Building Community Group Intervention: Exploring Outcomes on Multicultural and Civic Engagement Skills with Upper Elementary Students

Abstract

As students living in urban communities face unique challenges, social-emotional programming is needed that fosters multicultural enrichment and civic engagement. We developed and pilot tested Building Community, a small group intervention, to foster multicultural and civic engagement skills. Building Community is a culturally relevant short-term group intervention for upper elementary-aged students that draws upon the multicultural literature and Six Cs positive youth development and civic engagement research as reported by Zarrett and Lerner (Child Trends 11:1–5, 2008). A convergent parallel mixed methods design was used to explore outcomes on multicultural development and civic engagement among five ethnically diverse elementary-aged students. Findings suggested an emerging sense of multicultural development and expanding awareness of ways to engage in the community. Although quantitative analyses revealed little change, there was a small increase in the Civic Attitudes subscale that corresponded with qualitative themes from interviews and artifacts. Implications for school psychologists and practitioners working with multiculturally diverse students are described.