Understanding the social studies teachers’ experiences: conceptions of citizenship in Botswana

Abstract

The advent of globalization problematizes and challenges the notion of bounded citizenship as conceptualized and perceived among established democracies and nations of the world. It threatens to undermine the key characteristics of the nation-state such as sovereignty, autonomy and democracy. The major purpose of this study was to explore the social studies teachers’ conceptualizations and experiences on citizenship through the teaching of social studies in primary schools in Botswana. Anchored within post colonial theory, the study was qualitative and employed the naturalistic inquiry paradigm. Qualitative methods were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using grounded theory through the constant comparative technique. The findings of the study revealed that social studies teachers’ conceptualize citizenship in multiple ways. The findings lead to the conclusion that citizenship in Botswana is fluid and not homogeneous as one might have thought given the national aspirations of social harmony, unity and nation building that were adopted at independence in 1966. The study recommends that citizenship be re-imagined in schools in an effort to deconstruct the master narratives that are often western oriented.