Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10

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Teaching and Teacher Education

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

Teachers experiences and teaching civic engagement beyond

self-regarding individualism
Eduardo Cavieres-Fernandez*
Centro de Estudios Avanzados, Universidad de Playa Ancha, Traslavia 450, Via del Mar, Chile

h i g h l i g h t s

Self-regarding individualism is a context in which teachers teach civic engagement.

Self-regarding individualism promotes individuals self-interests.

This individualism limits students preparation for civic engagement.

Experiences help teachers implement civic education programs.

Experiences represent the teachers effort in moving beyond this individualism.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Worldwide, a political, economic and cultural context stressing self-interest, which I describe as self-
Received 16 November 2012 regarding individualism, restricts the commitment of governments, schools and people to the com-
Received in revised form mon good in civic life. In such a context, this study uses a narrative inquiry methodology to explore
26 March 2014
through the narrative texts of two social studies teachers from the United States the way their experi-
Accepted 1 April 2014
Available online
ences help them teach civic engagement beyond self-regarding individualism. These experiences are a
valuable teaching resource because they represent the teachers enduring effort to move beyond this
type of individualism.
Keywords:
Teachers experiences
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Teaching civic engagement
Self-regarding individualism
Teachers practical knowledge
Narrative inquiry

1. Introduction constitute a resource of utmost importance (Pace, 2008; Torney-

Worldwide, political, cultural and economic reforms primarily
promoting self-interest are diminishing the spaces for civic
engagement and community ties (Ham, 2000; Lerchner, 2002). This
brings to the forefront the need to strengthen the schools and
teachers mission to prepare their students civically (Gimeno
Sacristan, 2002). In the United States, this stress on self-interest
can be found in a context of self-regarding individualism that
partly characterizes the cultural, political and economic life of the
country. In education, this context inuences many civic programs
that tend to foster students individual interests rather than engage
them with the common good (Parker, 2003; Serow, 1991). In such a
context, teachers have the crucial challenge of improving their
students civic preparation, and in this respect, their experiences
* Tel.: 56 32 2624710.
E-mail address: ecavieres-cea@upla.cl.
Purta & Richardson, 2002). Using the narrative texts of two social
studies teachers from the US, this study explores how their expe-
riences help them teach civic engagement beyond self-regarding
individualism.
According to Connelly and Clandinin (1990), through narrative
inquiry, researchers compose texts that collect and retell stories of
people who, by sharing them, relive their experiences envisioning
new ways to improve them. In education, these stories are important
given that teachers experiences are intrinsically intertwined with
their professional knowledge, forming the practical knowledge that
guides their teaching and allows them to accommodate their stu-
dents cultural differences, choose appropriate teaching methods
and content and give purpose to their teaching (Connelly &
Clandinin, 1995; Craig, 2007; Elbaz, 1983; Xu & Connelly, 2010).
Consequently, teachers stories give insights into their practical
knowledge and invite teachers to relive their teaching experiences to
explore new possibilities of improving their students lives while

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.04.002
0742-051X/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
meeting the demands that derive from institutional guidelines and
the schools prescribed curriculum (Britzman, 2003; Goodson,1992).
In relation to civic education, amidst limitations that arise from
current educational policies that downplay its importance in
schools (Kahne & Westheimer, 2003; Shaker & Heilman, 2008),
Dilworth (2004) claims that teachers can use their personal
knowledge and experience to help students understand the social
and political complexities of diversity and democracy (p. 181).
Nevertheless, few studies in the eld consider these teachers ex-
periences while preparing students civically (Root & Billig, 2008).
Furthermore, while some qualitative studies on teachers imple-
menting civic learning programs do recognize their importance,
they reveal neither the actual experiences these teachers had nor
their role in encouraging their students to become better citizens
(Nygreen, 2008; Root & Billig, 2008; Wade, 2007). Specically, in
the eld of narrative studies, Diazs (2005) work on teachers ex-
periences with the 9/11 terrorist attack and how they shaped their
conversations with students around the complexities of democracy
may be considered an exception. Thus, through the use of narrative
inquiry, this study expands the understanding of how teachers use
their experiences to teach civic engagement.
In addition, narrative inquiry helps to locate teachers stories
within broader social contexts (Goodson, 1997, 2003). As Goodson
(2003) claims, it would be unfortunate if, in studying teachers
stories, we ignored these contextual parameters, which so sub-
stantially impinge upon and constantly restrict the teachers life
(p. 44). Accordingly, providing a context in which to read teachers
stories allows the recognition of the limits teachers face during
their professional experiences as well as the potential for change in
their practices (Kelchtermans, 1993; Willinsky, 1989). In this sense,
the intent of this study is not to impose context over experience but
to explore the experiences through which teachers interact with
larger political and educational structures to improve the civic lives
of their students (Goodson, 1994). To provide a context to the
teachers narratives of this study, I use the expression self-regarding
individualism.
2. Self-regarding individualism1 as a civic and teaching
context
Macpherson (1977) claims that a context of individualism
centered mainly on self-interest tends to produce low levels of
public interest. Mansbridge (1983) identies self-interest as self-
regarding interest when it refers solely to ones own self-interest or
needs. Because the notions of self-interest and individualism are
correlated within analyses of liberal democracies (Dewiel, 2000;
Levine, 1981), I use the expression of self-regarding individualism
to describe a political, cultural and economic context that stresses
self (regarding) interests, curtailing the governments and peoples
commitment to the collective common good (Gould, 1990; Young,
2000). It also restricts the schools role in preparing students civi-
cally (Apple, 1995). Mansbridge (1983) also distinguishes other-
regarding interests related to other peoples concerns or wellbeing
1
Individualism refers to a wide range of practices in American society (Bellah
et al., 1996; Lukes, 1973). Because some authors argue that depending on the
type of individualism it can strengthen or weaken peoples civic engagement (Held,
2006; Macpherson, 1977), I saw the need to consider this distinction. However, this
distinction does not provide a unied and exhaustive theoretical framework that
can help to depict a particular individualistic context restrictive of civic engagement
in society and schools. For this reason, I borrow from Mansbridge (1980), who
discusses the inuence of self (regarding) interests in political contexts, to build the
expression of self-regarding individualism. To describe this context, I do not follow
this authors framework extensively but rather bring together different discussions
about the limiting effects that a cultural, political and economic stress on self-
interest has on civic engagement.
(which can include ones own) and advocates for moving beyond
self-interest in public life through social cooperation that integrates
other-regarding interests without necessarily excluding legitimate
self-interests. Accordingly, I use the expression of teaching beyond
self-regarding individualism to suggest a form of teaching that en-
courages students to advance the common good by supporting the
needs of others along with their own interests through their civic
engagement.
2.1. Self-regarding individualism, governments and civic
participation
In this study, I identify self-regarding individualism as a cultural,
political and economic context that stresses the supremacy of free
individuals moved by their self (regarding) interests rather than
public concerns (Brown, 1993; Levine, 1981; Macpherson, 1962).
Historically, in the United States, this context of individualism has
stressed the importance of private property and market relations
(Macpherson, 1977). The concentration of private property in the
hands of a privileged (predominantly) white class has resulted in
the stratication of society across race and class lines and in the
emergence of social groups defending their own interests (Foner,
1998; Mills, 1997). In this sense, individual groups, even with
strong internal community ties, such as conservative or minority
groups, develop a group-based form of self-regarding individualism
by exclusively advancing their self-interests and not engaging with
other groups to pursue other-regarding interests and build a com-
mon good (Bobbio, 1987; Dewiel, 2000).
Following Mansbridge (1983, 1990), I connect this context of
self-regarding individualism with a model of democracy, predomi-
nant in the United States, that secures peoples self (regarding) in-
terests in both the economic and political spheres. From an
economic standpoint, this individualistic context drives people to
satisfy their needs primarily through market exchange and eco-
nomic freedom (Friedman, 2002; Hayek, 1960). At a political level,
particular groups and individual citizens compete to inuence
governments to represent and advance their interests, resembling a
marketplace in which commercial rms compete to attract con-
sumers and increase their economic prot (Becker, 1976, Gilman,
2003; Harvey, 2005; Schumpeter, 1976). However, in such a
model, governments play a limited role in fostering social cooper-
ation to pursue common interests and the collective common good
(Gould, 1990; Young, 2000).
This context of self-regarding individualism partly explains the
tendency of certain groups in the US to use active civic engagement
to pursue their self-interests rather than the common good (Levine,
2000; Rauch, 1994). However, due to the emphasis on economic
relationships that lead to a decrease in community ties and a
commitment to private/individual interests, this context seems to
have a stronger inuence on the decrease of civic engagement
(Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swindler, & Tipton, 1996; Putnam, 2000).
According to the National Conference on Citizenship (2006),
people are less well informed about public affairs; and our trust of
and connection to key institutions have been largely on the decline
(p. 5). Participation in voluntary associations and community pro-
jects has decreased, especially among the white population (The
National Conference on Citizenship, 2008). Among other factors,
self-regarding individualism explains the preference among the
population for taking care of their own interests while political
institutions take care of the public affairs (Hibbing and Theiss-
Morse, 2001; Macedo, 2005). This individualistic context may also
explain the resistance in certain groups of the population to
deliberating about political issues due to a lack of interest in
engaging with opinions that are different from theirs (Hibbing &
Theiss-Morse, 2002; Mutz, 2006).
 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
2.2. Self-regarding individualism, schools and teachers
The context of self-regarding individualism that I propose in this
study correlates with an educational context that is driven by
policies that favor market relations under a strong economic
rationale (Fotopoulos, 2004; Mathison & Ross, 2004; Robertson,
2000; Seddon & Palmieri, 2009). In the United States, these pro-
market policies seek to increase school and student productivity
by prescribing curricula and accountability instruments, such as
standardized testing (Lipman, 2004; Weil, 2001). As a result, stu-
dents are encouraged to acquire a sense of individual entitlement
that prepares them for competitive individualistic relationships
(Apple, 1999; Kusserow, 2004; Lareau, 2003). Wexler (1992) afrms
that these students are increasingly led toward rational, individ-
ual, instrumental, career-oriented, [ . ] specialized, achievement
(p. 67).
The focus on students individual productivities has resulted in
fewer resources and less support for civic engagement courses
(Kahne & Westheimer, 2003; Shaker & Heilman, 2008). Further-
more, many civic programs promote self-regarding individualism by
focusing exclusively on individual virtues (Kahne & Westheimer,
2003). As Kahne and Westheimer afrm, these programs privi-
lege individual acts of compassion and kindness over collective
efforts to improve policies and institutions (p. 36). In addition,
civic courses tend to present the US political system as fair and
highly functional, leaving little space for political discussions or
engagement with people with different opinions or of different
cultures (Hahn, 2002; Levine, 2007). Avery and Simmons (2000/
2001) claim that the emphasis on individual rights in civic educa-
tion textbooks is explained by the strong sense of individualism
inherent in American culture (p. 114).
Based on the literature, a few connections can be highlighted
between US teachers and this individualistic context that I describe.
For instance, due to the pressures of pro-market policies, teachers
must often use their time to focus solely on preparing students for
standardized testing. Under these conditions, they might favor
students individual success over considering their cultural differ-
ences and promoting mutual cooperation (Apple, 2000; Linn,
2001; Mathison & Freeman, 2004). Teachers also show low levels
of civic participation themselves (National Teacher Association,
2010), which could be partially explained by the inuence of self-
regarding individualism, as observed in the general population.
2.3. Schools and teaching civic engagement beyond self-regarding
individualism
In addition to describing a context of self-regarding individualism
that inuences schools, I recognize different traditions of teaching
students beyond this context in the US (Ravitch, 2008; Semel &
Sadovnik, 1995). Dewey (1927, 2005), for example, advocated for
democratic education so students could challenge the social bar-
riers resulting from self-interest. Along these lines, many school
civic programs pursue the goal of moving students attention from
individualistic goals to issues of the common good in public life
(Galston, 2001; Kahne & Sporte, 2008). Concern and commitment
towards the community along with increasing involvement with
cultural diversity in the US stand as crucial components of educa-
tion programs intended to teach beyond self-regarding individualism
by making students focus on other peoples needs or other-
regarding interests (Sleeter & Grant, 2007; Westheimer & Kahne,
2004).
In contrast to other groups of teachers in the country, the studies
of Anderson, Avery, Pederson, Smith, and Sullivan (1997) and
Vinson (1998) afrm that a vast group of social studies teachers
support cultural diversity and promote community-based civic
3
participation. Paccioni (2000) also reports on teachers who belong
to multicultural associations and develop higher levels of recogni-
tion of and commitment to diverse cultural groups. In this sense,
these teachers are a counterpoint to the individualism present in
schools. In relation to teaching practices, case studies on how
teachers prepare students civically serve to describe teaching
beyond self-regarding individualism. These teachers criticize the
limited scope of textbooks and accommodate them to their stu-
dents diversity (Levstik, 2008; Pang & Gibson, 2001); they also
prepare students for discussion, creating a safe classroom envi-
ronment for them to express their opinions and bridge their dif-
ferences (Hess, 2002, 2009). Lastly, teachers who use community
projects to help students overcome their individualistic view of the
world encourage students to engage with issues that are relevant to
their communities, work collaboratively and commit to alleviating
suffering caused by decient policies (Root & Billig, 2008; Wade,
2000, 2007).
3. Methodology
The present study uses narrative inquiry to explore the way that
teachers experiences help them teach civic engagement beyond
self-regarding individualism. Specically, I draw upon the stories of
two middle school social studies teachers. The narratives I present
in this work share three features. First, following Clandinin and
Connelly (2000), the stories hold experiences within a three-
dimensional space formed by time, space/place and social re-
lationships. These dimensions point to the contextual aspect of the
stories. Second, as noted by Gomez, Rodriguez, and Vonzell (2008),
the stories include biographical landmarks which the participants
recognize as experiential markers that explain aspects of their
teaching relevant to this study. While these markers refer to spe-
cic events in some cases, in others, they refer to a broader period
in the teachers lives. Third, these stories are intertwined with the
teachers reections about their teaching experience. This aspect is
emphasized by Jalongo, Isenberg, and Gerbrachts (1995) work, in
which reections on teaching are considered intrinsic to teachers
stories.
3.1. Participants
Because I explore how teachers teach civic engagement beyond
self-regarding individualism, the participants of this study are two
teachers from the state of Wisconsin who implement Project Citi-
zen, a civic education program recognized in the Education for
Democracy Act approved by the US Congress. This program was
developed by the Center for Civic Education and is implemented at
the middle and high school levels. I became interested in Project
Citizen because of its widespread use in the US and, more impor-
tantly, because of its presence worldwide (Center of Civic
Education, 2009). In general, Project Citizen is a student-centered
program with a positive impact on students understanding of
public policy and civic engagement (Atherton, 2000; Patrick, Vontz,
& Nixon, 2002; Sardinas, 2005; Tolo, 1998). During the Project,
students research a problem in their communities, evaluate exist-
ing policies for the problem and develop an action plan to create or
improve these policies.
To learn about Project Citizen, during 2008e2009, I attended a
training session with teachers from the state of Wisconsin and a
week-long Regional Project Citizen Institute organized by the
Center for Civic Education. In addition, I participated twice as a
judge in the Wisconsin Project Citizen Showcase at the State Cap-
itol, in which students present their work. In the 2009 school year,
students from 16 middle schools presented their projects at the
Capitol.
4 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
In the fall semester of 2009, the Project Citizen Coordinator for
the State of Wisconsin suggested two middle-school social studies
teachers who had a strong grasp of the program for this study. The
pseudonyms used for each teacher to keep their anonymity
represent a historical gure that inuenced their understanding of
democracy and civic engagement. Ms. Paine (for Thomas Paine) is a
white female teacher in an urban charter school for the Hmong
community. She became acquainted with Project Citizen through
her involvement in the Center for Civic education. In 2009, she
implemented this program from February to April. Mr. Washington
(for George Washington) is a white male teacher in a non-diverse
middle school located in a suburban community. He became
interested in Project Citizen through his cooperating teacher during
his student teaching. In 2009, he implemented Project Citizen
during the month of April.
3.2. Data sources and analytical tools
In this narrative inquiry study, I mainly use two data sources:
interviews and observations (Cole & Knowles, 2001). I visited the
participants classrooms on three occasions while Project Citizen
was in progress. These observations gave me contextual informa-
tion to understand their teaching. I also interviewed the partici-
pants six times during the 2009 spring semester and conducted one
follow-up interview during the 2010 school year.
In addition, to capture the teachers experiences and stories and
turn them into texts, I use the three analytical/interpretative
narrative tools laid out in Connelly and Clandinins (1990) foun-
dational work: broadening, burrowing, and storying and restorying
(Craig, 2012; Olson & Craig, 2009). Broadening allows the stories to
be situated within a context. Specically, it helped me to relate the
teachers stories to the context I describe as self-regarding individ-
ualism, which restricts civic engagement in both society and
schools. In this sense, broadening allowed me to maintain a back-
and-forth between my theoretical description of self-regarding
individualism and the teachers stories. As a result, the stories
shaped the theoretical description while the theoretical description
framed the narrative texts I present.
Burrowing consists of exploring peoples experiences and the
meanings attached to them. Accordingly, the interviews served to
excavate the teachers experiences with Project Citizen as well as
other personal and professional experiences that stood out as an
inuence on their teaching of civic engagement. In addition, I asked
them to comment on students answers to a written evaluation on
Project Citizen that included questions such as the following:
Which were your teachers most important contributions to your
project? What did you learn from your teacher about what it means
to be a good citizen? In these conversations with the teachers, I
recognized, in their goals and strategies, elements of teaching
beyond self-regarding individualism that helped me analyze further
how they pushed students to consider other-regarding interests and
focus in the common good.
Through storying and re-storying, I compose narrative texts in
which I integrate the teachers stories and experiences with my
interpretation of how these stories and experiences help them
teach civic engagement beyond self-regarding individualism. In these
texts, following Blumenfeld-Jones (1995), I maintain my delity
to communicate the meanings the teachers attach to their experi-
ences rather than trying to represent the objective truth in the
events they recalled. Thus, I retell the two stories of Mr. Washington
and Ms. Paine implementing Project Citizen. In Mr. Washingtons
story, his personal and professional experiences assist his teaching
beyond self-regarding individualism by helping him encourage his
students to engage with problems that affect people from other
groups of society. In Ms. Paines story, her experiences guide her
teaching beyond self-regarding individualism by assisting her in
motivating students to work with the government in favor of the
common good.
To further examine the contributions of the teachers stories to
understanding how experiences helped them teach beyond self-
regarding individualism, I use the image of a story constellation
(Craig, 2007). According to Craig, such an image allows the juxta-
position of the teachers stories, revealing mutual relationships and
connections used to face the challenges that arise in their schools
context. As Craig further describes, the multiple narratives that
make up a story constellation bring multiple meanings to bear on
teachers knowledge as shaped in their reforming school contexts
(p. 174). Therefore, using the story constellation of Mr. Washington
and Ms. Paine, I analyze those issues that emerge as relevant to
teaching for the common good ethat includes other-regarding in-
terestse in a context of self-regarding individualism.
4. Mr. Washington: his experience guiding towards large
problems
4.1. Teaching Project Citizen
This is Mr. Washingtons fourth time implementing Project
Citizen at a middle school in a small suburban community in
Wisconsin, where he has taught social studies for ve out of the six
years he has been a teacher. He is very satised with his teaching
profession, an accomplishment that distinguishes him in his family
as the only member who went to college. In his school, Mr.
Washington is the only teacher implementing Project Citizen and
incorporating some of its ideas into other school activities. He
sometimes experiences a lack of support due to the pressing de-
mands of the prescribed curriculum, which leaves him with little
time to teach civic engagement. It would be great to have students
work on Project Citizen for a couple of months but I can only
reserve for it three weeks and not every day, he complains and
echoes some of the criticism against policies that reduce the scope
of teaching to increase students academic productivity. He occa-
sionally also feels that he would like to have a stronger background
on policy issues to explain some of the denitions included in the
Project Citizen book guide to his students and to show how national
and local policies affect them.
4.2. Helping students choose a large problem
An important step in Project Citizen is choosing a problem to
solve in the community. When we start off, we brainstorm
different problems and we maybe come up with a list of twenty,
and then we try to narrow it down to four or ve. Mr. Washington
likes that Project Citizen encourages students to try to improve the
community and make it the best place it possibly can be. From this
perspective, choosing a good problem is essential to moving beyond
self-regarding individualism. Throughout the years, students have
addressed a wide range of problems, such as global warming and
the shortage of recreational spaces in the community. The current
group selected their communitys need for a smoking ban.
In contrast to a context of self-regarding individualism, as
described in this study, Mr. Washington does not dene a com-
munity as a closed entity comprised of people from the same cul-
tural background; instead, he views it as open to different cultural
and social groups. This is a major concern for him in relation to his
students: a lot of these kids cant think outside of their town, how
they are connected to other people in the State of Wisconsin, the
United States or the world. Although Mr. Washingtons back-
ground is not diverse e When I went to high school, minority
students were percentage-wise maybe not even 5% e he has some
 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
experience with diversity through traveling and working a land-
scaping job with an undocumented immigrant who swam across
the Rio Grande, from the Mexican side to the United States. From
these experiences, he embraced the teaching goal of getting kids to
experience different groups of people and getting educated by
other cultures. Although, Project Citizen asks teachers not to in-
uence the students choice of problem, Mr. Washington gives his
opinion to encourage students to choose issues affecting a large
group of people and not only their town. Doing so helps students to
acknowledge other peoples needs or other-regarding interests and
focus on the common good.
4.3. Teaching beyond self-regarding individualism through big
ideas
Teaching through big ideas is an essential component of Mr.
Washingtons teaching experience: with the time constraints you
have, if we can get the big ideas in, thats what is important, and
avoid going off on these specic things. He learned this from a
history teacher in high school: he was really good at getting you to
understand the big picture about what a government does, some of
the things that drive the economy, and how it is all related.
Teaching through big ideas is also an important aspect of his
teaching beyond self-regarding individualism because it helps his
student to engage with large problems. In most cases, he teaches
these big ideas in the social studies class and then reintroduces
them during Project Citizen to motivate or explain an activity to the
whole class or to individual students. According to Mr. Washington,
these interrelated ideas refer to aspects of civic engagement that
are essential to overcome a context of self-regarding individualism in
which a predominant economic rationality restricts the value of the
government and people are less informed about public issues and
show low levels of civic participation.
Mr. Washingtons rst big idea is that governments are essential
for the well-being of the country. At the beginning of Project Citi-
zen, he talks about the Gettysburg Address, in which President
Lincoln calls the American government the government of the
people, by the people, for the people. Nonetheless, his students do
not believe that the government can make peoples lives better. He
shares some of these concerns: Its scary when companies have
lobbyists that can pay to get legislation passed that benets them.
He is also aware that the government does not always work
because of its structure. He had a similar experience in his high
school student council: It wasnt really structured so it was inef-
cient. There were people making all the decisions and I was just
standing there. However, reading and learning about US history
throughout college made him more condent that governments
improve and benet the country. We have a government with
checks and balances because of what didnt work before, he ex-
plains, thats really what democracy is; the best qualied person is
in charge of trying to x things and hopefully does a good job.
With Project Citizen, his students have started valuing the role of
governments: Kids were receiving emails and letters from state
representatives and having phone interviews with a state senator.
They realized they can put a face to government.
Another of Mr. Washingtons big ideas is that living in a de-
mocracy requires being well-informed. In his classes, he insists on
this point because his students do not always show interest in
following the news: I saw a bumper sticker say that if you are not
outraged youre not paying attention. You just have to pay atten-
tion, where is my money used? In a war I dont agree with, for
bailing out auto industries or banks? Mr. Washingtons interest in
the news comes from his childhood experience. I was an only child
and didnt have a lot to do. So if I had a spare hour, I would try to
nd something to read about the different things that were going
5
on, he recounts. This interest increased with his experience as a
teacher. You have kids that ask you all the time and you got to
know whats going on in the world, he explains, The goal of any
history teacher should be to get kids learn more about history,
which helps them be better citizens. Because you cant participate
in democracy if you dont have the background knowledge about
what happened in the past. Project Citizen has proven to be
effective for kindling students interest in the news, as happened
with his group working on the smoking ban: My kids were talking
about it because they were paying attention to the news. It was
something that the State Government was working on.
Mr. Washingtons third big idea is about participation: We
make up the government, but it doesnt work if people arent
participating. As Mr. Washington explains, Thats what kids at this
age dont get, that they can change things. They are focused on their
little bubble of the world. It is tough for middle school kids to think
of doing things for the public good. He uses his knowledge of US
history to explain this point: I talk about the Declaration of Inde-
pendence because it helps students understand Jeffersons theory
that if a government isnt working for the people, then it is the
peoples right to x it. For this reason, he criticizes students as
liking to complain but doing nothing to introduce changes around
them. Mr. Washington recalls a Project Citizen experience in which
his students proposed building a basketball court for the town. The
president of the Village Board supported the idea and invited them
to a meeting, but they did not show up. Students need to realize
that change is not going to happen overnight, so they have to put
more work into it, Mr. Washington states. For this reason, he
shares with students his experience learning about people who
sacriced themselves for the good of the country, such as George
Washington: Its interesting that small events and people changed
the course of history, and the kids can understand that one, two, or
a small group of people can make a big difference.
4.4. Encouraging students to work with others
Contrary to the practices in a context of self-regarding individ-
ualism, Mr. Washington believes that people need to work together:
You cant just say Im going to do this and forget everybody else
because youre going to need people to help you along the way. He
learned this from his experience in his teachers union, where he
has been engaged in discussions about health care: If you have a
grievance because you think that your contract has been violated,
you have power in numbers. In Mr. Washingtons opinion,
participating in a union gives workers strength because they come
together as a group, whereas they do not have the same power to
demand that their employers respect their rights if alone.
With Project Citizen, Mr. Washington overcomes some of the
restrictions that exist in a context of self-regarding individualism for
teaching civic education and engaging students to work together on
improving policies. Accordingly, he helps students organize the
tasks they need to complete, such as doing research on the Internet,
writing material for the binders and boards through which they
have to present their work and preparing their presentation for the
showcase at the State Capitol. Nonetheless, students usually have
difculties with group work: In each group, the nal product may
have been crafted by only two kids. Id say getting them all on the
same page to do this, thats probably the biggest challenge year to
year. For this reason, he nds it crucial for students to choose a
problem that is meaningful for them: If you can get 17 or 18 kids
out of 20 to really buy into it, the other kids will do more. This
happened with the students working on the smoking ban: They
were just satised with creating this process as a group. At the end
of the project, he complimented them for their work: From the
6 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
rst day, you guys worked together as well as any other group Ive
ever had. You really coordinated pretty good.
4.5. Completing Project Citizen
As it usually happens with Mr. Washingtons students, the group
on the smoking ban was excited to participate at the showcase at
the State Capitol: they always want to do their best. Recognizing
their excitement, after the showcase, he decided to encourage his
students to take one step further and advocate for a smoking ban
policy in the State. We were done and I said OK, who is going to
write to some of the members of the State government? Mr.
Washington recalls, and one of my students wrote a great email to
the State Senator for this District, basically saying this is what we
did and what we think. We cant vote, but please be our voice when
you vote.
Mr. Washington is pleased with this years Project Citizen. He
believes that experience is helping him improve his implementa-
tion of the program: I learn a lot of stuff right along with my
students about how this works. Every year I get it better because
Ive learned from previous years. Before summer break, he spends
one more brief session congratulating his students for their work.
He gives them a picture of their visit to the Capitol and a certicate
as a reminder of their participation. He does not want his students
to forget the work they did and that they chose the need for a
smoking ban as their policy: The problem was an important one,
and they realize how many people it affects. Such recognition
summarizes what it means to teach students civic engagement
beyond self-regarding individualism.
5. Ms. Paines experience guiding students towards working
for the government
5.1. Teaching Project Citizen
Ms. Paine works at an urban Hmong charter school. She was
attracted to the ethnic socioeconomic culture of the school. She
describes her students Hmong culture as a group-rights culture:
When I ask students what rights people have, they have no other
answer but this: protecting the elderly. Their answer is driven by
their cultural traditions, that is, you protect your family. She
continues to explain: The fact they focus on the elderly, a group
often left behind, was an interesting place to start, because, to me,
democracy is about looking at the least of your society and how
they are treated. From this perspective, integrating her students
perspective is an important element of her teaching beyond self-
regarding individualism: We are able to look at human rights and
responsibilities more than just selshly looking at here is what I can
do because I have this free speech or I have my own freedom of
religion.
Similarly to Mr. Washington, Ms. Paine has also been the only
teacher at her school implementing Project Citizen for the past two
years. She experiences several difculties that resonate with the
limitations to teaching civic education that have arisen in a context
of self-regarding individualism. Accordingly, she suffers from a lack
of resources with which to engage her students in the project: We
really depend on students that have Internet at home and then try
to equalize what research to expect from those without a library
card or without the newspaper at home. Another difculty is that
Ms. Paine teaches different grade levels, leaving her little time to
worry about her students civic education. I dont want to say my
workload is unmanageable, but at times it has been incredibly
unreasonable, she comments.
5.2. Choosing the problem
For Project Citizen, Ms. Paines eighth grade class decided to
focus on an abandoned warehouse in the Hmong ghetto where
many Hmong families live: They wanted to focus on how to clean
it up because it is dangerous, there is gang activity there. In Ms.
Paines opinion, students should engage with real problems, i.e.,
problems that have a public connotation and involve other-
regarding interests rather than merely implicating self-regarding
interests: Ive seen Project Citizen used for, and I dont mean to
belittle anyone, like uniforms for a school, school lunch programs.
Its annoying. Ms. Paine realizes that her Hmong students back-
ground inuences the problems they choose: Students see the
community and its easy to pick a public policy because the prob-
lems around them are mostly public.
5.3. Teaching for diversity beyond a group-based form of self-
regarding individualism
While people tend to group by cultural background in a context
of self-regarding individualism, a major concern in Ms. Paines life
has been moving beyond the boundaries of the evangelical com-
munity in which she was raised. She worries that in many cases,
evangelicals in the US oppose other groups to enforce their own
truth: An evangelical perspective can be wrapped up into pro-
military, pro-gun, pro-oppressing women. Nevertheless, Ms.
Paine started developing a longing for diversity in her Christian
community. For instance, her social studies teacher at her private
Christian high school was very inuential in her thinking: With
him we learned about different kinds of ideas, and we actually had
a good conversation about Karl Marx and The Communist Mani-
festo. Ms. Paine also experienced a small diversity: We had a
protestant diversity: we had Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists. So
even within my seemingly likeminded school in which the world
was explained through the life and death of Jesus Christ, that di-
versity led to different viewpoints. Later in life, she continued
engaging with people who had different backgrounds: I changed
through traveling around the world and through my academic
reading. It made me want to know more types of people out there.
In a context of self-regarding individualism, there are few in-
stances for public deliberation to bring people with different in-
terests and backgrounds together. In her classroom, Ms. Paine
encourages deliberation, but it does not necessarily bring a di-
versity of perspectives among her students. This is a group kind of
culture and so theres not a lot of tension over individual differ-
ences. They are more accepting of the ideas presented by other
members of the group, she explains. For instance, during Project
Citizen, she recalls that there was a group in charge of creating the
policy and the class would discuss it, but everybody was ne with
it. Nonetheless, and although Ms. Paine appreciates the commu-
nity ties among her students, she still wants them to move beyond
a context of group-based self-regarding individualism merely inter-
ested in the concerns of their cultural group. To do so, she also
promotes deliberation to engage students in broader discussions
concerning American society. For example, she recently organized a
discussion on foreign affairs: Through that class discussion, stu-
dents were like, hey lets spend that money on other needs, for
education, for health care. They didnt think the US needed to
spend billions of dollars in war.
Contrary to a context of self-regarding individualism, in which
governments are limited by an economic rationale based on self-
interest, Ms. Paine believes that governments are important for
bringing groups together to work for the common good. It was not
always the case: When I started studying history it made me
skeptical that any government could be a good government. Its
 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
Thomas Paines adage that it is the necessarily evil. Ms. Paine re-
members watching the news coverage of Hurricane Katrina and
thinking, How could our national government be screwing up so
much and allowing this continued poverty to get deeper. She also
worries about the economys inuence in the country: It makes me
understand even more the necessity of regulation and how easy it
is for government leaders to partner with big businesses. However,
her participation in the Center for Civic Education to study the
Constitution and the philosophical ideas underpinning the US
government made her optimistic about governments. Meeting
politicians and community organizers has also been helpful:
Theyve entered the political realm because they wanted to make a
difference. This has been encouraging to me.
Accordingly, Ms. Paine motivates her students to work in favor
of other groups and participate in government. Her own experience
with her community moved her to serve different groups. This was
a lesson she learned from her family: One thing my family taught
me is empathy and kindness. They helped to instill in me the need
to make this a better world. In college, she started working on
different community initiatives, such as food drives. The nice thing
about faith-based institutions is that there are initiatives designed
to help make the community better, she comments. She also
tutored students living in a homeless shelter and worked with
teenagers from troubled communities: These service experiences
were meaningful because they expose you to people whose lives
could be better with your help. Years later, Ms. Paine also became
involved with political groups and participated in canvassing for
candidates, experiences that taught her the importance of civic
participation to help those in need.
During Project Citizen, Ms. Paine shares some of these experi-
ences with her students so they can get to know other groups
working for the common good: I remember drawing [on] my
experience doing some canvassing for the Sierra Club which is an
environmental group. I talked with the students about what these
agencies do and why they would be good points of contact. She
also encourages students to meet their Aldermen and know their
district and their local government: Some students attended a
town hall meeting to make contact with some department
agencies. I have seen evidence that students now talk more about
current events happening in the city. Their contact with the local
government has also helped students see that their abandoned
building project could positively affect other groups besides theirs:
The city wants to rebuild it. They are thinking in community gar-
dens, they are thinking in housing. It has just been interesting to see
that this problem is a city issue that the Mayor has mentioned.
An important event she organizes for Project Citizen is the
school showcase in which students present their projects to a panel
formed by community organizers and people from the local gov-
ernment to practice for the presentation at the State Capitol. The
panel members also share their experiences working with the
community with the students. The students parents offer lunch
with traditional Hmong food, and Ms. Paine insists that students sit
with the guests to continue making connections. Ms. Paines
larger goal is to get her students involved with the community as
citizens. With all of these activities, students can really start seeing
the big picture of how wide the realm of their involvement is.
5.4. Assessing students Project Citizen
The visit to the State Capitol was a success: A lot of my students
had never been to the Capitol. They had some difculty given that
out of the 24 students that went to the Capitol, eight had problems
expressing themselves in English: One judge asked a question and
students were a little hesitant to jump right in, and she said, well,
dont answer all at once sarcastically. I am like, do you think that is
7
going to empower students to speak now? Students also have
expressed their doubts about the Project: They point that they
learned that you can be rejected and that it takes a lot of work. As
she describes, One girl said that she doesnt think that as teenagers
they can make a difference because nobody would listen to them.
When I hear these comments, it makes me wonder if we are
missing something with some students. Nevertheless, she believes
that students are partly responsible: Sometimes students look as if
they could, like, move through democracy, through the adults, but
it still doesnt put the focus on them. It puts the focus on we can go
to others so they can do it. For this reason, she would like to see
more initiative in her students, to hear that they want to take a
stand for the evil in their communities. But, yeah, they are not at
that point quite yet.
Nonetheless, Ms. Paine saw students make great strides. When
the Project started, her students were having difculties because of
their academic performance: They have been berated a lot.
Theyve just been chastised and told that theyre unmotivated and
lazy. Once they started working with their Project, they had a
different experience, they became alive. I really think Project Cit-
izen gave them a spark and made them feel like they could do it. I
think for the rst time in their academic career they felt like they
could achieve. As she further explains, I sense a change in them
now. What I see is that they have very real concerns they want met.
There is an abandoned facility in their neighborhood they want to
x, and they know how to work through government actions to
make that happen. According to Ms. Paine, her students learned an
important lesson: Even if they are living in a poverty-ridden area,
there can still be a way to have their voice heard. I would say that
they have something I didnt have when I was in eighth grade.
Opening her students to the local government was her way of
teaching them civic engagement beyond self-regarding
individualism.
6. Teachers experiences and teaching beyond self-regarding
individualism
The narratives presented in this study show that personal and
professional experiences serve as an important pedagogical
resource that helps teachers teach civic engagement. To discuss the
nature of these experiences, I use the image of a story constella-
tion (Craig, 2007). This image illustrates that teachers individual
experiences are not isolated but together form the wide spectrum
of ideas and practices that constitute their practical knowledge
landscape (Clandinin & Connelly, 1996). Therefore, a story
constellation allows the envisioning of the complementary di-
mensions of these experiences, even if teachers work in different
school settings. In this sense, while Ms. Paine has a more in-depth
experience in one area, Mr. Washington is more knowledgeable in
another. Nevertheless, put together, these stories enrich our un-
derstanding of teachers practical knowledge for teaching civic
engagement (Elbaz, 1983; Zeichner & Liston, 1996). In Mr. Wash-
ington and Ms. Paines story constellation, three issues emerge as
relevant to teaching beyond self-regarding individualism: experi-
ences and teaching civic engagement; the relationship between
experiences and context; and the relationship between teaching,
experiences and moving beyond self-regarding individualism.
6.1. Experiences and teaching civic engagement
First, the experiences presented in the narrative help these
teachers give directions and suggestions to students. Because Project
Citizen is a student-centered program and the steps students need
to follow are clearly laid out by the program and explained in the
guidebook given to teachers and students, teachers are not
8 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
expected to lead or plan activities. Overall, there are only few ref-
erences to actions carried out by these teachers in their narratives.
Most of their contributions were through directions they gave
students to help them organize their work. Because these teachers
have implemented Project Citizen several times, their professional
experience enables them to know the program thoroughly and
adapt it to their students needs. Consequently, they are successful
in guiding students through the program such that the students can
make decisions, gather information about the problem they are
researching, contact people who can help them and prepare their
presentation for the Capitol Showcase. In some specic situations,
personal experiences serve as examples and suggestions so that
students can improve their work.
Secondly, these teachers experiences also help motivate and give
purpose to the activities the students carry out. Most of these mo-
tivations are not necessarily endorsed by Project Citizen or by the
schools in which these teachers work but are rather part of their
beliefs, which are embedded in their own experiences. These be-
liefs relate to the understanding of democracy and civic engage-
ment that these teachers want their students to gain through
Project Citizen. For instance, Mr. Washingtons experience studying
and reading about history has inuenced him to focus on the
substantial aspects of democracy: the big ideas. Democracies e
and governments e need to be improved to make society better. His
optimistic view of American history, reinforced by his professional
accomplishments, allows him to motivate his students to use
Project Citizen to become informed about the needs of other groups
in the country and to trust and participate in government to solve
these problems. Ms. Paines experience with the Center for Civic
Education and her experience working in community projects have
led her to support a democracy that takes care of those groups
requiring special support. Accordingly, she encourages students to
use Project Citizen to overcome their obstacles and difculties and
start collaborating with the government to solve those public
problems that harm the community.
6.2. Self-regarding individualism: experiences and context
Based on the teachers stories, self-regarding individualism sur-
faces as a context in which they teach for civic engagement.
Accordingly, the teachers couch their understandings of democracy
within the frame given by the Constitution and stress the impor-
tance of citizens individual responsibility for making governments
fulll their role in a democracy. From this perspective, when these
teachers criticize political and economic groups taking advantage
of the political system for their own wellbeing, they are not critical
of individualism per se but of a particular context of individualism
that I have identied in this study as self-regarding individualism or
group-based self-regarding individualism. In this context self-
interests are stressed, restricting the commitment of the govern-
ments, schools and people to the common good in civic life, which
should include other-regarding interests.
Mr. Washington makes a connection to this context of individ-
ualism when describing the background in which his students
grow: their little bubble of the world, disconnected from the
concerns of other groups in society. In Ms. Paines case, she admires
her students culture because it differs from a culture in which
groups only care about their individual rights, but she also worries
that her students act as an individual group centered on itself. This
context is not foreign to these teachers own backgrounds, as their
backgrounds are similar in some ways to their students. While the
homogeneous background of his students resembles Mr. Wash-
ingtons own background, the community-based culture of her
students has some commonalities with Ms. Paines own Christian
culture. In this sense, having a common experience with their
students helps these teachers put their teaching in context, under-
lining the challenges students must face to engage civically in a
context of self-regarding individualism.
6.3. Teaching, experiences and moving beyond self-regarding
individualism
Therefore, a crucial feature in these stories is that they contain
the teachers own experiences in moving beyond a context of self-
regarding individualism that stresses self-interests, restricting the
commitment of governments, schools and people to the common
good in civic life. Accordingly, coming from relatively homogeneous
backgrounds, both teachers have endeavored to engage and
interact with cultural groups different from their own. The initial
experiences that led them to question the importance of govern-
ment have been replaced by other experiences that enabled them
to trust the political system and collaborate with it for the public
benet. Above all, developing their teaching careers in school
contexts with reduced time and resources for civic education could
have been discouraging. Instead, it moved them to build their
teaching identities around the goal of engaging students civically in
favor of a common good that includes other-regarding interests.
Having this experience of moving beyond this context, they can
relate to their students and guide them in their civic development.
Thus, the narratives in this study show that these teachers have
experience using those teaching practices that I previously
described as teaching beyond self-regarding individualism, such as
accommodating the curriculum material, opening the classroom to
meaningful discussion and implementing community projects.
However, more importantly, these narratives show that experi-
ences are a valuable resource because they help these teachers use
these practices to guide students beyond a context of self-regarding
individualism, as they represent the teachers enduring efforts to
move beyond this form of individualism. Just as Mr. Washington
has made an effort to learn more about other cultural groups, he
also tries to move students to choose problems that affect other
people besides themselves. Just as Ms. Paine came to be involved
with groups outside of her community of belonging, in her
implementation of Project Citizen, she tries to get her students to
engage with other people working in the local government to work
for the common good. From this perspective, teaching civic
engagement is a crucial experience through which these teachers,
along with their students, continue to move beyond self-regarding
individualism.
7. Conclusion
The narrative inquiry conducted with two social studies teach-
ers explored how their experiences help them teach civic engage-
ment beyond self-regarding individualism. As noted in other studies
on teachers practical knowledge (Elbaz, 1983; Xu & Connelly,
2010), the experiences presented inform the ways these teachers
give directions and suggestions, motivate and give purpose to the
activities and accommodate their students. Specically, the expe-
riences help them implement a civic program acknowledging the
difculties their students have to face to engage civically. From this
perspective, this article contributes to the studies in the eld of
civic education that tend to pay less attention to the teachers
practical knowledge sustained in their own experiences and how
these experiences represent a signicant pedagogic resource. It
might even be the case that in particular restraining contexts,
sharing their experiences can actually constitute the teachers
greatest pedagogic tool to encourage their students civic engage-
ment. Therefore, this article also suggests the importance of
including more narrative inquiry approaches into this area of study.
 E. Cavieres-Fernandez / Teaching and Teacher Education 42 (2014) 1e10
A political, cultural and economic context of self-regarding
individualism that stresses self-interests, restricting the commit-
ment of governments, schools and people to the common good in
civic life, is suggested as the context to analyze these teachers
experiences. I am aware that peoples experiences are unique and
complex and therefore do not always relate nicely to a theoretical
description of a context or that such a description cannot
completely represent the way people interact with it (Elbaz-
Luwisch, 2010). Nevertheless, placing these narratives in a
context allows the recognition of the value of the experiences that
ordinary teachers bring to their teaching, considering the re-
strictions that exist in their school settings, backgrounds and po-
litical institutions (Willinsky, 1989). The study concludes that these
experiences are a valuable resource because they represent the
teachers enduring effort to move beyond this context and can
therefore better enlighten their students civic development.
Nevertheless, this study does not ignore the multiple ways in which
political, economic and cultural institutions reinforce self-interest
in society, limiting the inuence of teachers (Wade, 2007). As Ms.
Paine reects, it might be the case that in some aspects of their
teaching, they might be missing something.
Nonetheless, in an educational system regulated by pro-market
policies worldwide and with a teaching force limited by institu-
tional settings, story constellations of teachers practical knowl-
edge depict the entire range of resources that teachers can utilize to
produce citizens committed to the public good. These constella-
tions also suggest that teachers can use their practical knowledge
to make educational initiatives work in different ways. Ms. Paine
mentions that Project Citizen can lead students in many directions,
from reinforcing an individualistic context to moving beyond it.
Based on my own experience with the program, I believe that it is
the teachers who make the difference. In places like Chile, my home
country, teachers have used Project Citizen to empower students
amidst the increasing standardization of the curriculum
(Echeverra, 2008). From this perspective, a discussion on the effect
of policies and educational programs cannot ignore the role and
contributions that teachers make through their practical knowl-
edge (Goodson, 1997). Therefore, the narrative insights in these
stories contribute windows of understanding into the efforts made
by teachers around the globe to teach civic engagement and invite
them to tell their teaching experiences in order to relive and
envision new ways of promoting the common good amidst
restraining contexts.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Michael W. Apple for his support and
guidance and the reviewers from Teacher and Teaching Education for
their signicant contributions.
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