The role of parents in educating their young children as democratic citizens

Abstract

This research investigated parents’ understanding of their role in educating their young children as democratic citizens. The study was motivated by the main research question, “What are parents’ understanding of their role in educating their young children as democratic citizens?” and three sub-questions namely “What are parents’ understanding of a democratic citizen in a democratic society?”, “Which educational behaviour of the parents of young children contribute to reaching the goal of educating their young children as democratic citizens?”, and “How do parents experience their own role as democratic citizens while raising their young children as responsible citizens of a democratic society?” The goal of this study was to address the gap in the existing body of knowledge about parents’ understanding of their role in educating their young children to become democratic citizens. Research indicated that parents are considered the most important educators of citizenship. I believe that the most important contribution of this study is that it advances the understanding of how parents view their role in educating their young children as democratic citizens. The study found that parents in this study did not consider compassion, participation, a sense of belonging as well as pride and knowledge of systems and principles as important in a democracy. When democratic citizens do not share a common pride in their country, they will not be good citizens who uplift each other. When democratic citizens are not knowledgeable about systems and principles of the democracy, they will not know HOW to be good participative citizens. Citizens of a country who do not have a sense of belonging towards their country will not care about the environment, they will not care about other people who suffer, and they will not live by all the morals and values required to be a good citizen. In conducting this study, I employed sequential mixed methods research, to determine parents’ understanding of their role in the education of their young children as democratic citizens. A sample of 233 parents of children in the Foundation Phase participated in this study, the findings of which illustrated how parents view their role as educators of their young children as democratic citizens. Parents understood that democratic citizenship education would mould their children in a positive way and in so doing, would help change South Africa for the better. Therefore, they were aware that they needed to overcome certain challenges – for example negative role modelling – that prevents them from effectively educating their children. Parent participants of children in the Foundation Phase understand their role in the education of their young children as democratic citizens, but they experience challenges which jeopardise their efforts. Most participating parents in this study do their best to empower their children with knowledge and skills about democratic citizenship, but they also acknowledged their own shortcomings when they resort to negative behaviour. The most important finding of the study is the influence of negative societal and political factors on the attitudes and opinions of parents. Another finding was that parents are concerned about the safety of their family; they are afraid of bodily harm and even feel threatened at home.