Thinking outside borders: exploring how the history classroom can be a space to foster ideas of critical, post-national citizenship

Young people will face a world of climate threat, precarious work futures, increasing domestic and global inequalities, wars, and growing racism and intolerance. The looming question is how these global challenges can be effectively addressed through global collaboration. The overarching question guiding this study is how the History classroom can be a space to foster ideas about being a citizen that transcend national borders. The study reviews the literature around cosmopolitanism, global citizenship, and multi-dimensional citizenship, as well as historical thinking for historical and moral consciousness; such consciousness considered a prerequisite for a sense of global human solidarity. This provided impetus for the study to investigate how History teachers interpreted what it is that they do, and why. Adopting a hermeneutic interpretive phenomenological approach and influenced by Max van Manen’s ideas of hermeneutic phenomenology, the methodology was restyled to best suit the research purpose and context. Data were collected and interpreted from survey narratives and ten semi-structured interviews, including three case studies, with practising History teachers. Using sub-research questions as hermeneutic tools, History teachers’ conceptualisations of citizenship, and interpretations of the purpose of History led to two main theses that address the overarching question. Overall, the findings suggest that if the History classroom is to be an authentic and relevant space to foster broader notions of what it means to enact ‘good’ citizenship, teachers need to explicitly incorporate that in their conceptual understanding of the subject. The teachers had some ideas about citizenship, but how that concept related to the teaching and learning of History was poorly understood. One concluding thesis is that the degree to which historical thinking can be aligned to critical, post-national ideas of citizenship must be made explicit for teachers. This connection is not explicitly made and without direction many teachers miss opportunities that align with their own notions when they are pressed to consider effective teaching for citizenship. The second conclusion reached is that teachers must authentically connect the past with the present, and to do so teachers need to be empowered to introduce current controversial issues into the classroom. Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge remains a priority in teacher education. However, ‘citizenship’ as globally connected across time and space with a sense of shared humanity, needs to be addressed as an integral part of that conceptual framework. For the study of the past to have authentic relevance for students, it must contribute to the formation of the skills, values and knowledge necessary for citizens of the 21st century living in an increasingly globally connected world, and facing challenges requiring global co-operation. With implications for both pre-service and in-service teacher education, this study contributes to an understanding of how History can explicitly contribute to the formation and development of these informed and active global citizens.