Gendered constructions of citizenship: young Kenyans' negotiations of rights discourses

This paper contributes to the study of citizenship by interrogating how young people in Nairobi (Chege and Arnot 2012) perceive their rights of citizenship. It builds on previous analyses of the connections between gender, education and poverty's poor urban settlements by focusing on the political dimensions of the young people's lives. The findings are based on in-depth interviews with 24 young men and women (mainly siblings aged 16–25) from 18 urban households which explored how they define their national identity and citizenship rights and their expectations of the Kenyan government. All youth felt a connection with the Kenyan nation and actively engaged with rights discourses, but secondary schooled youth demonstrated a noticeably more reflexive and challenging approach to the norms and responsibilities of citizenship. Young men focused on the public sphere, emphasising voting rights, political corruption and their role in leading community change, whilst secondary educated young women recognised the importance of ‘freedoms’ associated with national membership, their rights to choose within cultural traditions and the need to support their families. Gender is shown to play an important role in framing their understanding of themselves as citizens.     

CITIZENSHIP-AS-PRACTICE: THE EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF AN INCLUSIVE AND RELATIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF CITIZENSHIP

ABSTRACT:  Over the last few years there has been a renewed interest in questions of citizenship and in particular its relation to young people. This has been allied to an educational discourse where the emphasis has been upon questions concerned with 'outcome' rather than with 'process'– with the curriculum and methods of teaching rather than questions of understanding and learning. This paper seeks to describe and illuminate the linkages within and between these related discourses. It advocates an inclusive and relational view of citizenship-as-practice within a distinctive socio-economic and political, and cultural milieu. Drawing upon some empirical insights from our research we conclude that an appropriate educational programme would respect the claim to citizenship status of everyone in society, including children and young people. It would work together with young people rather than on young people, and recognise that the actual practices of citizenship, and the ways in which these practices transform over time are educationally significant.     

Performing Allegiance: An Adolescent Refugee's Construction of Patriotism in JROCT

Drawing on a year-long qualitative study, this article examines how one refugee student from the Vietnamese Central Highlands negotiated social and cultural constructions of patriotism and citizenship in a Junior Reserves Officer Training Corps (JROTC) class at an urban high school. Data are analyzed using Butler's (1990) the theory of performativity, and illustrate how this student appropriated and transformed language and ritualized action to assert individuality in an otherwise rule- and routine-driven classroom context. I conclude by theorizing cultural practices of citizenship as they relate to the education of refugee and immigrant youth, and argue that researchers and practitioners must acknowledge the pedagogical and social impact of peripheral spaces in school, such as the JROTC classroom, in shaping many students’ trajectories in and beyond school.     

Competence and Citizenship: Towards a Complementary Model for Times of Critical Social Change

Abstract

Citizenship and competence are both contested concepts, and both have maximal and minimal versions which may be contradictory or complementary. Beth concepts have assumed a prominent place in discourses on the post‐compulsory curriculm and the development of life and work trajectories in early adulthood. Maximal concepts of citizenship allow consideration of the processes by which young adults make their transitions to full participation in society, with reference to the life course and the social structures of inequality. Tensions are created between individual potential and capacities and the institutional, social and labour market structures within which young adults are active. In England, Vocational Education and Training (VET) is now dominated by competence‐based approaches which seek to regulate behaviour through outcomes. In Germany, VET serves the broader purpose of preparing young people for citizenship. Some cultural assumptions behind these differences are revealed in ongoing comparative studies, whose findings are discussed with reference to complementary and contradictory trends in Competence and Citizenship, and the need for future models which bring together maximal versions of both.     

Self,Space and Place: Youth identities and citizenship

This paper is concerned with questions of identity, citizenship and social change as these are experienced by young people in the UK today. In the course of recent changes to the context and content of youth transitions the notion of citizenship has come to the fore as a means of discussing young people's move into independent membership of society. Debates about citizenship in the UK currently encompass a range of complex themes - competency, responsibility and active (community) participation which go beyond an understanding of citizenship as a simply technical or legal term. In this paper we adopt a broad conceptualization of citizenship in order to explore the identity work that young people engage in as they negotiate their way through to social majority. In particular, we consider how young people's need for space, and their emergent sense of place, are aspects of a citizenship identity which young people 'learn', work at and negotiate over in their leisure time.     

Can an educational intervention,specifically Theatre in Education,influence students’ perceptions of and attitudes to cultural and religious diversity? A socio‐educational research

Contemporary thinking seems to be particularly interested in the investigation of the role of culture in socio‐political life. This article presents aspects of a research project, undertaken in Greece, looking into whether a cultural product can foster intercultural communication and influence young people’s perceptions of and attitudes to cultural and religious diversity. Such cultural products are the Theatre in Education (TiE) programmes, which focus on the use of the art of theatre as a means of educational intervention. For the purposes of our research a specially designed TiE programme was used as a means of intervention and as a research tool. Our research examines secondary education students’ perceptions of and attitudes to cultural and religious diversity prior to and following the intervention in Thessaloniki and in Thrace, Greece. This cultural intervention, which incorporates art and religion, offers new insights into the possibility of the use of TiE for the religious education of young people.     

Citizenship Education and National Identities in France and England: Inclusive or exclusive?

ABSTRACT This paper examines and compares recent citizenship education policy documents from France and England and explores the extent to which they encourage inclusive or exclusive concepts of national identity and citizenship. Current policies are being developed in a context of perceived disillusionment and political apathy amongst the young. Whilst citizenship education has traditionally aimed to prepare young people to take their place in adult society and a national community, today the notion of a single national identity is increasingly questioned. Using framing questions from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) survey of civic education, we examine programmes of study in each country to determine the extent to which they promote human rights as shared values, make positive references to cultural diversity, and conceptualise minorities. We consider the potential of citizenship education thus defined to contribute towards the development of justice and equality in society and challenge racism and xenophobia. We note the strengths and limitations of each approach to education for citizenship and suggest what each might gain from the other.     

‘The art of democracy’: Young people's democratic learning in gallery contexts

In this article the authors report on research which aimed to explore the opportunities for democratic action and learning in a number of artist‐led gallery education projects in the south‐west of England. The research takes an approach to citizenship learning and democracy that is less focused on citizenship as a specific subject in the formal school curriculum and the achievement of specific citizenship outcomes that can follow from it. Rather, it is more focused upon understanding how democratic practices that are embedded in the day‐to‐day lives of young people contribute to their democratic learning and participation as citizens. Drawing upon conceptual categories and concepts that illuminate the process, the authors demonstrate the nature and character of young people's democratic learning. An implication arising from this is the need for practice‐orientated research in other contexts (e.g. work, leisure and home) to fully understand the nature of democratic learning.     

How does community matter? Misrecognition and the participation agenda for children in socially disadvantaged communities

Participatory research with young people has enjoyed a decade of sustained development including the development of a range of embodied and visual methodologies. Much of this has been in the service of a participatory citizenship agenda, as articulated in the Every Child Matters agenda in England, in the work of the UK's Children's Commissioners and through service provider commitment to consultation with young people more generally. However throughout this period there has also been a sustained critique of the UK Government's citizenship agenda for young people, and consequently of the role of participatory research and consultation processes within this. Much of this critique questions what kind of citizenship young people are being asked to participate in, juxtaposing the construction of ‘inclusive’ participatory spaces with an increasingly stratified and exclusionary context for participation in the social and economic arenas of society. This article reflects on this debate using material from a two-year ethnographic project with a small group of year six and seven primary school girls from a Scottish urban area long designated as having a high concentration of people struggling with socio-economic disadvantage and exclusion. The project blended the more traditional ethnographic approach of observation and reflection with a series of participatory activities with the group. These activities took place within an after school club which they named ‘Community Matters’. This article examines the various activities of the club and the differing meanings of and associations with ‘community’ that the girls depicted and discussed. These situated meanings are then contrasted to the assumptions that underpin children's role within the evaluation systems that govern services to children.     

Engagement,passivity and detachment: 16‐year‐old students’ conceptions of politics and the relationship between people and politics

While there is a wealth of literature on young people and politics, most studies have examined their interest, trust and participation in politics as well as their attitudes toward and knowledge about formal politics. Little is known, however, about young people and the concept of politics. This article investigates 16‐year‐old students’ perceptions of the concept of politics and their conceptions of the relationship between people and politics. This knowledge is valuable for citizenship and social studies education, as an increasingly polarised political climate poses challenges to democratic politics and, consequently, to young people's political engagement and participation. In this study, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with nine students at five Norwegian upper secondary schools. The students varied in their interest and involvement in politics. A main finding is that the students perceived politics as processes related to shaping society, as decisions and activities related to ruling a country, and as the activities of discussion and debate. Three conceptions of the relationship between people and politics are presented: engagement, passivity, and detachment. In addition, while the 16‐year‐olds participated in political discussions privately and at school, they stated that they did not participate in political discussions in social media. Implications for citizenship and social studies education include the need to strengthen the bottom‐up perspective on politics and focus on in‐depth understanding of political processes and tools and methods of social‐scientific enquiry, as well as providing students with opportunities for and practice with handling opposition in political discussions online.     

Towards European Citizenship through Higher Education?

The purpose of this study, the first part of a recently concluded project, is to describe and analyse the perceptions that European university students have of European citizenship and to offer some insight into the term. Before describing our findings, we offer a brief review of the concept of citizenship, attempting to define it in the European context and showing how it can be attained, while demonstrating that, contrary to what one might expect, the concept is by no means easy to grasp, as young people do not have a clear idea of what Europe means or what Europe wants. Our results have implications for our understanding of European integration.     

Imagining the mathematician: young people talking about popular representations of maths

This paper makes both a critical analysis of some popular cultural texts about mathematics and mathematicians, and explores the ways in which young people deploy the discourses produced in these texts. We argue that there are particular (and sometimes contradictory) meanings and discourses about mathematics that circulate in popular culture, that young people use these as resources in identity making as (non-)mathematicians, negotiating their meaning in ways that are not always predictable, and that their influence on young people is diffuse and nevertheless important. The paper discusses the discourses that prevail in some of the popular cultural images of mathematics and mathematicians that came up in our research. We show how mathematics is represented as a secret language, while mathematicians are often mad, mostly male and almost invariably white. We then explore how young people negotiate these discourses, positioning themselves in relation to mathematics. Here we draw attention to the fact that both those who continue with mathematics after it ceases to be compulsory and those who do not, deploy similar images of mathematics and mathematicians. What is different is how they respond to and negotiate these images.     

“American = English Speaker” Before “American = White”: The Development of Children's Reasoning About Nationality

Adults implicitly judge people from certain social backgrounds as more “American” than others. This study tests the development of children's reasoning about nationality and social categories. Children across cultures (White and Korean American children in the United States, Korean children in South Korea) judged the nationality of individuals varying in race and language. Across cultures, 5‐ to 6‐year‐old children (N = 100) categorized English speakers as “American” and Korean speakers as “Korean” regardless of race, suggesting that young children prioritize language over race when thinking about nationality. Nine‐ and 10‐year‐olds (N = 181) attended to language and race and their nationality judgments varied across cultures. These results suggest that associations between nationality and social category membership emerge early in life and are shaped by cultural context.     

An Investigation into the Organization, Challenges, and Impact of an Urban Apprentice Teacher Program

Service learning programs are being advanced as effective vehicles for preparing young people for active citizenship and promoting growth in self-esteem, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, and personal responsibility. Although there is a burgeoning literatue addressing service learning programs in school subject areas such as language arts, math, science, and social studies, little consideration has been given to the potential of physical activity programs to provide meaningful service learning experiences for youngsters. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, this article describes an apprentice teacher program in which a group of urban youngsters taught basketball to young children attending a summer sports camp. The apprentice teacher program captured the interests and talents of this group of young people who, in their school career, had been characterized as behavior problems, poor attenders, and low achievers. The experience improved their self-confidence, concern for others, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, and enthusiasm for learning. The apprentice teachers completed the program aware of the contributions they could make toward helping others and eager to continue the work the following year.     

Contested urban spaces: exploring the analytics of young persons’ experiences of living in Glasgow’s deprived zones

This paper reports findings from an exploratory study of mainly young people’s verbally articulated perceptions of urban life in Glasgow, Scotland. The focus is upon areas of deprivation where territory and social capital is contested and whose meanings are possibly only partially grasped by our informants. Their personal knowledge of violence and sense of oppression (fear of violence and constrained agency) are explored through qualitative data generated by means of semi‐structured interviews. Despite the qualified nature of our findings we believe they contribute to understanding a particular Scottish identity, one infused with notions of youth culture, community disorder and social exclusion. These results prompt us to highlight the need for more intense policy concern and interventions in order to address the mental health of young people whose lives are demonstrably blighted by poverty and its exclusionary material realities in a major twenty‐first‐century European city.     

Literacy and citizenship: an intercultural perspective

In this paper I report on a small scale teaching project indicated by the general title above. The overall aim of the project has been to investigate and if possible enhance pupils' understanding and experience of two key areas of contemporary educational concern—literacy and citizenship—through a creative intercultural perspective. The teaching and research seek to suggest both connections and contrasts, starting from a critical cultural awareness of the ‘familiar’ and from there reaching outwards—although the movement is by no means in this direction only. The project has notions of literacy and citizenship at its very core: literacy as broadly covering our ways of appreciating ourselves and our world through language; citizenship as suggestive of the ways of thinking, feeling and behaving which may result from (and in turn determine) our understanding.     

社会文化与广告语言

广告语言,作为语言的一种特殊形式,同样能够反映社会文化的方方面面;一个民族的文化趋向、文化心理、传统观念、思维模式等等都必然会受到广告语言的影响或对广告语言产生这样那样的作用。认真探讨社会文化与广告语言之间的内在关系,说明只有适合特定民族文化特征的广告语言才易为人们所理解和接受。     

Gamer Girls,Gold Farmers,and Activism In Real Life

This essay analyzes the graphic novel In Real Life as an example of Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang’s intention to raise young people’s awareness about gender and economic disparities within the gaming industry. Broadly, In Real Life combats the pervasive cultural anxiety that Jane McGonigal challenges in her book Reality is Broken–namely that young people’s growing connection to technology, and specifically to gaming, will cause them to spend their lives “wasting time, tuning out, and losing out on real life” (2011, p. 11). Specifically, it provides a realistic, accessible example of digital citizenship for twenty-first century youth. The innovative notions of digital citizenship Doctorow and Wang present in the text call for an end to gender and economic marginalization as facilitated by a gaming industry in which many young adults participate. By connecting gaming to activism, In Real Life offers a new avenue by which to use young adult literature to inspire civic engagement on the part of young people. The aim is to show that the imaginary activism depicted in literature not only has the potential to, but is actually designed to engage young people as active users, consumers, and shapers of technology.     

Learning from Ninjas: young people’s films as a lens for an expanded view of literacy and language

ABSTRACT

This article examines young people’s films to provide insights about language and literacy practices. It offers a heuristic for thinking about how to approach data that is collectively produced. It tries to make sense of new ways of knowing that locate the research in the field rather than in the academic domain. The authors develop a lens for looking at films made by young people that acknowledge multiple modes and materiality within their meaning-making practices. We make an argument about the cultural politics of research, to consider how the language and literacy practices of young people are positioned. We argue for more consideration of how language and literacy appear entangled within objects and other stuff within young people’s media productions, so as to trouble disciplinary boundaries within and beyond literacy and language studies.     

Non‐formal education implementations in Turkey: issues and latest challenges

The aim of this article is to analyse the latest implementations and issues raised in Turkish non‐formal education from a historical perspective in Turkey. The high population rate and lack of adequate educational opportunities for adults and migration from rural areas to urban areas caused many educational, social and cultural problems in non‐formal education. For solving all the problems, Turkey followed the latest developments in the world about the aims and functions of non‐formal adult education and organised several different adult education programs in terms of integration to international bodies such as European Union and so forth. These programs aim to reach a wide range of people from rural and urban settings, the employees, employers, farmers, students, tradesmen, housewives, artisans and many others. The most important educational characteristic of this audience is that they are not regular students. The organisation way of non‐formal education differ from other developed countries in essence. In social terms, the non‐formal education for adults does not only provide professional and technical training; but also provides the learners with basic literacy and helps continue their educational life, contributes to preservation and improvement of national and cultural values, creates an awareness of citizenship and democratic thinking in Turkey.