ERIC Number: ED652630
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2020
Pages: 253
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-6846-1415-6
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Transformative Civic Education with Elementary Students: Learning from Students and Their Teacher in a Bilingual Classroom
Jessica Somerville-Braun
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University
This study contributes to the paucity of research on transformative approaches to civic education in elementary school classrooms. In this dissertation, I explore how culturally and linguistically diverse fourth graders and their teacher in a Spanish-English two-way bilingual education (TWBE) classroom engaged in transformative civic education. Drawing on a five-component transformative civic education framework and ethnographic and discourse analytic methods, I examined how the students and teacher engaged in transformative civic education interactions across both social studies and Spanish language arts classes. I found that, across their social studies and Spanish language arts classes, students: (1) built civic knowledge for active equity-oriented civic engagement, (2) incorporated their own civic knowledges and experiences into classroom learning, (3) engaged in critical questioning of dominant civic discourses, (4) conceptualized U.S. American civic identities in more inclusive ways, and (5) engaged and expanded their bilingual linguistic repertoires as part of civic learning. I also found that the teacher fostered students' engagement in transformative civic education through a number of key pedagogical moves at the interactional level of classroom talk as well as at the curricular level of lesson planning. Teacher interactional moves such as fielding students' questions, encouraging students' intertextual relationships, and affirming students' contributions to discussions facilitated student-centered space in which culturally and linguistically diverse students challenged dominant civic discourses and expanded on mainstream curricula. A discourse analytic approach to civic education research allowed me to produce transcript-level examples of teacher and student interactions that I argue can assist elementary teachers in identifying and incorporating curricular and interactional pedagogical moves that support transformative civic education into their repertoires of pedagogical practice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Civics, Elementary School Students, Student Diversity, Bilingual Education, Grade 4, Elementary School Teachers, Transformative Learning, Social Studies, Language Arts, Spanish, English, Program Effectiveness, Consciousness Raising, Teacher Role, Teaching Methods
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 4; Intermediate Grades
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Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
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