Socialization process of civic educators with a sense of activism: how do citizenship teachers in England develop their spirit of activism?

Teachers have an influence on citizenship education young people receive at school because they make pedagogical and instructional decisions. Teachers’ pedagogical approaches are informed by their own views and beliefs shaped through various factors including their own life experiences. Understanding how citizenship teachers shape their views that inform their approach to citizenship education is beneficial for teacher education programmes at universities and in-service trainings such as professional development courses. Hence, it is worth exploring a possible link between teachers’ views on citizenship, civic education, and teachers’ own learning opportunities in their lives. In order to explore what kind of life experience develop teachers’ visions and pedagogical approach for justice-oriented citizenship, this study focuses on transformative citizenship teachers (Secondary school teachers of England with citizenship expertise). Interview data with transformative citizenship teachers suggest that direct or indirect experience of social class inequality develop teachers’ awareness of social justice and visions to empower those disadvantaged students. The findings illustrates participating teachers’ learning process to develop spirit of activism and perspectives to critically analyse power relations in the society. Therefor e, this study offers contribution to further development of teacher education programmes at university and in-service teacher training aimed at developing teachers’ competence and visions for pedagogical approaches to develop justice-oriented citizenship.