Reconceptualizing citizenship education for the twenty-first century: A study of postbaccalaureate social studies students from Canada, England, and the United States

Citizenship education has been an overarching goal of public schooling historically in every society. Debates between social educators over the purposes of citizenship education have led to conflicting purposes and various approaches rather than a unified direction for citizenship education in the schools. Present global realities, such as interdependence among nations, immigration, and post-industrialism, challenge past conceptions of citizenship education and demand one more appropriate to the times.; Because the task of educating for citizenship has been traditionally assigned to social studies teachers, it was important that the views of prospective social studies teachers were heard. The purpose of this doctoral study was to: (a) elicit the views of students in secondary social studies teacher preparation programs regarding the changing nature of citizenship; (b) compare students' views with the views of policy experts to identify the intersection of agreement or consensus on the changing nature of citizenship; and, (c) make recommendations for teacher education curricula and pedagogy to better prepare these students for their citizenship educator roles.; To accomplish this three-fold purpose, 147 students in secondary social studies teacher preparation programs in Canada, England, and the United States completed a questionnaire composed of three areas: global trends that will significantly impact people's lives during the next 25 years; citizenship characteristics deemed necessary for people to cope with and manage these trends; and, strategies recommended for consideration and action by educational policy makers to address these trends and develop the desired citizenship characteristics. Follow-up interviews were also conducted by Internet, phone, and in-person with 43 of the study participants who defined the type of citizenship education needed for the 21st century and identified what is needed in teacher preparation to better prepare them for their citizenship educator roles.; The questionnaire and interview findings were then used to make recommendations and implementation suggestions for teacher preparation. In addition to bringing student insight into the citizenship education dialogue, the student and policy expert comparisons reveal overwhelming agreement on the future direction of citizenship and the necessary directions to be taken in citizenship educational reform.