Civic Capacities Research Articles

Improving Performance of Education Students in Mathematics in the Modern World by Relay Teaching Method

In the Philippines, Mathematics in the Modern World is offered to tertiary level students as one of the general education courses in almost programs. This course comprises various mathematics disciplines that aims to expose undergraduate students to various domains of knowledge and ways of comprehending social and natural realities, developing intellectual competencies and civic capacities. Through collaborative teaching, particularly on having more than one instructor in a class could offer a blending of expertise, complementary personalities, and a balanced approach to grading. Thus, relay teaching method was used. The relay teaching method in this study refers to taking turns in succession in teaching students the different lessons on Data Management as a selected topic in Mathematics in the Modern World. This study utilized the pretest-posttest research design with no control group, with three groups of education students were subjected to the relay teaching method. The performances of the students during the pretest and posttest were measured using a valid and reliable multiple-choice type of test. The mean, t-test, and ANCOVA were used to analyze the data. To summarize the feedback of students, it employed qualitative data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there is an improvement in the level of performance of the students on data management with the implementation of the relay teaching method. The performance of the students before and after exposure to relay teaching was significantly different. The BTLEd students have significantly better performance than the BPEd students. The relay teaching method significantly helped improve the performance of the BTLEd students as compared to the BPEd students. The use of relay teaching could be more effective with enrichment activities such as coaching and sharing of lecture notes, social networking, and the use of social media and the internet.

Deliberative Experience and the Civic Aspirations of Legal Education

AbstractAs law graduates wield significant influence in public life, law schools’ responsibility for cultivating students’ civic capacities and dispositions remains an important but often neglected project. Taking up this project, this article traces a thread of deliberative democratic aspirations within legal education scholarship and explores the potential of participation within law schools’ own political processes for realising these ideals. To do so, it examines law students’ experiences of an experiment with deliberative democracy’s leading institutional innovation – the deliberative mini-public – and demonstrates the ways in which participation fostered deliberative capacities, a more collective orientation, and increased confidence. Ultimately, the article illustrates the mutually reinforcing nature of civic and legal education, affirms law schools’ broader role within society and offers both theoretical and practical insights into the place of democratic innovation within the law school.

Citizenship matters: Young citizen becoming in the posthuman present

This article contributes new insights to research on citizenship and young citizen subject formation in the context of the posthuman condition. Bringing a feminist materialist sensibility to bear, we explore citizenship as materially mobilised and produced. Considering the constitutive role that embodied and affective phenomena play in this production, we attend particularly to acts of citizenship. We show by way of vignettes how human subjects and material and natural objects ‘intra-act’ to produce civic capacities and bring citizen subjectivity into effect. The forces by which these capacities are produced come into view inviting challenge to normative, human-centred framings of (youth) citizenship. The forces in question are various—affective, corporeal, temporal, spatial, spectral—but it is affect that provides the main impetus to action. Supplementing the more conventional frame of citizenship as belonging, we propose a framework of citizen becoming as a generative way to think and do citizenship in the posthuman present. The argument is made that analytic frames that attune to citizenship as an affective movement of becoming best address current conditions for producing citizen subjects and usefully extend individualised models of citizenship that have long influenced education.

A System for Resilience Learning: Developing a Community-Driven, Multi-Sector Research Approach for Greater Preparedness and Resilience to Long-Term Climate Stressors and Extreme Events in the Miami Metropolitan Region

There is a growing need for integrated approaches that align community priorities with strategies that build resilience to climate hazards, societal shocks, and economic crises to ensure more equitable and sustainable outcomes. We anticipate that adaptive management and resilience learning are central elements for these approaches. In this paper, we describe an approach to build and test a Resilience Learning System to support research and implementation of a resilience strategy developed for the Greater Miami and the Beaches or the Resilient305 Strategy. Elements foundational to the design of this integrated research strategy and replicable Resilience Learning System are: (1) strong partnerships among community members, government and non-government organization leaders, and researchers from multiple academic institutions; (2) contributions of subject matter expertise and local knowledge to identify information and translational gaps, formulate metrics and evaluate outcomes of Resilient305 Strategy actions from the community perspective; and (3) a comprehensive understanding of civic engagement activities, technological tools, and resilience-building capacities, including policy and financial innovations, from which to advance socio-technological, smart and connected regional-to-hyperlocal community translation through co-design/co-production. Initial results on co-produced metrics are provided. This work produces a new, replicable framework for resilience research that includes a comprehensive set of metrics, translation to communities through structured dialogues, a collaborative process involving all stakeholders and researchers, and evaluation of resilience actions to inform new investments and improve understanding and effectiveness over time.

Differentiating Participation: Identifying and Defining Civic Capacities Used by Latino Immigrants in Participatory Budgeting

Participatory planning has faced challenges engaging predominantly Spanish-speaking immigrants beyond the bottom rungs of Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation. Participating at any level of the ladder requires individual civic skills, or capacities, that are integral to participatory processes. However, the specific skills necessary for collective action are less certain, due in part to a lack of clear definitions and a lack of clarity about how these capacities work in practice. Drawing on two years of data from a participatory budgeting process in an immigrant community in Chicago, Illinois, the authors identify key civic capacities that Spanish-speaking immigrants activated while engaging in civic discourse, and they explore the role these capacities played in moving ideas toward collective decision making. The authors present an organizational schema that aligns the study’s findings of 17 unique civic capacities with capacities identified in the literature as helping participants engage more meaningfully in decision-making processes.

Toward an understanding of civic engagement capacities within a municipal civic participation system

ABSTRACT Neighborhood organizations are positioned to intercede between private interests and public purposes by facilitating citizen participation and promoting civic engagement in municipal governance. However, it is not clearly understood to what extent these organizations engage a more active populace and contribute to democratic outcomes. This article reports the findings from an exploratory and qualitative case study of a population of neighborhood organizations, or District Councils, within the City of Saint Paul District Council system, which is located in Minnesota, U.S. Study participants described dualistic and competing roles in managing their nonprofit organizations while meeting neighborhood needs, and accounts of diminishing civic participation. The findings also point to several organizational and neighborhood contingencies that might have influenced civic engagement capacities including the size of District Council boards of directors. Overall, this study revealed constraints on civic engagement capacities throughout the Saint Paul District Council system. This study contributes to extant research regarding civic engagement and public participation, and the findings bring attention to needed improvements within municipal civic participation systems.

ПРИНЦИПИ ПОБУДОВИ КУРИКУЛУМІВ ЗАГАЛЬНОЇ ПІДГОТОВКИ СТУДЕНТІВБАКАЛАВРАТУ В США

On the basis of the analysis of the U. S. general education curriculathe three mainprinciples oftheir design (i.e. content, teaching and learning strategies, assessment and evaluation processes) are identified and enlarged upon: principle of systemicity (supported by identifying components of general education and specify-ing its tasks as a system to ensure its integrity and focus on forming students’ transferable skills); principle of plu-ralism (focused on taking into account constant sociocul-tural changes in globalized pluralistic societywithin dif-ferent knowledge areas of general education); principle of effectiveness (based on defining the outcomes of learning and personal development of students in the system of general education). The general education component in the undergraduate curriculum is highlighted as the core of the undergraduate academic experience developing im-portant intellectual and civic capacities of students. The typical content of general education curriculum at the U. S. higher education institutions is outlined, comprising “thecommunicative component” (composition and rhetoric coursesorwriting studies,and first year seminarson various sociocultural themes), and “the breadth compo-nent” (the arts, natural and social sciences, and mathe-matics). It is stated that the U.S.general education is intended to acquaint students with sociocultural knowledge accumulated by humanity; promote better self-understanding and awareness of their place and role in society; develop the ability to adequately assess the pos-sibilities for their self-realization; teach students to think independently and critically, and to communicate in a civilized and effective way with other people and the world at large

Teaching Civic Engagement through Literature

Teaching civic engagement through literature can become a pedagogical tool that allows instructors to turn the literature classrooms into a model of a community devoted to participatory democracy and to change students change students change students change students from from from the apathetic disengaged and self the apathetic disengaged and self the apathetic disengaged and self the apathetic disengaged and self the apathetic disengaged and self the apathetic disengaged and self the apathetic disengaged and self -interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and interested persons to active, motivated and engaged citizens. engaged citizens. This paper explores different means for advancing a culture of civic engagement through teaching literature. It also elucidates how the activities of civic engagement pursued by students through the literary texts they study can produce civic capacities that nurture their growth

Youth Participation in Psychological Literature: A Semantic Analysis of Scholarly Publications in the PsycInfo Database.

The topic of youth participation in the public sphere has received increasing attention within recent psychological research. The literature remains somewhat fragmented between different conceptualizations varying in their specificity or broadness. The present study aims to map the current state of debate in psychology regarding youth civic and political participation and to identify the prevalent themes that characterize the research in the discipline from 1990 to 2016. A semantic content analysis with the software T-Lab was performed on a corpus of 1,777 publications retrieved from the PsycInfo database. The results highlight the increasing number of academic contributions on the topic, confirming the growing importance of the issue within psychology. The study sheds light on the spheres of participation, in which the discipline has attempted to make a contribution, namely: traditional and online political context, institutional civic education, adolescent development, and rights-based activism. Moreover, the findings reveal the existing opposing priorities of research that focus either on the explanation of specific forms of involvement or on the formation of future citizens. Within the thematic attention to young people’s civic and political development, there seem to be two general approaches that see youth in divergent ways: as citizens whose civic capacities are to be fostered or as targets for top-down training interventions. This systematic thematic review calls attention to the disparate ways in which youth participation is being addressed in psychology and highlights the need for greater theoretical integration in the field of study.

Civic Virtue in the Deliberative System

The normative stability of a deliberative and democratic political order and the creativity and quality of the decisions its produces depend on citizens developing civic orientations and capacities through participation in deliberative events aiming at the cooperative solution of political problems. That, at least, is the claim made by critics of the systems approach to deliberative democracy, who argue that its proponents have lost sight of the educative function that respectful public reasoning plays for citizens. In this article I offer a response to this line of argument. There is no good philosophical reason to suppose that only unitary deliberation can perform an educative function for citizens. The kinds of informal and uncooperative public speech that occur in distributed deliberative processes can also develop participants’ civic capacities and civic virtue – and not merely through their systemic effects. This is an insight that should encourage us to rethink the design and facilitation of deliberative forums and pay more attention to citizens’ everyday deliberation.

Promoting Informed Citizenship through Prison-based Education

There are two dominant frames that emerge in the political discourse regarding whether or not public funds should be invested in educating incarcerated adults in the United States. The first discusses prison-based education in terms of its instrumental utility as a crime control technique within cost-effective analyses. In the second, education in prisons is described as being either good or bad for moral reasons. In this essay, I argue for a third frame in which the merit of prison education programs is determined based on whether or not such programs advance democratic values. I hold that this is particularly important, because the current era of mass incarceration has brought about several threats to the civic well-being of American society, and thus to the legitimacy and stability of the democracy. I then use practitioner and student accounts of prison-based educational programs to illustrate that classrooms can function as unique spaces within prisons to promote informed citizenship. I conclude with two modest recommendations to further expand the civic capacities of incarcerated men and women, within the existing structure of US prisons.

Civic Action and Learning with a Community of Aboriginal Australian Young Children

CIVICS AND CITIZENSHIP ARE increasingly used in early childhood education policy, but what citizenship and civic learning can be for young children is under-researched and lacking definition. Drawing from the Australian findings of the major study Civic action and learning with young children: Comparing approaches in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, this article shares evidence of civic capacities that a community of young Aboriginal Australian children demonstrate in an early childhood education and care centre. Communitarian citizenship theory provides a framework for citizenship that is accessible for young children by focusing on families, communities and neighbourhoods. Cultural readings of illustrative examples on how young Aboriginal children express civic identity, collective responsibility, civic agency, civic deliberation and civic participation are discussed, highlighting how cultural values shape civic action. Links to state and national early childhood curricula are provided to guide others to further support civic learning in early childhood education.

Participatory Budgeting: Learning Civic Capacities Through Democratic Activity

This pilot study presents an ethnographic case study of Chicago’s 49th Ward Participatory Planning Budgeting Process (PPBP). This paper brings together the disciplines of Urban Planning and Learning Sciences, using a range of methodologies to examine the complexity of learning as it occurs in participatory planning. The study focuses specifically on the Latino immigrant community’s participation in the PPBP. This paper presents an analysis of a Spanish-language Assembly in the fall of 2010. Findings show ten emergent civic capacities and how they were learned or activated in the context of the Spanish assembly. Using a Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework, the paper explores both the cultural historical milieu of participants’ effects of participating in democratic activity and the mediational means of the civic capacities on participation. The findings raise questions about how Latino immigrant community members engage civically, and how identities of civic participation may form over time. Lastly, how are those in charge of the participatory planning process learning to adapt the environment in order to meet the participation needs of the community?

Critical geographies of education: an introduction

Critical geographies of education: an introduction

Immigrant Engagement in Participatory Budgeting in New York City

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a welcome experiment in participatory democracy in New York City (NYC), one that could produce greater civic engagement of traditionally marginalized groups and more equitable resource distribution. By engaging immigrants, PB aims to affirm and elevate their voices, help develop their civic capacities, and promote their political participation and community empowerment. During the past four years, participation by immigrants (foreign-born residents) in New York City’s PB process (PBNYC) has steadily increased, growing from nineteen to twenty-eight percent of all PB voters. Yet, immigrant participation lags compared to their numbers, with great variation among PB districts. Using a mixed methods approach that incorporates surveys of and interviews with immigrant community members, staff at immigrant serving community-based organizations, and City Council staff, this article aims to parse out the logistical and affective barriers to participation immigrants face in PB districts and how PBNYC’s design attempts to circumvent said barriers and facilitate participation. Ultimately, our study reveals a complex mix of promising practices and structural constraints involved in working toward PB’s “inclusive” and “equitable” aims.

Reimagining Rhetorical Education: Fostering Writers’ Civic Capacities through Engagement with Religious Rhetorics

The author proposes three ways that engagement with religious rhetorics in undergraduate writing courses might enable teachers of rhetoric to cultivate writers’ civic capacities. To give readers a sense of what courses on religious rhetorics that aim to improve writers’ civic capacities look like in practice, DePalma discusses three undergraduate writing courses recently taught in different kinds of institutional settings and the kinds of learning that occurred as a result of students’ engagement with religious rhetorics in those courses.

Belonging, Place, and Identity: The Role of Social Trust in Developing the Civic Capacities of Transnational Dominican Youth

In the context of transnational migration, schools are reimagining their role in preparing students to become democratic citizens. The qualitative research study described in this article explores the places where five Dominican transnational youth attending a New York City public high school for late-arriving migrants enacted their civic identities. Findings show that the youth developed a sense of place and belonging across the contexts of school, family, and neighborhood that was informed by their dual frame of reference. Participants perceived their school to be a space where they developed social trust due to caring and supportive relationships with teachers and students, and where they were able to draw upon their transnational experiences as civic assets. They reported fewer opportunities to develop social trust in their neighborhoods. Implications are discussed for how these youth perspectives can be leveraged to improve civic outcomes for transnational youth whose sense of belonging and identifications transcend national boundaries.

Where civics meets science: building science for the public good through Civic Science.

Public understanding of science and civic engagement on science issues that impact contemporary life matter more today than ever. From the Planned Parenthood controversy, to the Flint water crisis and the fluoridation debate, societal polarization about science issues has reached dramatic levels that present significant obstacles to public discussion and problem solving. This is happening, in part, because systems built to support science do not often reward open-minded thinking, inclusive dialogue, and moral responsibility regarding science issues. As a result, public faith in science continues to erode. This review explores how the field of Civic Science can impact public work on science issues by building new understanding of the practices, influences, and cultures of science. Civic Science is defined as a discipline that considers science practice and knowledge as resources for civic engagement, democratic action, and political change. This review considers how Civic Science informs the roles that key participants-scientists, public citizens and institutions of higher education-play in our national science dialogue. Civic Science aspires to teach civic capacities, to inform the responsibilities of scientists engaged in public science issues and to inspire an open-minded, inclusive dialogue where all voices are heard and shared commitments are acknowledged.

Does U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Training Constitute a Type of Civic Education?

ABSTRACTIn what respects can military basic training affect veterans’ civic identities? According to a 2015 report published by the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), military service positively affects civic health. While social scientists have also noted this possible connection, little attention has been paid to how and why this link might exist. To test the purported relationship between military training and increased civic capacities, I explored the United States Marine Corps’ (USMC) Recruit Training program. I conducted 20 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 17 enlisted Marine veterans and Marine drill instructors (DI) to ascertain their perceptions of the pedagogical aspirations of their service’s recruit training. The study’s participants reported that Marine Corps Recruit Training does seek to inculcate skills, values, and habits that are consistent with a civic identity as discussed in the civic-engagement and civic-education literature.

Gli habitus e la personalizzazione dell'insegnamento

Not only should education professionals be expert in the subject(s) they teach; they should also strive to foster the aesthetic, ethical and civic capacities of students. In this regard, teaching is an ethical act which grounds a reciprocal relationship between individuals and whose purpose is to encourage the development of a set of habits among students as well as teachers. This chapter comprises a study of the idea of habit and its contribution to the development of an ethics of teaching. First, the Aristotelian view of habit as personal enrichment through the stable harmonization of spontaneity with the good is addressed. Then, the classical Aristotelian conception is further explored in light of the contemporary recovery of practical reason, read in relation to habit, freedom and personalization in the education process. Finally, the ways in which current perspectives outside the Aristotelian tradition, such as Dewey’s philosophy, may also encompass the concept of habit as a cornerstone of personal integration are also examined.