Door participatie in de klas, participatie in de maatschappij

Abstract

Since 2006, institutions offering practical secondary education (mbo) in The Netherlands are legally required to promote democratic citizenship. Important to the development of democratic citizenship is the active participation of mbo-students in classroom discussions about current controversial societal issues. Citizenship teachers in practical secondary education (mbo), however, find it difficult to encourage mbo-students to actively participate in such classroom discussions. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the ways in which citizenship teachers can promote the active participation of mbo-students in

classroom discussions about current controversial societal issues. This insight was gained through semi- structured interviews with citizenship teachers (N=5) and focus groups with mbo-students (N=22). The active participation of mbo-students is promoted in classes in which classroom discussions are organized structurally, wherein mbo-students experience support and boundaries are drawn with regard to expressions, and in which current controversial societal issues are discussed that relate to the living environment of the mbo-student. These conditions are met less often in classroom discussions organised by citizenship teachers without a special competency. To create equal opportunities for mbo-students to develop democratic citizenship, it is recommended to offer professionalization to citizenship teachers, to ensure that they possess the didactic and pedagogic skills needed to guide classroom discussions about current controversial societal issues.