Challenges of teaching affective citizenship education: Spatial, relational, and affective dimensions of citizenship education and their connections with discomfort

Abstract

This article uses affective citizenship education as an enrichment of critical citizenship education. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with twenty-four teachers from secondary schools in Flanders, this study investigates in what ways spatial, relational, and affective dimensions are present in teachers’ interpretations of citizenship and explores how affective citizenship education is understood and enacted as perceived by teachers themselves. The findings show that their understandings of citizenship differed, often because teachers adapt to the student population they serve. Moreover, teachers encountered challenges involving many emotional practices. We argue that our results could serve as a basis for a reflective understanding of the affective tensions often present when enacting citizenship in education.