Understanding young people's citizenship learning in everyday life

TLDR

The study investigates how 13‑21‑year‑olds learn democratic citizenship through participation in formal and informal practices and communities. The authors broaden the citizenship discourse beyond political socialization to include diverse learning contexts, then describe their research and present two case studies of young people involved in the project. The research shows that citizenship learning emerges from the interplay of contexts, relationships, and youths’ dispositions, revealing dimensions that would be missed by a school‑centric view and demonstrating the value of the broader approach.

Abstract

In this article we present insights from research which has sought to deepen understanding of the ways in which young people (aged 13—21) learn democratic citizenship through their participation in a range of different formal and informal practices and communities. Based on the research, we suggest that such understanding should focus on the interplay between contexts for action, relationships within and across contexts, and the dispositions that young people bring to such contexts and relationships. In the first part of the article we show how and why we have broadened the narrow parameters of the existing citizenship discourse with its focus on political socialization to encompass a more wide-ranging conception of citizenship learning that is not just focused on school or the curriculum. In the second part of the article we describe our research and present two exemplar case studies of young people who formed part of the project. In the third part we present our insights about the nature and character of citizenship learning that we have been able to draw from our research. In the concluding section we highlight those dimensions of citizenship learning that would have remained invisible had we focused exclusively on schools and the curriculum. In this way we demonstrate the potential of the approach to understanding citizenship learning that we have adopted.