I was sitting at my desk trying to think of examples of citizenship education from my schooling experience, and genuinely had a difficult time trying to think of any. I am not sure if my teachers did not plan any memorable activities that promoted citizenship education or if they simply did not try very hard to integrate it, but I feel like the examples that I did come up with are fairly feeble. I remember in my wellness 9 and 10 classes, it was a requirement to engage in 10 hours of volunteer work. I can no longer remember what kind of volunteering experiences I took part in, but I do recall my teacher mentioning this assignment scarcely on the first day of classes and occasionally reminding us as the due date for completed hours drew nearer. I also remember other students asking the teacher why we needed to complete 10 hours of volunteer work, but the teacher never provided us with a direct answer. I think he may have explained that the assignment was supposed to instill a sense of giving back to the community in us, but because we never had a sufficient answer, all of us interpreted the assignment as unnecessary and a waste of time that we could be spending on other, more “important” homework for other more “important” classes.
Another example of citizenship education that I can recall from my schooling is the work experience class that I took in high school. This was an elective that I chose because I knew I was interested in taking education in university and becoming a teacher, so I wanted to get experience in the classroom as soon as possible. Before we were able to enter our workplace placements, we were required to do many independent study assignments on workplace ethics. I believe this was incredibly beneficial for me because I did not know a lot of these workplace rights previous to this class, so I now feel that I am more prepared to enter the workforce and will be employed in good positions and places because I understand the rights I have as an employee. I also feel like I am more prepared to identify discrimination that happens in the workplace, so I can be more of an aid to myself and others in being treated justly.
What Kind of Citizen?: The Politics of Educating for Democracy by Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne identifies three types of citizens. The three types include “the personally responsible citizen; the participatory citizen; and the justice oriented citizen” (p. 3). The personally responsible citizen is the citizen that “acts responsibly in his/her community by, for example, picking up litter, giving blood, recycling, obeying laws, and staying out of debt” (Westheimer & Kahne, p. 3). The participatory citizens are the citizens that “actively participate in the civic affairs and the social life of the community at local, state, and national levels” (Westheimer & Kahne, p. 4). The justice oriented citizens are the citizens that “use rhetoric and analysis that calls explicit attention to matters of injustice and to the importance of pursuing social justice” (Westheimer & Kahne, p. 4). I think both the required volunteer hours in my wellness 9 and 10 classes and my work experience class were examples of the personally responsible type of citizenship.
I think my experiences with citizenship education was focused on the individual aspect of being a “better” person. By this, I mean that I think the focus was on how good I felt when I was engaging in the volunteer hours and when I was learning about how to ensure my rights in a workplace, but the focus was not on what my actions were doing for other people. I think the individual aspect of citizenship education is an important aspect that does need to be recognized in schooling, but I think more attention needs to be placed on how our actions affect others. I also think teachers need to generally be more enthusiastic about citizenship education. A lot of teachers believe that the goal of schooling is to prepare the world’s youth for the adult world and living in our harsh society, so I think more time needs to be spent in schools on this preparation aspect.
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