Initial Civic Spaces of Schooling: How Young Children Recognize and Construct Communities

• In Event: Social Studies Education: From National Policies to the Classroom

Abstract

As one of the first communities outside of young children’s private spheres of family, scholars consistently position school as an ideal space for civic education. At its core, civic education helps young children cultivate communities that support broader societal structures and mores. Yet, there is very little research elaborating how young children construct these initial communities. In other words, how do young children construct the initial civic communities that schools purport to cultivate? Using data from a year-long ethnographic study of three classrooms in a Head Start Center in a large Southwestern city, this paper examines how children let each other know that they were part of a civic realm, i.e. their classroom community.

Authors

• Katherina Ann Payne, The University of Texas - Austin

• Molly Ellen McManus, The University of Texas - Austin

• Sunmin Lee, Texas State University