Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance Network Philosophy of Education Network Research Partnerships in Education Network Schoolwide approaches, led by administrative teams, provide clear pathways for activating school wide visions for teaching.

For example, as a 5th grade classroom teacher at Maple Public School many years ago I, like all teachers at the school, followed the school vision. All teachers followed the same routines, and curriculum including a phonics-based reading program; and, all teachers used a pedagogy of care to guide their practice. When schoolwide approaches are not mandated, teachers activate their own vision for teaching in a variety of ways including reflective practice [ 3 ].

To actualize a teaching vision, particular pedagogical practices are enacted including an engaging learning environment, authentic learning tasks, and discovery learning experience i. Inquiry pedagogy is a 21st century approach that engages students in questioning, problem solving, experiencing, and acting.

Inquiry pedagogy will be discussed later in the chapter as a key approach for developing a vision of citizenship. School districts often mandate curricula. In some districts the curriculum guidelines offer clear perspectives for teaching. In Ontario, Canada the Social Studies curriculum uses a perspective of citizenship education that promotes active, responsible citizens and provides an process for activating perspective [ 11 ].

Figure 1 [ 11 ], p. Activating perspective taking in practice [ 11 ], p. Reproduced with permission. The goals list skills, knowledge, and dispositions required to realize the vision. A clearly defined vision, explicit goals and framework are applied to learning expectations; big ideas enduring understandings and key concepts and specific expectations content and skill-based learning expectations are listed for each grade in the curriculum document. By using a critical inquiry-based pedagogy and disciplinary thinking students have opportunities to consider and become responsible, active citizens.

This chapter explores two educational pedagogies for citizenship education: inquiry-based pedagogy and critical pedagogy. Each concept is an independent framework and yet to a degree they share common philosophical elements and learning goals that work well together. The pedagogies are presented below. First, inquiry-based learning is explained and then a critical lens, adopted from critical pedagogy is described.

Children collaborate as they question and explore a common goal or interest [ 15 ]. Inquiry-based learning has been described in a number of ways including guided inquiry [ 17 ], knowledge building [ 18 ], and open inquiry [ 19 ] to name a few. While each of these approaches emphasize slightly different components of inquiry-based learning, they all encourage children to investigate their own curiosities about the world. Self-directed learning and student-centered learning are foundational to the process.

Throughout this student-centered approach to learning, the teacher is responsible for teaching children the required skills to engage in student-directed learning reading and writing skills, research skills, analyzing information, and collaborating with peers. As children listen, share, experience, research, and explore, they work alongside their teacher to develop new understandings and come up with new theories about what they are learning [ 20 ]. Inquiry-based learning repeats and reviews process.

Children share their points of view, ask more questions, explore and experience the world, and read a variety of texts in order to gather more information. In an inquiry-based classroom, children are expected to share misconceptions, and misguided theories and through experience and experimentation sort out their understandings. Instead, the approach is used to assess the effectiveness of investigations or learning and students learn the ability to reflect on their work [ 11 ], p.

An inquiry-based approach is in keeping with a vision for developing responsible active citizenship. The Ontario Ministry of Education provides a process for engaging in inquiry learning in its Social Studies curriculum. Figure 2 illustrates a model for inquiry-based learning that includes five components that students use to investigate events, solve problems, and share findings. The inquiry process [ 11 ], p.

The figure provides several suggestions for ways to enact inquiry through the components. There is no particular order or entry point for the process to occur; and, not all learning experiences use all five components.

It is entirely acceptable and expected for some elements to be used for a variety of lessons within an unit of study. Inquiry-based pedagogy brings learning to life.

Children have opportunity to question, explore, examine, interrogate, rethink, and communicate ideas and challenge truths. With inquiry-based learning, children invest in their learning; they own it and develop a sense of care for the issues and topics they explore.

When using an inquiry-based approach, students not only learn about subject matter; by experiencing, exploring, debating, and collaborating with others, they learn about themselves, communities, and the world. Like inquiry-based pedagogy, critical pedagogy uses many strategies for learning including questioning, discussing, exploring multiple perspectives, and communicating ideas. What differs is the involvement of an ideology that advocates for social justice.

A critical inquiry-based environment includes critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy provides an avenue for examining social justice issues in local and global contexts. Education is used as a vehicle for mobilizing the oppressed by teaching language and literacy and the movement towards understanding power and patterns of inequalities. An enlightenment through education encourages mobilization and change for those in poverty.

In classrooms around the world today, critical pedagogy is also for the privileged; to unearth privilege and encourage action towards equity.

Applying a lens of critical pedagogy to all classrooms allows for developing awareness, critical thinking, and activism towards equity and justice. What is required first is a shift in thinking from traditional, colonialist, capitalist views. Kumashiro proposes four strategies for framing classroom practice: 1.

Doing homework, 2. Inverting and exceeding binaries, 3. Juxtaposing different texts, and 4. Promoting action and change [ 23 , 24 ]. Doing homework refers to rethinking assumptions and beliefs and to reconsider notions of privilege and mainstreaming [ 23 ].

Critical pedagogy also requires self-reflexive practice; that is, creating space for students and teachers too have opportunities to reflect on their reading practices as they critique and transform their own understandings and investments and imagine new possibilities for bringing about change [ 23 ], p. Inverting and exceeding binaries suggests moving beyond our standard norms for identities e. Juxtaposing different texts refers to exploring multiple perspectives through a variety of texts. These four teaching strategies complement inquiry pedagogy.

Critical literacy branches from critical pedagogy and is an approach that aims to achieve the goals of critical pedagogy through the use of texts, language and literacy and is a commonly applied to inquiry-based pedagogy. Lewison, Flint, and Sluys [ 25 ] use four dimensions to describe critical literacy. The following dimensions are applied to texts and to class discussions: 1. Disrupting the common place, 2. Interrogating multiple viewpoints 3.

Focusing on sociopolitical issues 4. Taking action and promoting social justice [ 25 ], p. While seemingly self-explanatory and common sensical, these dimensions are still somewhat radical in many classrooms and school communities. To explore texts through multiple lenses, and to question and disrupt common ideas is against traditional educational practices. These processes are directly linked to inquiry-pedagogy. Critical pedagogy adds dimensions three and four to the process.

Critical inquiry pedagogy is about uprooting what is comfortable, making the known unknown and creating new understandings and possibilities using the lens of social justice. Teachers and students enter into a process of social construction of knowledge that encourages, critique, diversity, rigor, and meaning making [ 26 ].

In these classrooms, children are urged to question the world around them as well as to think deeply and reflect on their own ideas and beliefs. They consider issues of social justice and the impact of power and circumstances on their lives and the lives of others.

A critical inquiry-based pedagogy therefore is one that enables students and teachers to makes sense of the world through text and experience [ 27 ]. Research has been conducted that illustrates critical inquiry-based pedagogy in schools. Engagement may foster a sense of care and activism. Literature on critical literacy and inquiry at the secondary level has also emphasized the importance of students becoming aware of the role language plays in their lives [ 29 ].

When secondary students become active learners by raising questions about language used in texts and how power plays into the texts, they develop a sense of agency to pursue questions that satisfy their questions [ 29 ], p. They become immersed in their learning and construct meaning in order to deepen their understanding of themselves. There are fewer studies of classroom practices for critical inquiry-based pedagogy at the elementary level yet young learners engage in such learning.

Cleovoulou and Beach have studied elementary school teachers and documented their work using critical inquiry-based pedagogy [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Encouraging student dialog of critical issues through purposeful text and media selection 2. Empowering student voice 4.