Citizenship Education Curriculum for Adult ESL Students: Critical Discourse Analysis on What Is Untold

Abstract

This research aimed (1) to examine a citizenship education curriculum for beginning-level adult ESL students designed to help them pass the U.S. citizenship test and (2) to explore students' lived experiences of taking a citizenship ESL class in the southwestern United States. The citizenship ESL curriculum was developed by the United States Citizenship and Immigrant Services (USCIS), a federal agency in charge of immigration and naturalization. Based on critical phenomenology, this study examined the curriculum using document analysis and conducted interviews with 11 participants enrolled in a citizenship ESL class. This research analyzed the curriculum as a discourse between the developers and students and used critical discourse analysis to inspect the relationship between the curriculum and students’ learning experiences. This study found that the curriculum transmits limited and partial civics knowledge as a disciplinary discourse to the students. At the same time, the participants had satisfactory learning experiences in citizenship ESL class, which they perceived as a source of social empowerment due to increased ESL skills and civics knowledge. This study suggests ways to improve citizenship ESL education and the curriculum to be more meaningful and continuous to help students become active citizens.