Browsing by Subject "Kansalaispätevyys"

The purpose of this study is to examine classroom teacher students’ views on their civic competence. According to previous studies, teacher students have been found to have conservative values and they have participated in society through traditional ways. Teachers have found concerned towards political and social issues and that have been claimed to be the reason for young people’s passive participation in the society. The conception of an active citizen could be understood deeper by examining civic competence. The study was conducted as a qualitative theme interview study of six classroom teacher students. The interview themes were subjective civic competence, political participation and teacher as a social influencer. All of the interviews were recorded and transcribed. The analysis was accomplished using four-step phenomenography. According to the results, classroom teacher students perceived themselves being aware of societal and political issues. In the students’ perceptions the knowledge, the conversational skills and being aware of the teacher’s role were shown beneficial when improving the ability to deal with civic issues. The fear of influencing too much on pupil’s opinions affected negatively on students’ views of their own competence. The results show that the students saw themselves as active influencers both participating conventionally as well as being teachers but controversially, students evaluated their actions rather passive.