“What’s your understanding of citizenship? How can we relate Treaty Education to citizenship?”

Engage with this video (Joel Westheimer) and this podcast. (Mike Capello)

My understanding of citizenship has definitely shifted over this past week, especially towards how the concept of citizenship can impact classroom ideologies. Joel Westheimer verbalized the traditional understanding of education as a way to “shape citizens” into good workers who can contribute something to society, which stemmed from the question “are schools the right place to teach [citizenship]?”.

Schools are institutions that facilitate learning and personal growth, so I would say that they are the right place to educate citizenship, but my definition of citizenship feels so abstract after listening to the course material this week. In Mike Capellos presentation on citizenship education, he spoke of how in the conversation of citizenship, the Canadian settler state cannot be the end goal (Capello, 2019). Throughout my life, my understanding of a “good citizen” has been someone who votes, participates in community events, pays taxes, works, and contributes to charitable organizations. This understanding is rooted in the colonial mindset that productivity equals importance and that in order to be a good person, you must provide services that benefit others. Capellos explanation of ethical treaty citizenship really changed my perspective.

A good citizen is someone who has balance in all aspects of their life, and is able to acknowledge their environment critically. Who and where are my supports? Am I appreciating the resources I have? Am I contributing to causes that will positively benefit my community and my support systems? Personally responsible, justice oriented citizens who actively participate in their environment should be the goal