%0 Journal Article
%T Elementary education students¡¯ perceptions of ¡°good¡± citizenship
%A Jason L. O'Brien
%A Jason M. Smith
%J Journal of Social Studies Education Research
%D 2011
%I Association for Social Studies Educators (ASSE)
%X The purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary pre-service teachers perceive of ¡®good¡¯ citizenship. Prior to any instruction in their methods courses, 309 pre-service elementary teachers from nine different states were asked to respond to the prompt ¡°What is a good citizen?¡± The two most common responses were ¡°helping others/community involvement¡± (n=180) and ¡°following laws¡± (n=163). Using the framework created by Westheimer and Kahne (2004), the authors make the conclusion that a majority of undergraduates have adopted a ¡°Personally Responsible¡± model of citizenship. The authors argue that social studies methods instructors should attempt to move students in the direction of adopting a more ¡°justice-oriented¡± model of citizenship when teaching elementary students in their future classrooms.
%K good citizenship
%K preservice elementary teachers
%U http://www.jsser.org/index.php/JSSER/article/viewFile/31/pdf