Private School Children Acting for the Common Good

• In Event: Roundtable Session 45
  In Roundtable Session: Democratic Citizenship in Education Paper Discussion

Abstract

Given the potential seriousness of socioscientific issues, such as potential climate change, many jurisdictions have urged educators to engage students in decision making regarding such issues. Scholars argue, however, that students also need to take sociopolitical actions — such as lobbying of power-brokers — to address issues. In the study reported here, we concluded — based on constant comparative analyses of qualitative data — that sixth grade children in an elite private school developed significant motivation to enact social change for the common good and that their orientations seemed influenced myriad factors, including: the school’s community service orientation, the teacher’s social justice leanings, a situated apprenticeship for research-informed activism and student-led findings with regards to socioscientific issues of their choice.

Authors

• John Lawrence Bencze, OISE/University of Toronto

• Nathalie Lemelin, Lower Canada College