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Abstract

Citizenship education historically has been the major goal of social studies instruction. What do students understand ‘citizenship’ to mean?

Forty-six students in grades 6, 7, and 8 were interviewed about their emerging concepts of citizenship. Content analysis revealed middle grades students’ understandings of citizenship were expressed through one or more of the following five constructs: helping others, following / obeying laws or rules, being nice / polite, being loyal, or respecting self and others. No correlation was found between students’ ability levels and support for citizenship constructs. Interestingly, gender appeared to play a factor in students’ understanding of citizenship: females were more likely than males to support loyalty as a citizenship construct, and less likely to support helping others or following/obeying rules or laws.

Results of this small study demonstrate middle grades students’ emerging concepts of citizenship are experientially rather than academically based. None of the students interviewed mentioned citizenship constructs supported by the professional literature.

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Why Did I Get An ‘A’ In Citizenship? An Ethnographic Study of Emerging Concepts of Citizenship

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