Abstract
As one of the first communities outside of young children’s private spheres of family, scholars consistently position school as an ideal space for civic education. At its core, civic education helps young children cultivate communities that support broader societal structures and mores. As children negotiate new constellations of people within a place, we wondered, what are some ways in which young children construct their membership in the initial civic communities that schools purport to cultivate? Drawing on data from a yearlong ethnographic study of three classrooms in a Head Start in a large city in Texas, we examine how children use institutional and relational tools to play with ideas of civicness. Ultimately, we argue that membership is a key aspect of children’s civicness and is one way they play with civicness in early childhood classrooms.
Recommended Citation
Payne, K. A.
, Lee, S.
, McManus, M. E.
().
Young Children’s Civicness: A Close Look at Membership and Community.
Democracy & Education,
34
(1), Article 4.
Available at:https://doi.org/10.65214/2164-7992.1747