Citizenship Education in the Elementary Classroom: Teacher Candidates Photograph and Describe Their Perceptions

Overview & Synopsis

How elementary pre-service teacher candidates with considerable experience in clinical field placements identified, photographed, discussed, and categorized samples of what they construed as democratic citizenship education occurring within elementary classrooms was explored in this study. Candidates discussed an initial set of captioned photos taken in their classroom placements and categorized them into consensually determined categories, repeating the process after instruction on citizenship education in a social studies methods course. Criteria emerged in their discussions as essential in characterizing democratic citizenship education; the ability of the event photographed to facilitate the individual student's meaningful understanding of an action taken, and the event's active involvement of students in the community. This investigation suggests that elementary teacher candidates' views of the democratic citizenship education their students are experiencing are accessible through the photographs they take. (Contains 2 tables.)