“Riding the citizenship wagon”: Citizenship conceptions of social studies teachers in Singapore

Interest in citizenship has never been higher. However, citizenship is a contested concept. In this qualitative case study, we examined how social studies teachers in Singapore conceptualized citizenship. We found that teachers' understandings generally could be categorized as three conceptions of citizenship - character-driven, social-participatory, and critically-reflexive. Most teachers valued participation at a personal level and a minority valued civic engagement and/or were concerned about injustices and structural analysis. This challenged the perception that issues of ideology and curriculum content are Western concerns. Rather, social justice cuts across all societies, and is also fundamental to Asia and Singapore.