Teachers’ classroom practices for citizenship education: Experiences of teachers rated as outstanding

Abstract

The objective of this research is to characterise classroom teaching practices that promote citizenship education by history teachers who were rated as outstanding (maximum) in the Chilean Teacher Evaluation System. Following an interpretive approach and using methods of data collection and analysis from grounded theory, the recordings of 45 teachers’ classes, equivalent to 30 chronological hours, were analysed. Results indicate that although practices favouring citizenship education cannot be classified all the same way, common elements can be observed that promote learning in this field. These were classified into two main levels: a permanent one that manifested in a similar manner among the observed teachers (willingness to educate citizens, generation of an open classroom environment, and monitoring learning through classroom interaction) and a variable one that presented different features among participants (inclusion of citizenship topics and implementation of multiple learning activities). These results aim to disseminate with concrete examples what is being done well in real educational contexts so that actors in different schools, universities and academic systems can incorporate it into their professional work and promote it within their area of action.