Building Active Citizens in School Context through Extra-Curricular Activities

Author(s):

Filiz KeserHanife AkarEsma Emmioglu

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

07 SES 10 A, Different Approaches to Citizenship Education

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-30

14:45-16:15

Room:

HG, HS 31

Chair:

Chris Gaine

Contribution

There is a growing international consensus on the importance of citizenship and human rights education as a means to raise consciousness about these values and promote a democratic culture especially among youngsters and adolescents. Although some drawbacks in practice, Turkey has taken an important step by formulating its National Plan of Action in citizenship and human rights education in 1999 and introduced “Citizenship and Human Rights Education” courses in all primary and middle level schools. Later, the Citizenship and Human Rights curriculum has been merged as an integrated curriculum into the social studies curriculum. These trials gained especially importance with the Copenhagen Criteria which underlined that each candidate country had to achieve stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for protection of minorities, as an attempt to meet EU’s accession criteria reported at the Copenhagen European Council in 1993. In Turkey, some research has fostered the understanding of human rights and democratic education including active citizenship from various perspectives. A broad content analysis research was conducted to examine the values promoted in textbooks by a collaborative work between TUBA (Turkish Science Academy) and “Tarih Vakfı” (History Foundation). Textbooks were found to emphasize democracy and citizenship alongside with nationalism (Bora, 2003), and positive gender discrimination in texts was seen such as females being represented as teachers and nurses (Boztemur, 2003; Tanrıöver, 2003). Further research highlighted the importance of promoting a human rights and democratic culture (Çayır, 2003). In another study, Kepenekçi (2005) states that civics and human rights education needs to consider school and class climate, teacher behavior, and the influence of other courses on citizenship and human rights development. These research findings necessitate a further research about the role of formal education in raising active citizens through extra-curricular activities. Within the theoretical framework drawn above, this study attempts to answer whether values of citizenship can be acquired for lifelong practices through formal education; and to evaluate the impact of extra-curricular activities on building active citizens in a primary school (6-8 grades) through a case study. Data were collected through document analysis (reports, curriculum, textbooks, project reports), in depth observations of extra curricular activities conducted during counseling class hours, project work, student fair and exhibitions) and interviews with students, teachers, and counselors overall.

Method

This study is a qualitative case study evaluating the extra-curricular activities on active citizenship in a Private Primary School in Ankara examining how these activities helped students build active citizenship values and competencies. Data were collected through qualitative methods to conduct an in-depth study. Observations, focus-group interviews with students, interviews with teachers, and documents and reports written by the teachers were the main data sources. The evaluation includes the following extra-curricular activities in the school program: sharing hours; counseling hours; school clubs; and national and international projects as ECO Schools, Social Studies Fair, Civilizations Bridge: Anatolia, and ACT!: Active Citizenship Training. These activities were integrated into formal curriculum of 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Participants were teachers with different social sciences credentials (n=22), counselors (n=5) and students involved in the implementation and evaluation of the active citizenship activities (n=489: 217 girls and 272 boys) from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.

Expected Outcomes

The results of the analyses revealed eight main themes in line with the competencies the students developed with respect to active citizenship: active citizenship perception, social accountability, intercultural awareness, awareness of human rights, research skills, interaction skills, and interpersonal skills. More specifically, the researchers found that students subjected to active citizenship training through extra-curricular materials alongside formal education were likely to develop the following skills and attitudes exclusive from academic knowledge: self-expression; sensitivity towards social rules such as paying taxes; self-efficacy and high self-concept. In addition, students developed pro-social skills such as empathy building and communication; built awareness of differences and values differences in their social milieu and ultimately in the larger society and globe; developed sensitivity towards global values and the natural and ecological environment through taking actions within the family.

References

Akar, H. (2008, April). Challenges for Schools in Communities with In-migration and Out migration Flows, Paper presented at AERA, New York. Akar, H., &. Temli, Y. (2007). Social studies’ teachers’ definitions, experiences, and applications in morality, moral, and character education. In Nikos, P. Terzis (Ed). Education and values in the Balkan Countries. Thessaloniki, Kyriakedis Brothers, s.a. 7, 281-292. Bağlı, M. T. (2003). Insan haklarına saygılı ders kitabı nasıl yazılır: İki öykü [How to write textbooks sensitive to human rights: Two stories]. In M. T. Bağlı & Y. Esen (Ed.), Ders kitaplarında insan hakları: İnsan haklarına duyarlı ders kitapları için [77-126]. Nisantasi: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı. Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1998). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Bora, (2003). Ders kitaplarinda milliyetcilik [Nationalism in text books]. In B. Çotuksöken, A. Erzan, & O. Silier (Ed.), Ders kitaplarında insan hakları: Tarama sonucları [pp.65-89]. Nisantasi: Turkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı. Boztemur, R. (2003). Tarih ders kitapları ve insan hakları [History text books and human rights]. In B. Çotuksöken, A. Erzan, & O.Silier (Ed.), Ders kitaplarında insan hakları: Tarama sonucları [pp. 207-239]. Nişantaşı: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı. Kepenekci, Y.K. (2005). A study of effectiveness of human rights education in Turkey. Journal of Peace Education, 2(1), 53-68. Önür, A. & Engin, C. (1996, June). Is civic education in Turkish schools conducive to education for democracy? Paper presented at the First Balkan Civitas Conference, Primorsko: Bulgaria. Patton, M.Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE. Tanriover, H. U. (2003). Ders kitaplarında cinsiyet ayrımcılığı [Gender discrimination in Text books]. In B. Çotuksöken, A. Erzan, & O. Silier (Ed.), Ders kitaplarında insan hakları:Tarama sonuçları [pp.106-121] . Nisantası: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı. Timur, Ş. & Bagli, M. T. (2003) Ders kitaplarında görsellik ve tasarım: İmge ve metin ilişkisi açısından insan hakları [Visuality and design in text books: Human rights from the perspective of the relation between image and text]. In M. T. Bağlı & Y. Esen (Ed.), Ders kitaplarında insan hakları: İnsan haklarına duyarlı ders kitapları için (47-76). Nisantası: Türkiye Ekonomik ve Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı. Yildirim, A. (1997). Lise düzeyindeki sosyal bilim ders programlarının ogretim surecine katkısı ve cesitli amaclara verdiği önem yönünden değerlendirilmesi [Assessment of high school social Studies curriculum in terms of contribution to teaching and learning process and emphasis on various objectives]. Education and Science, 21(194), 48-63.

Author Information

Filiz Keser

Middle East Technical University

Educational Sciences

Ankara

212

Hanife Akar

Middle East Technical University

Educational Sciences

Ankara

212

Esma Emmioglu

Middle East Technical University, Turkey

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