Mapping elementary students' understandings of the police

Abstract

Highlights:

– Research on conceptual change in civics is needed.

– Phenomenography is useful for mapping different ways of understanding a particular concept, in this case, the different ways elementary students understand the police.

– Civics teaching can benefit from mapping understandings of phenomena such as different social institutions.

Purpose: Investigate first- to third-graders’ understandings of the police.

Design/methodology/approach: Phenomenography is used to analyze elementary students’ understandings of the police as a social institution

Findings: The results indicate three qualitatively different ways of understanding the police. The police as: attributes, activities and as a part of the democratic welfare state.

Practical implications: Civics teaching that aims to develop students’ understandings of the police can benefit from taking the three different ways of understanding into consideration.