Teaching for transformative citizenship: A study of preservice social studies teachers’ developing beliefs and practices

In this interpretative case study, the researchers examined the democratic and multicultural beliefs and related practices of 11 preservice social studies teachers in the northeastern United States. They collected interview, observation, and classroom artifact data throughout the participants’ teacher preparation experience. Using Banks’s typology of citizenship as the theoretical framework, this study found: (1) Most of the participants had clear definitions of democratic citizenship, but only a few had a specific focus on critical multiculturalism. (2) Participants with strong content knowledge and social justice beliefs were better able to enact classroom-based multicultural democratic education. This study illuminates the need to prepare beginning teachers to teach for a multicultural view of democratic citizenship through building on their prior beliefs and supporting their use of justice-oriented practice.