What Makes a Citizen? Critical and Multicultural Citizenship and Preservice Teachers' Understanding of Citizenship Skills

Utilizing a framework of critical and multicultural citizenship, this qualitative study investigates how preservice teachers at a Midwestern university defined ideal citizenship, how these definitions influenced which civic skill they valued most, and how they envisioned teaching for this skill in the classroom. Findings indicated that participants adopted either a conservative-values-based or awareness-based definition of citizenship. Conservative-values-based approaches related ideal citizenship to possessing various character traits and good morals. Awareness-based approaches centered on the citizen being aware of issues in the community so as to be able to change the community. The data revealed that participants held different civic worldviews, which served as the primary motivation underlying their beliefs about civic education. Findings suggest that teacher educators must work to increase civic competence among preservice teachers to foster more critical and multicultural citizenship.