If Someone Asked, I’d Participate: Teachers as Recruiters for Political and Civic Participation

Abstract

Whereas much has been written about the role of resources and motivation for activating adolescents to become engaged citizens, less work considers the role that recruitment within schools might play in shaping youth civic engagement patterns. Drawing on interviews with over 100 high school students and over 40 school officials, our research illuminates the critical role that school-based recruitment plays in fostering youth civic engagement. We find that while a majority of the students we interviewed are actively involved in their local community, a sizable portion of students remain unengaged and that a lack of recruitment from school officials is one important factor explaining this phenomenon. We also find that teachers, especially social studies teachers, can play a key role in recruiting and motivating students. However, teachers tend to act as “rational prospectors” who selectively recruit certain subsets of students (i.e., advanced students)—something that likely contributes to later inequality in participation.