Framing Citizenship and Citizenship Formation for Preservice Teachers: A Critical Review of Prominent Trends in the Research Literature

Funded by Thinking Historically for Canada\u27s Future, a research partnership supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, this article considers how, and the extent to which, contemporary research within the area of citizenship education for preservice teachers advances the creation of more genuinely democratic and socially just societies. Drawing on critical and anti-oppressive insights in education, we specifically examine themes, trends, and developments within research related to: (a) preservice teachers’ beliefs about citizenship, democracy, and related themes, and (b) the influence of pedagogical practices and program models on their citizenship dispositions and teaching practices. We conclude by offering a series of recommendations for future research and theorizing in the field of teacher education, including the need for studies that move away from deficiency-based research frames and expanded notions of citizenship beyond universalized liberal democratic understandings that currently dominate the field