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Civic Participation & Citizenship Collection
Questioning Citizenship Curricula
Erik Hugo Jacobson, Cambridge Community Learning Center
There have
been drastic shifts in US government policy towards legal immigrants over
the last few years. As part of a wider reduction in the social safety
net, even the most basic benefits have been restricted to citizens. This
intentional marking of legal immigrants non-citizenship status is connected
to larger political currents in the US, including fears of "runaway"
immigration and a heightened resentment of the presence of "illegal"
aliens. Because of these changes many legal immigrants are deciding to
become citizens. For many applicants, US citizenship appears to be less
of a switch in political identity, and more of a way to negotiate an increasingly
hostile political climate.
To apply for US citizenship an applicant has to have been a legal resident
for five years (although there are some exceptions to this rule). A six-page
application must be filled out, which includes an oath of allegiance and
a page of questions about the applicant's moral character. The applicant
must also display a knowledge of English, and pass a test about the history
and government of the US. This test (known as "The Citizenship Test")
can either be taken orally during an interview at the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, or it can be taken in a written form before the
interview. In written form the test is multiple choice. Each form of the
test also includes a one-sentence dictation (e.g., The President of the
US is Bill Clinton).
The educational background and experience of applicants varies a great
deal. Some applicants already speak fluent English and have studied US
history and civics as part of their education. Many other applicants,
however, have much lower levels of English skills, low levels of literacy,
and little or no education in their homeland or the US. For these applicants
there are citizenship classes designed to help them understand the process,
and to help prepare them for the citizenship test.
Citizenship classes and the textbooks produced by major educational publishers
focus on the information students need about US history and government
structure. For the most part, this type of citizenship pedagogy is what
Freire refers to as the "Banking Model" of education - students
are passive recipients of the information necessary to pass the test and
gain citizenship status. From one perspective this approach is quite successful.
Because the test is multiple choice, applicants can pass without understanding
the meaning of the questions. The stated goal, to become a citizen, can
be met without any critical discussion of the issues involved.
If citizenship classes are taught from a critical perspective, the nature
of the goals changes to include an examination by the students of the
process and purpose of becoming a citizen. This critical perspective includes
a questioning of what it means for students to apply for citizenship,
allowing them to explore any feelings of ambivalence they might have.
Students need to participate in the creation of knowledge pertaining to
US history and government. The citizenship process must be examined for
what it implies about the relationship between being a US citizen and
personal identity. The position of the teacher must also be addressed,
especially in their relationship to the state. This paper is a preliminary
investigation of these issues, relying upon my own experience as a citizenship
teacher, and my students' experiences as applicants for citizenship.
Complicated Americans - Citizenship as Strategy
"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce
and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate,
state or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject
or citizen.”
(Oath of Allegiance, US of America)
The US is a country struggling with its hyphens.
Many Anglo-Americans view the different experiences of immigrant groups
through a single interpretive lens, and ask the classic question "Why
can't we all just be Americans?" To some, the use of hyphens (e.g.,
African-American) indicates an incomplete identification with the "mainstream"
culture of the US, or a willful Balkanization. For others, of course,
the use of a hyphen marks a complex identity that cannot be captured with
the single word "American".
Citizenship students and other applicants struggle with the question of
hyphenation, as well. When taking the Oath of Allegiance, new citizens
swear to "wholly renounce" their old allegiances. While agreeing
to the terms of the Oath
changes one's legal status, it does not inherently change a new citizen's
personal identity. The affective elements of national affiliation cannot
simply be sworn away.
Even when life in the country of origin was harsh or oppressive, many
students express a reluctance to "wholly renounce" what they
refer to as their "home". For example, while my Haitian students
say that they are happy to become a US citizen and an "American",
they often make a point to say, "I'm still Haitian." At times
it is presented as less than a choice, and they explain that they will
be Haitian no matter how long they live in the US. As a (light-hearted)
example, when I ask my students who they will root for during the World
Cup, some smile and refuse to answer the question, while others make it
clear that the team from their country of origin is their chosen team
-"Why, Brazil of course!"
Of note is the fact that student-applicants do not use the hyphenated
term Haitian-American, which implies a single (however complex) national
identity. This notion of being both Haitian and American is symptomatic
of what has been called a transnational identity. These new citizens are
not simply American or Haitian, nor are they Haitian-Americans. Their
identity is fluid and crosses national boundaries.
If applicants are not ready to "wholly renounce" their country
of origin, why are they choosing to become citizens? While some profess
a love of democracy and a desire to vote, the reasons are usually less
abstract and closer to home. The first reason many citizenship students
give is to get a US passport. Since the ability of legal (non-citizen)
immigrants to travel is limited, possession of a U.S. passport allows
for freer movement. In many cases, a U.S. passport allows new citizens
to travel to their country of origin for the first time in years. The
disturbing irony is that in order to return "home", citizenship
students must renounce their legal ties to it. While they recognize the
advantages of becoming a citizen, and can in some ways maintain their
older affective affiliation, students do talk about the emotional trauma
this process of giving up legal ties to their country of origin causes
them ("I don't want to give up El Salvador").
Another key benefit to becoming a U.S. citizen is the ability to bring
family members into the US. In this way citizenship is a strategy used
to unite families. The desire to keep families united also applies to
family members living inside the US. In some cases applicants for citizenship
might be the parent of a child that already has US citizenship, and in
order to keep the family together the parent decides to become a citizen.
For the reasons noted above, applicants' desire for US citizenship is
not strictly a new choice of national affiliation - it is a strategy.
They are becoming Americans for a variety of reasons, and with a multiplicity
of identities. In this way they are helping to complicate the idea of
what it means to be "American."
Complicating "America" - Strategies
for Citizenship
There are a number of books published for students enrolled in citizenship
classes or applicants studying on their own. These books cover the same
basic history material: the colonization of North America, the Revolutionary
War, the Expansion of the US, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and
Martin Luther King, Jr. The presentation of this history is simplistic
and incomplete. While the existence of Native Americans is acknowledged,
they are not usually present in the texts after an explanation of the
first American Thanksgiving. The territorial expansion of the US is discussed
without dealing with the accompanying genocide. Slavery is mentioned as
a cause of the Civil War, but the conditions on plantations is not explored,
nor is a connection made to the history of racism in the US or to current
race relations. These citizenship books also cover the same civics topics:
the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the branches and levels of government,
and the process of making laws. But the lived history of US civics is
not discussed. For example, there are no discussions of the ways the Bill
of Rights has been interpreted. Not surprisingly, there are no examples
of how the US government has violated its own laws (e.g., the Contra-funding
during the Reagan years). In this way the Constitution is treated as a
static text - no interpretation is necessary. These books, and the classes
that base their curriculum on them, present an uncomplicated America to
accompany a notion of uncomplicated Americans.
This approach reaches its apotheosis in a list known as the "100
Questions". This list is a condensed version of a citizenship curriculum,
meant to prepare applicants for the types of questions they may be asked
on the test or in the interview. The 100 Questions has been translated
into many languages, and many applicants carry a copy around to consult
whenever they can. Examples of the questions from the list are below:
Q: Who was the first President? A:
George Washington
Q: Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? A:
Thomas Jefferson
Q: What are the first 10 Amendments called? A:
The Bill of Rights
At least for test purposes, answers are provided
without a context or explanation. Many students are so focused on memorizing
the question and answer pair that a slight change in the wording renders
them unable to answer the question. More importantly, while this applicant
can identify "The Bill of Rights" as being the first 10 amendments,
they cannot explain the relevance of the Bill of Rights to their life.
In this situation the Bill of Rights is only an answer to a question,
not a document which helps to protect freedom of speech.
As noted above, memorizing the questions is a successful strategy for
some applicants. They are able to pass the written citizenship test, even
if they don't understand the question. However, for a citizenship class
to be truly educational, teachers and students must move beyond the 100
Questions and a narrow, test-driven curriculum. Below are four suggestions
for teaching citizenship classes that interrogate both the process and
the test.
1- Re-visit key questions
When citizenship student are ask why they want to become citizens, their
answers may be non-committal or seem rehearsed. This is not surprising,
since
decisions about citizenship are personal, and a student working with a
teacher for the first time might not want to reveal intimate details.
As the teacher-student relationship develops, the question can be revisited.
This should not be done in an effort to get the "real" reason,
but to allow the student many opportunities to reflect on and articulate
their reasons. At times students may find that their minds are changing,
and these changes can become a starting point for class discussions.
I have had students who began the class with clear reasons for becoming
a citizen, but by the end of the class they were expressing their doubts.
When these doubts were shared with the class, a general discussion of
student concerns took place, and students provided moral support for one
another. The same process can also be productive when used with questions
like "What does it mean to be an American?" or "What country
is your home?"
The answer to "Why do you want to be a citizen?" can also be
a starting point for discussion of the political situation in the US.
For example, if a student states that they want to be a citizen in order
to get a government job, the class can discuss whether or not they think
citizenship status should have any bearing on types of employment. Rather
than being a beginning of the semester ice-breaker that is forgotten about
as the semester continues, questions about motives can help connect students'
personal histories to key issues being discussed in class.
2 - Teach about the test
Below is a sample question from Helping People Become US Citizens
(ETS, 1995), a guidebook put out by one of the firms that administers
the written form of the citizenship test.
Q: Under the US Constitution, do any states
have more rights than others?
A. No, all states have equal rights.
B. Yes, older states have more rights.
C. Yes, states with more people have more
rights.
D. Yes, richer states have more rights.
The answer is "A", but I have had students
who answered "D". While "D" might be a reasonable
response in a setting where a discussion of political and economic equity
is taking place, there is no negotiation with a standardized test.
By looking at a series of sample questions students can begin to analyze
what types of questions are being asked, and what answers are expected.
Teachers and students can also discuss what questions are not asked. Students
can develop a sense of how the test works, and how to use that knowledge
to their advantage. This can be seen in student response to another sample
question.
Q: When did Christopher Columbus land in
America?
A. 1292
B. 1492
C. 1692
D. 1792
One student, remembering a class discussion about
where Columbus had actually landed, told me that "this question is
wrong. Columbus didn't go to America." Other students expressed similar
concerns. I assured them that they were right, and asked them what was
the best thing to do in this situation. One student explained, "It's
just a test. You know the answer anyway, so just put down B." The
class agreed that the test was simply looking for "1492", and
not a thoughtful response to the circumstances of Columbus' voyage.
3- The Oath of Allegiance as a Touchstone
"I hereby declare...I will support and defend the Constitution
and laws of the US of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear
arms on behalf of the US when required by the law.” (US Oath
of Allegiance)
When the responsibilities of being a citizen are
mentioned by citizenship textbooks, they note that people must follow
unspecified "laws." To move beyond a general sense of responsibility,
the Oath of Allegiance should be introduced and analyzed early in the
semester. It is in legal jargon and students will need support as they
try to make sense of out it. One key law, particularly for male students,
is the responsibility to bear arms. When this fact is introduced, and
it is clear that the stakes have been raised, renewed discussions of citizenship
as a strategy take place. Rather than waiting until students are close
to becoming citizens ("So now that you understand U.S. history and
government, are you willing to take this oath?"), the Oath can be
a starting point ("So now that you understand the Oath, are you willing
to study U.S. history and government?")
The Oath, once introduced, can also help provide students with a more
personalized perspective on the history and civics materials. For example,
how does the promise to take up arms inform a student's study of U.S.
wars against Native Americans? As another example, how does knowledge
of being required to defend the Constitution "against all enemies"
inform the students' study of relations between their country of origin
and the US?
4 - Going beyond the answers:
Provide more background and multiple contexts
"Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights leader.”
Citizenship students can quote this sentence without
fail. However, what "civil rights" means, or why there was a
struggle for them, is not part of the textbooks or the 100 Questions.
In addition, for most textbooks the struggle for civil rights is part
of the past, implying all of its goals were met. While the sentence about
Martin Luther King, Jr. is correct (unlike the sentence about Columbus),
it is not enough.
In a citizenship class concerned with critical education, the teachers
and students must work together to provide the background necessary to
make the test answers meaningful. The date "1492" becomes more
than a potential test answer when learned in the context of European imperialism,
or from the perspective of someone who was born on the island of Hispaniola.
The name Martin Luther King, Jr. begins to resonate when the history of
racism in the US is discussed. The class must complicate US history and
the idea of "America."
A classroom based on dialogic practice offers opportunities to respect
this complexity. For example, I gave my students the name "Ronald
Reagan" and asked them to generate questions that would have Reagan
as an answer. My students provided the three questions below:
"Who was President in the 1980's?"
"Which President was a Governor of
California?"
"Which President broke the Constitution
by helping the Contras?"
Each of these questions was correct. During our discussion, a Russian student added another point of view. Though it was not in the form of a question, the student pointed out that Ronald Reagan was seen as paving the way for the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that he was therefore a great President. These perspectives on President Reagan, while differing, all provide the students with an opportunity to move beyond a narrow question and answer approach.
Complicated Teaching (for the State)
In a citizenship classroom where the pedagogy is dialogic, the teacher
must be prepared to be a student, and the students must have the freedom
to be teachers. In taking this stance a teacher whose citizenship is a
function of being born in the US can examine the ways in which they construct
their own identity as a citizen. As students are re-visiting the question
"Why do you want to be a citizen?" the teacher should ask him/herself
the same question.
Teachers also must be students when international political issues are
discussed in class, since immigrant students provide important new perspectives.
By working together with students, teachers can add complexity to their
world view, and deepen their understanding of issues. For example, in
discussions about
President Clinton's Haitian policy it became clear that my opinions were
very different than those of my students from Haiti. From my perspective,
the U.S.-led return of Aristide to Haiti was a move designed to improve
returns on Wall Street's investment in Haiti. My students, however, expressed
a profound appreciation of President Clinton's actions, as they felt that
they could finally walk down the streets of Port-au-Prince and not be
afraid. When teachers really listen to their students, opinions that the
teacher may hold too comfortably are challenged in important ways.
Another key aspect of teaching that is complicated by the use of critical
pedagogy in a citizenship class is the teacher's role as a representative
of the state. If the teacher is working for a community-based organization
that receives funding from the government, they are in an ambiguous position.
From one perspective they are an employee of the state, and therefore
are expected to act on behalf of the state. Yet the same teacher must
act on behalf of their students, by taking actions which may at times
run contrary to the desires of the state. A teacher in this situation
cannot ever hope to resolve the tension of having conflicting responsibilities,
and must instead be prepared struggle with this issue on a daily basis.
Conclusion
Perhaps the most time-honored student question is "Will this be on
the test?" A citizenship teacher engaged in critical pedagogy must
be honest and reply
"No, it won't be." Because the Citizenship Test is limited to
a narrow list of questions, most of what is discussed in class will never
be tested. However, it
is possible to teach and study citizenship from a critical pedagogical
perspective and still have students pass the standardized test. Learning
about the ways the test works helps students to provide the expected answers,
and does not invalidate their own interpretation of U.S. history. By talking
about why they want to be citizens, students are prepared for their interview
at the Immigration and Naturalization Service. My students, most of whom
have become citizens, have been successful at both questioning and completing
the citizenship process.
Finally, citizenship classes that are truly critical must have a focus
that extends beyond completion of the class and passing the test. The
issue is not just how to become a citizen, it is also how to be a citizen.
I often ask my students, "When you are a citizen, how are you going
to make the US a better place to live?" They usually laugh and say,
"I don't know." I tell them not to feel bad, because I'm not
sure I know the answer to that question, either. In fact, how to make
our country a better place to live is a question students and teachers
must pursue together even after the class has ended.
Citation:
Jacobson, E. (1998). Questioning Citizenship Curricula. Proceedings of
"Centering on the Margins: The Evaded Curriculum." The Canadian
Association
for the Study of Women and Education; Ottawa, Canada.
New
England Literacy Resource Center
World Education
Boston, MA
(617) 482-9485
