Conceptions of Civic Engagement: Three Teachers’ Approaches to Active Citizenship

• In Event: Roundtable Session 101
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching Civics and Politics in the Social Studies Classroom

Abstract

Education for civic engagement includes encouraging students to acquire knowledge and practice skills needed for informed citizenship. Using extended interviews, this study examines how three practicing teachers conceive of this education in their social studies classrooms. The ways in which teacher responses converge and diverge from the “best methods” approach identified in literature allows insights into how education for civic engagement is actually implemented at the classroom level.

Author

• Alexander Pope, Teachers College, Columbia University