Dimensions of Citizenship through the Lens of The Hunger Games: Fiction and the Visual and Performing Arts as Springboards for Citizenship Education
The authors take an interdisciplinary approach to frame current conceptions of citizenship and practices of citizenship education. Using the popular young adult novel The Hunger Games (Collins 2008) as a basis for learning, they discuss theories of teaching and learning about citizenship through multiliteracies and art to explore the challenges associated with teaching citizenship as a complex, multidimensioned construct. They also describe the benefits of drawing on literature, visual art, and dramatic art to prompt learning about difficult social concepts. Finally, they provide a hypothetical example of a social studies miniunit involving popular literature (The Hunger Games), visual art, and dramatic art. Elements of the unit have been employed in their work with preservice teachers.