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

本博士论文研究项目将聚焦于多元文化背景下的公民身份。现代公民权指的是政治共同体的成员资格，以及这种成员资格所附带的权利和责任。它还表示由文化规范、价值观和民族文化标志定义的国家社区的成员。那些在国家社会中被认为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，普遍主义的公民概念在不同程度上存在着紧张关系，实际上使某些群体边缘化或被排除在外。自1991年苏联解体以来，爱沙尼亚占多数的爱沙尼亚族和占多数的俄罗斯族之间的社会和政治分歧越来越大。随着2004年加入欧盟，爱沙尼亚表达了对欧洲后国家政治项目的承诺。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后苏联时代的国家建设特权不和谐地共存。该项目将从塔林中学生的角度研究爱沙尼亚的公民政治，塔林是爱沙尼亚最大、种族混合最严重的城市。学校传统上是公民形成的关键场所，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阐明和实施特定的公民理想和国家叙事。她将探讨当前的中学生（爱沙尼亚第一代完全后苏联时代的一部分）如何解释、回应和采取行动，他们在学校学习的公民叙事，以及他们在学校内外的经历如何告知他们对爱沙尼亚公民身份和归属感的理解。为了探讨这些问题，她将与七所中学的学生进行焦点小组讨论，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，以及种族混合的学校。焦点小组的参与者将参与绘图练习，并徒步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和归属感的理解是如何被学校内外的物质空间所影响和塑造的。本研究的结果将加强对公民身份作为人们在日常生活中遇到的一系列政治话语、政策和实践的基本理解。本研究将展示公民身份，虽然通常以普遍主义的方式构思，但在空间和社会上都具有不平衡的意义或结果。该项目将重新阐明年轻人作为政治行动者的作用，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。在此过程中，该项目将把青年地理和公民教育领域结合起来，并将有助于把人们的注意力集中在学校作为公民形成和协商的关键场所。该项目也将有助于当前关于前苏联民族政治的讨论，并将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。项目结果将有助于为有关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民族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研究生涯。

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.