Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE - Universität Bielefeld)
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The transformative role of research in democratic civic education during times of armed conflict
Full text linkHighlights:
Research highlights how academic inquiry understands and addresses wartime challenges
Based on student testimonies, conflict hinders civic engagement and democratic education
Educational research can serve as a transformative tool
Educational public scholarship and international collaboration are a necessity during crises
Purpose: This research explores the pivotal role of educational research in supporting democratic civic education amid armed conflict. The study uses the recent experiences in Israel to examine how research can maintain democratic values and foster reconciliation during tumultuous times, aiming to illuminate the transformative capabilities of academic inquiry in crisis contexts.
Approach: The research adopts a semi-empirical, exploratory design that evolved from ongoing events. Personal testimonies from a diverse group of seven students were analyzed for overarching theoretical themes.
Findings: The analysis reveals that educational research during conflict may act as a critical, transformative tool, highlighting substantial challenges in maintaining civic engagement and democratic education. It underscores the dual role of research in understanding and actively addressing the complexities of armed conflict.
Practical implications: The findings stress the need for educational public scholarship and international collaboration to support democratic education, highlighting the crucial role of researchers in shaping educational practices during crises
Mapping elementary students\u27 understandings of the police
Full text linkHighlights:
– Research on conceptual change in civics is needed.
– Phenomenography is useful for mapping different ways of understanding a particular concept, in this case, the different ways elementary students understand the police.
– Civics teaching can benefit from mapping understandings of phenomena such as different social institutions.
Purpose: Investigate first- to third-graders’ understandings of the police.
Design/methodology/approach: Phenomenography is used to analyze elementary students’ understandings of the police as a social institution
Findings: The results indicate three qualitatively different ways of understanding the police. The police as: attributes, activities and as a part of the democratic welfare state.
Practical implications: Civics teaching that aims to develop students’ understandings of the police can benefit from taking the three different ways of understanding into consideration
Securitisation in citizenship education in Poland: Critical analysis of the discourses linked with the changes in core curricula following the Russo-Ukrainian War
Full text linkHighlights:
After the Russo-Ukrainian War, Poland introduced defence education in its school curriculum.
The introduction of defence education was prompted by the threat arising from the war in Ukraine.
A critical analysis of the discourse linked with the change reveals its hidden political dimension.
The removal of topics from health education due to this change was mitigated by securitising actors’ discourse.
Securitising actors apply ‘ministrysplaining’ changes to the audience.
Purpose: The research aimed to critically analyse the changes that have occurred in the core curricula of general education in Poland following the Russo–Ukrainian war from the perspective of the securitisation process.
Methodology: The research involved analysing 366 texts spanning various genres. These texts were produced by both securitising actors and recipients of the change. The research employed content analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis, following the approaches of Ruth Wodak and Martin Reisigl.
Findings: The research revealed that the securitising actors advocating for changes in the core curricula have been identified as a threat directly linked to the war in Ukraine. However, the discourse surrounding these changes also exhibited several features that indicate a hidden political dimension. Further, the analysis emphasised the use of ‘ministryplaining’ towards the audience involved in education, who formulate critical remarks
Citizen identity formation of domestic students and Syrian refugee youth in Jordan: Centering student voice and Arab Islamic ontologies
Full text linkPatricia Kubow (2023). Citizen identity formation of domestic students and Syrian refugee youth in Jordan: Centering student voice and Arab Islamic ontologies. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781003143215
https://doi.org/10.4324/978100314321
Change in citizenship and social science education in (post)war time
Full text linkAccording to the Global Conflict Tracker (https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker), there are currently 27 conflicts in the world, which vary in type and status. In contrast, the Rule of Law in Armed Conflict Online Portal (RULAC), which defines armed conflicts under international humanitarian law, indicates that it is currently monitoring more than 114 armed conflicts in the world (https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts). Some of these conflicts are in the headlines; others are not. However, they all change the lives and functioning of people living there or those who neighbour them. How does education respond to current, future, and past armed conflicts
Towards public social pedagogy: Participatory theatrical events as pedagogical encounters
Full text linkTemporary spaces for unlikely encounters can function as an antidote for polarization.
Keeping the skills for dialogue alive requires spaces for practising dialogic capacities.
Participatory theatre has pedagogical potential as a space for dialogue on social and political issues.
Public social pedagogy could be useful in embracing new types of citizenship education in the public sphere.
Purpose: This study considers the pedagogical dimensions of an event concept that combined participatory theatre and social scientific research to approach questions relating to ethnic relations and racism. The article aims to establish, with the help of a practical case example, the notion of public social pedagogy.
Approach: Ethnographic research on 24 participatory theatrical events. The analysis utilizes the taxonomy of public pedagogy by Gert Biesta to provide an empirically informed theoretical autopsy of the events.
Findings: The analysis shows the pedagogical and societal importance of fostering encounters, encouraging communal discussion and nurturing dialogic competencies. Public social pedagogy would specifically address pedagogical processes relating to the public sphere, which revives the tradition of public deliberation.
Practical implications: The study directs attention to pedagogical processes within the public sphere which have not been very prominent in social pedagogy or citizenship education. The ‘autopsy’ of the participatory theatrical events provides perspectives for similar artistic interventions
The Healthy Waters science-based educational intervention programme: The potential of participatory approaches for developing and promoting students’ environmental citizenship
Full text link- Schools reproduce scientific knowledge uncritically.
- Schools should provide educational opportunities for students’ action, reflection, and interaction.
- Participatory approach allows students to expand their agency around climate change.
- Participatory approach promotes students’ knowledge of their community’s environmental problems.
Purpose: This paper explores the potential of students’ participation in the HW educational intervention programme based on participatory methodologies in promoting their environmental citizenship.
Design/methodology/approach: Using a quasi-experimental design, 126 students were randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups and filled out questionnaires before and after the HW intervention to evaluate environmental citizenship dimensions.
Findings: The psychometric properties of a 16-item instrument to measure youth environmental citizenship were validated. After the HW intervention, the students’ intervention group had a significant improvement in their sense of environmental efficacy.
Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional design of this study does not allow causal inferences to be made; further research should conduct longitudinal studies.
Practical implications: Schools must promote educational experiences where students have opportunities for reflection and action in interaction in a climate of openness to dialogue and diversity with the involvement of different actors
Controversial issues in Norwegian social science classrooms
Full text linkHighlights
– Research discusses how civic education may alleviate social inequality in political efficacy.
– Openness towards and awareness of controversial issues may play an important role.
– Teachers show significant differences when interpreting what makes an issue controversial.
– The political and epistemic interpretation seems more influential than the emotional criteria.
Purpose: The aim of the article is to contribute to an overall discussion of how civic education may influence the political efficacy of adolescents, with specific emphasis on social equalisation. We analyse how the inclusion of controversial issues in civic education may contribute towards increased social equalisation in political efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach: Our study follows a qualitative research design and is based on semi-structured interviews with social science teachers in Norwegian lower-secondary schools. Our contribution is influenced by extensive quantitative research, on which we seek to expand through qualitative exploration.
Findings: Our main finding is that the inclusion of controversial issues in civic education does not in itself contribute towards social equalisation in political efficacy, but that more openness towards and different understandings of controversial issues that are included may potentially do so.
Research limitations/implications: The scope of our study is limited by its size, but it should give some direction for further research.
Practical implications: We suggest that teachers may benefit from approaching controversial issues in a less personal way, favouring epistemic and political criteria rather than emotional ones
Ultra-Orthodox female student teachers\u27 motivation to learn and teach global education
Full text linkHighlights:
– GE can be embraced by distinct populations with highly religious views.
– UOSTs\u27 motivation toward GE is related to competitive-instrumental, social-justice, and personal factors.
– UOSTs prioritize local orientation toward GE, over global perspectives.
– UOSTs seem to assess the compatibility of GE with the traditions and norms of their own community.
– GE may be perceived as multidirectional and multidimensional rather than a top-down hierarchy
Purpose: This study aims to identify factors that motivate ultra-Orthodox female student-teachers to learn and teach from a global education perspective. Uncovering these factors may inform the discourse on integrating global orientations into education systems.
Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts the broad theoretical idea of global education while employing quantitative analysis.
Findings: Data obtained from 115 participants yielded three factors salient to learning GE: (1) competitive-instrumental; (2) social-justice related; and (3) personal. Motivation to teach GE was found to align with two main approaches, one locally oriented and the other globally oriented.
Research limitations/implications: As the study adopted a quantitative methodology, future research should also elucidate our findings using qualitative methods.
Practical implications: Stakeholders who wish to promote global education should consider that the participants’ overall disposition is congenial to global education; however, they interpret this notion in local and personal terms rather than as a global, proactive framework