Learning to Teach Citizenship Competencies through a School-University Collaborative Action Research Project

Several studies reveal that citizenship competencies are underdeveloped in many western countries and in Latin American countries in particular. The current paper describes an innovation, the use of “reflection circles” and authentic experiences teaching 8th graders, in an elective teacher education course on citizenship education. Twenty preservice teachers, alongside two university faculty and a school teacher, moved away from traditional notions of citizenship as knowledge of legal institutions to notions of citizenship as engagement with relevant social problems. Analysis of reflective logs show improvements to the university-based course and prospective teachers' repertoire to teach citizenship competencies to their students.