Doctoral Dissertation Research: Youth Citizenship, Civic Education, and Spaces of Belonging in a Multicultural Nation

博士论文研究：青年公民权、公民教育和多元文化国家的归属空间

• 批准号: 1233492
• 负责人: Caroline Nagel
• 金额: $ 1.58万
• 依托单位: University South Carolina Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2014-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1233492&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Youth; Citizenship

This doctoral dissertation research project will focus on the citizenship in a multi-cultural context. Modern citizenship denotes membership in a political community and the rights and responsibilities attached to that membership. It also denotes membership in a national community defined by cultural norms, values, and ethnocultural markers. Those deemed unassimilable in the national community often lack full, substantive access to the rights and privileges enjoyed by dominant groups. Thus, universalistic conceptions of citizenship exist in tension, to varying degrees, with the de facto marginalization or exclusion of particular groups. Estonia has seen growing social and political divisions between the ethnic Estonian majority and the large Russian minority since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. With its accession to the European Union in 2004, Estonia expressed its commitment to Europe's post-national political project. In practice, however, the EU's directives regarding multiculturalism and minority rights have coexisted uneasily with Estonia's post-Soviet nation-building prerogatives. This project will study the politics of citizenship in Estonia from the perspective of secondary school students in Tallinn, Estonia's largest and most ethnically mixed city. Schools traditionally are key sites of citizenship formation, and the doctoral student will explore how educators and administrators as well as EU youth-policy makers articulate and implement particular citizenship ideals and national narratives through school curricula. She will explore how current secondary school students (part of the first wholly post-Soviet generation in Estonia) interpret, respond to, and act upon the citizenship narratives that they learn in school as well as how their experiences within and outside of school inform their understandings of citizenship and belonging in Estonia. To explore these issues, she will conduct focus groups with students in seven secondary schools, including schools that are predominantly Estonian, that are predominantly Russian, and that have mixed ethnicity. Focus group participants will participate in mapping exercises and a walking tour of Tallinn's controversial memorial sites and monuments, the purpose of which is to explore how young people's understandings of citizenship and their sense of belonging are informed by, and shaped within, material spaces within and beyond the school.The results of this research will enhance basic understanding of citizenship as sets of political discourses, policies, and practices that people encounter in their everyday lives. This research will demonstrate how citizenship, while often conceived of in universalistic terms, has uneven meanings or outcomes, both spatially and socially. The project will shed new light on the role of young people as political actors, illuminating the ways they engage in the politics of citizenship even as they may be excluded from formal modes of political participation. In doing so, the project will bring together the fields of youth geography and civic education, and it will help focus attention on schools as key sites of citizenship formation and negotiation. This project also will contribute to current discussions about ethnonational politics in the former Soviet Union and will help clarify tensions between EU norms and nation-building projects in post-communist states. Project results will help inform discussions about divided societies, providing important insights into the role of youth and education policies in addressing ethnonational tensions in divided societies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

这个博士论文研究项目将重点关注多元文化背景下的公民身份。 现代公民身份意味着在一个政治共同体中的成员资格以及与该成员资格相关的权利和责任。 它还表示由文化规范、价值观和民族文化标志所界定的民族社区的成员资格。 那些被认为在民族社会中不可同化的人往往无法充分、实质性地享有占统治地位的群体所享有的权利和特权。 因此，普遍的公民权概念在不同程度上与特定群体事实上的边缘化或排斥相矛盾。 自1991年苏联解体以来，爱沙尼亚的多数民族爱沙尼亚人和人数众多的俄罗斯少数民族之间的社会和政治分歧日益加剧。 爱沙尼亚于2004年加入欧洲联盟，表示致力于欧洲的后国家政治项目。 然而，在实践中，欧盟关于多元文化主义和少数民族权利的指令与爱沙尼亚在苏联解体后的国家建设特权难以共存。 该项目将从爱沙尼亚最大和种族最混杂的城市塔林中学生的角度研究爱沙尼亚的公民政治。 学校传统上是公民身份形成的关键场所，博士生将探索教育工作者和管理人员以及欧盟青年政策制定者如何通过学校课程表达和实施特定的公民理想和国家叙事。 她将探讨目前的中学生（爱沙尼亚第一个完全后苏联一代的一部分）如何解释，回应和行动后，他们在学校学习的公民叙事，以及他们的经验如何在学校内外通知他们的公民身份和归属的理解在爱沙尼亚。 为了探讨这些问题，她将与七所中学的学生进行重点小组讨论，其中包括以爱沙尼亚人为主的学校、以俄罗斯人为主的学校和混合族裔的学校。 焦点小组的参与者将参加绘图练习和步行游览塔林有争议的纪念遗址和纪念碑，其目的是探索年轻人对公民身份的理解和归属感是如何通过学校内外的物质空间来传达和塑造的。这项研究的结果将加强对公民身份的基本理解，即一套政治话语，政策，和人们在日常生活中遇到的实践。 这项研究将表明，公民身份，而往往设想在普遍性的条款，有不平衡的意义或结果，无论是空间和社会。 该项目将使人们对青年作为政治行为者的作用有新的认识，阐明他们参与公民政治的方式，即使他们可能被排除在正式的政治参与模式之外。 在这样做时，该项目将把青年地理和公民教育两个领域结合起来，并将有助于把注意力集中在学校，因为学校是公民形成和谈判的关键场所。 该项目还将有助于当前关于前苏联民族政治的讨论，并有助于澄清欧盟规范与后共产主义国家国家建设项目之间的紧张关系。 项目成果将有助于为关于分裂社会的讨论提供信息，为青年和教育政策在解决分裂社会中的族裔紧张关系方面的作用提供重要见解。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立的研究生涯。