The Impact of a Social Justice Project on Middle School Student Perceptions of "Good Citizenship"

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Topics for 21st Century Middle-Level Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Middle school students across the U.S. are learning about citizenship both explicitly and overtly through the hidden curriculum, which in the vast majority of schools, promotes passive compliant citizenship. This study uses visual methods to investigates student perceptions of “good citizenship” before and after participation in a social justice project designed to move students towards a more participatory and justice-oriented view of citizenship that is rooted in critical consciousness. Preliminary findings indicate that there were several promising post-project shifts in student perceptions of good citizenship that resonate with participatory and justice-oriented views of citizenship and that many students shared a shift in perceptions that revealed increased critical consciousness.

Author

• Jessica DeMink-Carthew, The University of Vermont