Respect and responsibility: Teaching citizenship in South African high schools

Hammett, D.; Staeheli, L.A.

Abstract

Respect is a core concept in citizenship debates. South African high school educators often draw upon respect as a key value within citizenship education. Their teaching of this value is often conflated with promotion of the practice of responsible citizenship. The constructions of respect and responsibility in these situations are imbued with assumptions around authority and power relations, such that learners’ are expected to take responsibility for demonstrating respect for in an unequal rather than reciprocal understanding of respect. Thus, negotiations of different kinds of respect are highlighted. The need for schools to embody a culture or ethos of respect is noted if learners are to be expected to recognise and adopt respect as a key element to citizenship in theory and in practice.

Citation

Hammett, D., & Staeheli, L. (2011). Respect and responsibility: Teaching citizenship in South African high schools. International Journal of Educational Development, 31(3), 269-276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.06.011

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 1, 2011
• Deposit Date: Feb 6, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 10, 2014
• Journal: International Journal of Educational Development
• Print ISSN: 0738-0593
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 269-276
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.06.011
• Keywords: Citizenship education, South Africa, Respect, Responsibility.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1483380