Dismantling the Nation, Debunking Pride: Discourse and Practice in German Civics Classrooms

In: Citizenship education. Theory - research - practice., S. 19-26

Abstract

Much of the research on the relationship between schooling and the development of young citizens' national identities or patterns of civic engagement focuses on formal efforts by educational systems and states, such as official civic education policies and curriculum and teacher training programs, or on student outcomes in the form of civic knowledge. ... This chapter examines these processes from a slightly different angle, exploring how nationality can be shaped in schools outside of direct or intentional state efforts, and argues that the often unplanned actions of classroom teachers, which do not necessarily reflect official state policy or lesson plans, play a significant role in these processes. Specifically, this chapter reports on a case-study of vocational school teachers in Berlin, Germany, whose well-intentioned efforts to ward off a potentially virulent form of nationalism among their students took place in a context in which they perceived little official guidance for their efforts. (DIPF/orig.).