Discovering child citizens'’ understandings and experiences of social justice

Abstract

Among the contemporary needs of democratic societies are citizens learning to be adaptable, ethical, innovative, literate and aware of socio-scientific issues. To cultivate such citizens requires coherent early childhood civics curricula and teachers who are specialists in teaching and learning civics education. Civics education in the early years is crucial; however, the young child's cognisance is rarely expressed in empirical data. This qualitative inquiry gave voice to 60 (approximately 9 years old) child citizens' understandings and experiences of social justice in a democracy utilizing narratives and artefacts. By inductively analysing and interpreting the data, the findings revealed the intense yearning of children to live in fair and just democratic societies. These child citizens' accounts of lived experiences echo the significance of relevant civic education in schools, governmental policy and acts as well as citizens' active involvement in all facets of civic and social upliftment.