Teaching to Teach Civics in Fragile Times: A Conceptual Framework

Overview & Synopsis

Teacher education and civic education are scholarly fields characterised by an abundance of writings that offer numerous frameworks, visions, and practices. Whereas several studies already presented theoretical models of the civic education process, the goal of this paper is to offer a conceptual framework of preservice civics teacher education. This framework, based on interviews with nine Israeli civics teacher educators, yielded four distinct models that include: (1) Technical Training; (2) Critical Thinking; (3) Patriotic; and (4) Social Change. As will be developed, the theoretical exploration of these models touches on foundational aspects of citizenship and education, relating to the fundamental question of good citizenship promoted as part of the civic education process and to the goals of teacher education. This heuristic approach emphasises processes of self-reflection as a critical element of the civics teacher education process.