Moving the borders: multiculturalism and global citizenship in the German social studies classroom

ISSN： 1469-5847

Source： Educational Research, Vol.53, Iss.2, 2011-06, pp. : 137-149

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Abstract

Background: In many countries, working towards a truly inclusive national citizenship means deconstructing hegemonic structures that are deeply entrenched. Moving outside of the borders toward a global citizenship hints at giving up on what has been a long road toward multicultural citizenship. Abalance between including and empowering diverse populations within borders as a part of citizenship education is critical. Likewise, future citizens must be prepared to conceive of a borderless world and interact with cultures different from their own. Literature that empirically examines the relationship between global citizenship and multicultural citizenship is sparse. This paper explores this tension, using the case of Germany. Purpose: The overall aims of this study were to explore German teachers' valuesand beliefs about citizenship education in light of new citizenship and immigration laws, and in light of European and global influences, as well. Design/method/sample: A qualitative research design was employed to capture arange of German social studies teachers' views on citizenship, diversity and education. Interviews were conducted with 43 teachers from five different states across Germany. The constant comparative method of analysis was used to analyse these data. Findings: The analysis suggests the existence of four major themes: 'Peaceful Europe', and 'Rejection of Europeanisation', 'Christian like us' and 'Multicultural = European'. Taken as a whole, these categories show that the teachers did engage with both multicultural and global citizenship ideas, but they did so ina manner that created limits on both concepts. European citizenship emerged as a means of comfortably addressing diversity and, perhaps unintentionally, disenfranchising non-ethnic Europeans present in the classroom from accessing this concept of citizenship.