Parvati Chatterjee Mazumdar

Civic and Citizenship Education (CCE) in Teacher Education- A Case Study of Teacher Beliefs and Pedagogies in Assam, India.

Betreuung: Dirk Lange
Zeitraum: 2020 – laufend
Kontakt: a12047765@unet.univie.ac.at

Civic and Citizenship Education (CCE ) and Gobal Citizenship Education (GCE) is of great relevance in a globalized world. The increasing challenges to a peaceful, just and democratic way of life in national and global societies has prompted growing scholarship in this area (Torres 2021). According to Lange (2020) a functioning civil society is based on a strong citizenship, which is able to act in the different political-social skill fields.The goal of CCE in schools is for learners to develop critical understanding and interpretive skills, which enable them to participate and take action as responsible citizens. Lange emphasizes the pedagogical aim of civic education is “citizenship awareness” (Lange 2020).

My doctoral research is based on findings that teacher beliefs are of vital importance for teacher education since beliefs determine the way teachers develop their meaning making and decision making about curriculum and pedagogies (Reichert, Lange and Chow, 2020; Torres, 2020; Reichert & Torney-Puerta, 2019; Brinkmann, 2015; Williams, 2011; Valcke et al. 2010). Research has shown that teachers across subject areas, especially in History and Civics play a crucial role - through formal and informal learning experiences - in how students contribute to society (Reichert & Print, 2018; Losito & Mintrop, 2001 cited in Reichert &Torney Puerta, 2019).

My research falls within the Interpretive Paradigm of qualitative research and uses Kamrup district in Assam, India as a case study. The state of Assam in the north-eastern region of India was chosen as a case on account of its significant linguistic, religious and ethnic diversity and ongoing citizenship issues. The study uses the inductive approach and thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) of the data gathered by problem centred, open-ended, semi-structured in-depth interviews from a purposeful sample of teachers from schools and  teacher education colleges in designated rural and urban areas of Kamrup district in Assam.

The research adopts the Bottom- Up approach of studying baseline teacher beliefs about CCE- content, skills and behaviours- and how it relates to their pedagogies in their contextual setting (Lange, 2020).  Andreotti’s framework of Postcolonial and decolonial GCE strategies in Teacher Education is the methodological lens of analysis. Andreotti (2010) proposes a hyper-self-reflexivity strategy that acknowledges everyone’s complicities and investments in coercive and repressive belief systems. It does so in order to imagine a way of relating to each other that can be ‘otherwise’.

The doctoral research study taking Assam in India as a case aims to contribute to inclusive teacher education programs in general and CCE in particular in national and globalized contexts.