Civic Learning for Empowerment in Contexts of Disjuncture: Engaging Inequality and Conflict in U.S. Classrooms

• In Event: Negotiating Conflict and Belonging: Ethnographic Perspectives on Citizenship Education From the United States and Europe

Abstract

Objective:
In this paper, the co-authors take on the question of how to create meaningful contexts for citizenship education based upon nuanced understandings of civic identities forged amid settings of conflict where civic disjuncture and discouragement are the norms. Through a cross-cutting analysis of data from two ethnographic studies, the authors consider key questions related to civic education amid conflict:

• How do we design education for civic participation that engages students’ disjunctive experiences without denying them possibilities for engagement and empowerment?
• How can we create meaningful civic learning experiences for students who cannot change the structural inequalities/conditions (war, poverty, violence) of their lives?

Theoretical framework:
Citizenship education may be on the backburner in many US schools today; nevertheless, public schools are critical agents in educating youth for democratic participation. For young people from disenfranchised racial/ethnic or economic communities—communities that often have limited access to civic institutions—public schools play key roles in shaping citizenship and participation. Unfortunately, discourses embedded in dominant frameworks for citizenship education narrate a story of U.S. benevolence at home and abroad—a force for supporting individual freedom, equality, tolerance and political liberties within and across national borders. This narrative represents a disjuncture with the civic, cultural and social experiences of youth from marginalized communities (Abowitz & Harnish, 2006; Abu El-Haj, 2010; Levinson, 2007; Rubin & Hayes, 2010).


Methods and data:
Ethnographic research can provide a window into the experiences of participants in particular settings, practices and processes. This paper leverages the work of two ethnographers to create a multiple case study of civic learning for empowerment in settings of disjuncture.

In one study, the principal investigator worked with teachers in three public high schools to transform the curriculum and pedagogies of their U.S. history classrooms, following the efforts through extensive classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers. In the second study, the principal investigator conducted an ethnographic study with Palestinian American teenagers, observing them across school and community contexts, and conducting extensive interviews with students and teachers to track the ways that youth experienced citizenship and belonging in the post 9-11 era.


Findings:
Settings of “disjuncture,” where students perceive gaps between civic promises of security, inclusion, equality and justice and their daily experiences, can shape “discouraged” civic identities, but critical and creative engagement with civic issues youth face directly can move students toward an “empowered” stance. Through an analysis of findings from these two studies, the authors of this paper offer a two part framework for civic empowerment built on the practices of critical civic inquiry and creative civic expression.

Scholarly significance:
This work is significant for researchers and practitioners concerned with civic learning amid disjuncture. We need to move from documenting the shortcomings of current practices to forging and testing new models for civic learning that can engage students directly and constructive with the complexities of civic life.

Authors

• Beth C. Rubin, Rutgers University

• Thea R. Abuel-Haj, Rutgers University