Civic Learning Opportunities Research Articles

Political Neutrality as Ideal, Right-wing Pedagogy in Practice: Hegemony and Civic Learning Opportunities in Predominantly White Schools

ABSTRACT While schools are necessary spaces for democratic education, more analyses are needed that unpack their limits. Drawing from ethnographic research in U.S. Government classrooms in two predominantly White schools in politically conservative communities in central Ohio, findings show that teachers and students idealize a politically neutral pedagogy, yet in practice, teachers engage in discursive and pedagogical moves that reify right-wing politics in implicit and explicit ways. Ideas that deviate from “neutrality”—those deemed “racial” or left-leaning—are viewed as “political” and avoided. Drawing on the concept of hegemonic power and situating this amidst conversations of the White normative trappings of civic and social studies education, this paper offers insights into the political ideologies and pedagogical choices that shape right-wing civic learning opportunities in politically and racially homogenous schools.

Inclusive civic education and school democracy through participatory budgeting

Calls for more civic education have risen alongside political polarization, social injustices, and threats to democracy. Although civic learning opportunities are disproportionately accessible and often not inclusive, one model has shown promising results. Through School Participatory Budgeting, students deliberate and decide how to allocate funds to improve their school community using a democratic process and learn democracy by doing. However, like other civic engagement programs, students with disabilities (SWD) are often underrepresented. To address this challenge, a pilot project focused on engaging SWD in every aspect of the process, including overrepresentation on the student steering committee. In a mixed methods case study, we explored the effects of participation in the process and found that the inclusive model increased civic knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices for all students and fostered self-skills, relationships, and school leadership roles for SWD. These findings yield important lessons for future implementation of inclusive civic education practices.

Indicators of Equitable Civic Learning in U.S. Public Schools

ABSTRACT The “twin pandemics” of racial injustice and COVID-19 have underscored the importance of promoting civic knowledge, skills, dispositions, and engagement among the nation’s young people. Although some evidence has demonstrated that civic-learning opportunities are inequitably distributed across U.S. schools and communities, we currently have limited data that could help inform efforts to promote more equitable access to these opportunities. In this article, we draw on a recent National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report on equity indicators to explore the potential value of a large-scale system of such indicators for civic learning. We highlight the need for indicators of both opportunities to learn and of learning outcomes. We describe key features of this system, propose some example indicators, and discuss a research agenda that could contribute to the development of high-quality measures of equity in civic learning.

Civic Equity for Students With Disabilities

Background/Context: In its pursuit for equal opportunity for all students, the field of civic education has largely ignored a significant segment of the school population: students with disabilities (SWD). While numerous studies have documented the benefits of high-quality civic learning for youth, these benefits are not equally distributed among students. Indeed, White students, economically advantaged students, and students in higher tracked classes are the most likely to participate in high-quality civic learning opportunities. Meanwhile, little is known about the high-quality civic learning opportunities provided to SWD because they are routinely absent from research and policy discussions. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Any meaningful commitment to respecting SWD as competent, contributing citizens in a democratic society requires preparing them to advocate for themselves and for others as fully as possible, which in turn requires high-quality civic learning opportunities in our schools. Moreover, we need to better understand which students are included in civic education and in what ways because these efforts communicate important lessons about who is a valued member of “we the people” and the school community. As such, this study explores the current landscape of civic education for SWD by examining the extent to which they receive equitable exposure to high-quality civic learning opportunities and engage civically within their communities. Research Design: Drawing on more than 48,000 survey responses from high school students in Chicago Public Schools, a quantitative analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between four demographic variables (disability status, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender) and seven outcome variables attending to both traditional and digital forms of civic education. Notably, this appears to be the first large-scale empirical study to examine these indicators for SWD. Conclusions/Recommendations: There are statistically significant differences between the civic education experiences provided to SWD and students without disabilities, even when controlling for socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender. In particular, SWD are more likely to be excluded from discussion-based experiences than service-based experiences. Moreover, the magnitude of the differences based on disability status was equal to or greater than that of the differences explained by other demographic variables in the majority of cases. These findings demonstrate that disability status is a factor that deserves greater attention in civic education research and pedagogy.

Digital civic learning in schools: Youth perspectives and experiences

PurposeWhile living in the information age is not new, the continued spread of dis/mis/information in tandem with rising partisanship has made clear the educational need for robust and critical information and media literacy education (Bulger and Davison, 2018; Garcia et al., 2021; Reich, 2018; Wineburg and McGrew, 2016). Given that most young people (and adults) today get their information and news about the world through online sources, including social media (Pew Research Center, 2018; Garcia et al., 2021), it is imperative for the health of the American democracy that students’ school-based civic learning opportunities include digital civic learning, too. This paper aims to offer a study into one such schooling landscape in a large and diverse public school district in the USA.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method approach – including an online survey and face-to-face group interviews – was used to understand the opportunity landscape more broadly and glean insight into the texture and nuance of youth perspectives and experiences on digital civic learning.FindingsAnalysis of data reveals a dearth of consistent and routine opportunities for digital civic learning within the Rio Public School District context.Originality/valueEmpirical research that examines and makes visible students’ lived experiences and perspectives with digital civic information is essential if as educators and researchers, the authors are to successfully design for more and better of these experiences.

Can Our Schools Help Us Preserve Democracy? Special Challenges at a Time of Shifting Norms.

Civic education that prepares students for principled civic participation is vital to democracy. Schools face significant challenges, however, as they attempt to educate for democracy in a democracy in crisis. Parents, educators, and policy-makers disagree about what America's civic future should look like, and hence about what schools should teach. Likewise, hyperpartisanship, mutual mistrust, and the breakdown of democratic norms are perverting the kinds of civic relationships and values that schools want to model and achieve. Nonetheless, there is strong evidence that young people want to be civically engaged and are hungry for more and better civic learning opportunities. Reviving the civic mission of schools is thus a win-win-win. Adults want it, youth want it, and democracy needs it. We propose three means by which educators and the public can reconstruct our common purpose and achieve civic innovation to help democracy in crisis: support action civics, strengthen youth leadership outside the classroom, and engage both students and adults with "hard history" and contemporary controversies.

Back on track? How civic learning opportunities widen the political knowledge gap in a tracked education system

ABSTRACT This article examines how different civic learning opportunities relate to students’ political knowledge in different school tracks. Existing studies have found that citizenship teaching can not only enhance overall levels of civic outcomes but also mitigate inequalities. However, educational achievement studies emphasize the risk of a tracked school context exacerbating the general knowledge gap. Combining these findings, we do not know whether efforts in the vocational track to enhance civic outcomes can still reduce civic inequalities. This study relies on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016 data. It uses multilevel analysis to examine how the civic learning opportunities schools offer (as perceived by students) are related to civic knowledge across different tracks. It finds that cross-track differences in civic knowledge are not smaller in schools rich in civic learning opportunities. We provisionally propose that this is due to differences across tracks in the levels and the nature of the civic learning opportunities provided.

The digital dimensions of civic education: Assessing the effects of learning opportunities

This study examines the effects of online and offline civic learning opportunities on offline civic engagement and online political activity. It draws on panel data for high school students in Chicago Public Schools (N = 10,254). Youth who receive digital engagement learning opportunities (opportunities to learn how to create and share digital media tied to societal issues) become more likely to engage in online participatory politics, while youth who receive civically oriented digital consumption learning opportunities (opportunities to learn ways to judge the credibility of online content) become less likely to do so. Digital consumption learning opportunities are positively related to offline civic engagement. Offline civic learning opportunities have positive relationships with both offline civic engagement and online participatory politics. These findings provide evidence of the importance of these varied learning opportunities and of the degree to which these opportunities differ in their relationships with offline and online forms of participation.

Exploring the Long-term Impact of Service-Learning: Former Students of Spanish Revisit their Community Engagement Experiences

Service-learning (SL), as a pedagogy that promotes reciprocal partnership building between campus and community through meaningful service and critical reflection, can provide language students with not only valuable language and cultural immersion experience, but also civic learning opportunities. Although SL research has revealed numerous positive outcomes on students’ academic and civic learning, most studies have focused on short-term effects. In particular, in the context of language classrooms, there is a dearth of research examining the lasting impact of SL pedagogy. This study explores the long-term benefits of SL on students of Spanish, two to seventeen years after their SL experience. Former students who participated in various types of SL projects across different levels of Spanish courses at a public university in the Midwest completed surveys (n = 60) and interviews (n = 15) identifying aspects of the SL experience they consider valuable. The majority of former students in the study noted SL participation as one of the most significant educational experiences in college, leading to positive gains in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors for interacting with target language communities. The study also explores the value respondents placed on engaged learning, relationship building, and language learning for community engagement.

Political efficacy and interest as mediators of expected political participation among Belgian adolescents

Citizenship education intends to prepare students to become politically active citizens. However, studies investigating the relationship between citizenship education and political participation have largely neglected the mediating role of political attitudes. This study examines whether political efficacy and political interest are mediators of expected political participation, using the data of the Belgian (Flemish) sample of the ICCS 2016 study. The results indicate that three educational strategies (i.e., classroom discussions, civic learning opportunities, and student participation at school) are positively associated with expected political participation (i.e., institutionalized and noninstitutionalized participation) in a distinct way. A substantial part of this relationship is mediated by political interest and political efficacy. Future research should take this underlying mechanism into account when studying the development of civic engagement amongst adolescents in a school context. The findings of this study call for a broad approach to citizenship education for the development of political attitudes, as well as behavior.

Did You Know?!… Cultivating Online Public Voice in Youth

Drawing on a mixed methods study of a district-wide initiative to integrate civic learning practices into the high school humanities curriculum in an urban school district in Northern California, this article examines the relationship between face-to-face versus online civic learning opportunities and students’ motivation for engaging in practices related to online public voice, the affordances of online civic learning opportunities for the expression of public voice, and the features of online civic learning opportunities that optimize the expression of public voice. The findings provide insight as to whether and under what conditions digitally mediated civic learning opportunities promote the expression of public voice.

Exploring the Process of Promoting Lifelong Education Policy in Korea and China to Improve Future Learning Life Satisfaction

목적: 본 연구는 미래 사회 학습생활 만족을 위한 한국과 중국의 평생 교육 정책 추진과정에서 공통점과 차이점을 알아보고 시사점을 얻고자 하였다.BR 연구방법: 연구방법은 문헌연구로 이루어졌다.BR 결과: 연구의 결과는 다음과 같다. 먼저 공통점을 보면, 첫째, 한국과 중국은 평생 교육 정책을 실현하기 위해 초기에 대학 중심의 시민 교육을 발전시켰다. 둘째, 평생 교육의 목표를 평생 학습 도시에 두었다는 점이다. 셋째, 평생 교육은 시민의 경제적 활동을 위한 자립 능력 개발에 중점을 두었다. 다음으로 차이점을 보면, 첫째, 한국의 초기 평생 교육 정책은 대학 주도의 전문 인력 양성에 중점을 두었다. 그러나 중국의 초기 평생 교육은 대학과 민간단체 중심의 경제 활동을 위한 기술 인력 양성에 중점을 두었다. 둘째, 한국의 경우, 지자체(시 · 군 · 구) · 대학 · 공공 기관 · 사립학교 등 평생 교육 정책의 실현은 다양하게 이루어진다. 그러나 중국에서는 대학 중심의 졸업장과 자격증 취득으로 이루어진다. 셋째, 한국은 정부 주도의 적극적인 재정 지원을 통해 평생 교육을 확대하기 시작했지만 중국은 개인의 필요에 따라 비용을 투자하는 방향으로 이루어진다. 넷째, 한국은 평생학습도시를 지정하여 시민의 학습기회와 역량개발, 동아리 양성 등의 교육프로그램을 중심으로 운영하고 있다. 그러나 중국은 아직까지 직업획득 중심으로 개인의 필요에 의한 투자개념의 교육프로그램을 운영하고 있다는 점이다. 시사점으로는 첫째, 한국의 평생교육정책은 상위하달식 구조이나 중국은 하위상달식 구조로 나타난다. 둘째, 평생학습을 통한 기술인력 양성은 상업 중심으로 이루어지고 있다는 점이다. 셋째, 중국의 민간중심의 인력양성 시스템은 효율성과 삶의 질 향상 측면에서 크게 기여하지 못하고 있다. 넷째, 중국은 평생학습이 개인의 경제활동을 위한 목적이 뚜렷하므로 효율성과 효과성이 높다.BR 가치: 이 연구는 중국의 평생교육 발전과정을 탐색함으로서 한국의 평생교육의 성찰을 통해 현재 평생교육 정책의 문제점을 검토하고, 수정함으로서 실패를 줄이는데 기여할 수 있다.

Investigating general and specific links from adolescents’ perceptions of ecological assets to their civic actions

ABSTRACTCivic engagement is an important marker of thriving among adolescents, and more research is needed that clarifies the ecological assets (positive supports across settings) that foster youth civic engagement. Simultaneously modeling associations between multiple ecological assets and civic behaviors can provide a nuanced view of the way adolescents’ ecological assets relate to distinct forms of civic engagement. To advance positive youth development theory, we used a bifactor modeling approach to examine general and specific ecological asset factors in relation to volunteering, conventional political, online political, and informal helping behaviors. In a large ethnically diverse sample of adolescents, the general ecological asset factor was positively associated with informal helping only. Classroom civic learning opportunities were positively associated with volunteering, conventional, and online political behaviors. Family political discussions were positively associated with conventional and online political behaviors. Our study suggests that civic engagement should be understood multidimensionally and that broad and specific ways of conceptualizing ecological assets have merit for understanding different types of youth civic engagement.

“It's Already Happening”: Learning from Civically Engaged Transnational Immigrant Youth

Background/ContextThis essay is part of a special issue that emerges from a year-long faculty seminar at Teachers College, Columbia University. The seminar's purpose has been to examine in fresh terms the nexus of globalization, education, and citizenship. Participants come from diverse fields of research and practice, among them art education, comparative education, curriculum and teaching, language studies, philosophy of education, social studies, and technology. They bring to the table different scholarly frameworks drawn from the social sciences and humanities. They accepted invitations to participate because of their respective research interests, all of which touch on education in a globalized world. They were also intrigued by an all-too-rare opportunity to study in seminar conditions with colleagues from different fields, with whom they might otherwise never interact given the harried conditions of university life today. Participants found the seminar generative in terms of ideas about globalization, education, and citizenship. Participants also appreciated what, for them, became a novel and rich occasion for professional and personal growth.Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of StudyThe goal of this paper is to open up a dialogic space where educators can learn from and with transnational immigrant youth who are already participating in civic learning opportunities as local and global citizens in and beyond the sphere of schools. Drawing on data from two qualitative research studies, I discuss the global lifestyle and civic engagement of Kwame, one transnational immigrant youth, who lives in New York and maintains close ties to Africa. The relationship between his transnational immigrant identity and civic engagement provide insights into how he is constructing, negotiating, and contesting citizenship norms, K–16 civic learning opportunities, and new technologies of civic engagement for the betterment of diverse democratic societies.Conclusion/RecommendationsThe author argues that, in the midst of contentious debates on immigration and (mis) representations of immigrants in the media, dialogic spaces between and among educators and transnational immigrant youth can be created to grapple with notions of globalization, education, and citizenship. Moreover, as schools also serve as public civic space, educators can focus on engaging transnational immigrant youth's daily experiences and knowledge in the curriculum. In so doing, the curriculum opens up opportunities for teachers and students to dialogue and learn about what is already happening with youth to further encourage, motivate, and sustain youth's civic engagement at local, national, and global levels. Such learning carries the potential of a diverse action-oriented educated citizenry committed to human rights in a globalized world.

Young citizens and civic learning: two paradigms of citizenship in the digital age

How can civic education keep pace with changing political identifications and practices of new generations of citizens? This paper examines research on school-based civic education in different post-industrial democracies with the aim of deriving a set of core learning categories that offer a starting point for thinking about how to address changing citizen identity styles and learning opportunities in various online and offline environments. The preponderance of school-based civic education programs reflects traditional paradigms of dutiful citizenship (DC) oriented to government through parties and voting, with citizens forming attentive publics who follow events in the news. The authors expand upon these conventional learning categories by identifying additional civic learning opportunities that reflect more self-actualizing (AC) styles of civic participation common among recent generations of youth who have been termed digital natives. Their AC learning styles favor interactive, networked activities often communicated through participatory media such as videos shared across online networks. The result is an expanded set of learning categories that recognize the value of different citizenship styles and emerging online environments that may supplement or supplant school civics.

Developing Citizens: The Impact of Civic Learning Opportunities on Students’ Commitment to Civic Participation

This study of 4,057 students from 52 high schools in Chicago finds that a set of specific kinds of civic learning opportunities fosters notable improvements in students’ commitments to civic participation. The study controls for demographic factors, preexisting civic commitments, and academic test scores. Prior large-scale studies that found limited impact from school-based civic education often did not focus on the content and style of the curriculum and instruction. Discussing civic and political issues with one’s parents, extracurricular activities other than sports, and living in a civically responsive neighborhood also appear to meaningfully support this goal. Other school characteristics appear less influential.