Youth Cultivating Civic Capacities Through Public Achievement Programs: A Collaborative Ethnographic Study of Opportunities for Learning

• In Event: Roundtable Session 96
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Multiple Discursive Contexts for Learning

Abstract

Public Achievement (PA) is a civic engagement curriculum used in school and youth organizations settings across the US and internationally. For three years, we have engaged in collaborative ethnographic and sociolinguistic research to examine in-depth the implementation of six PA projects in one university-community partnership that serves youth from marginalized communities. Specifically, we examine how participants have 1) constructed the PA curriculum across contexts, and, through that process, 2) constructed particular opportunities for learning regarding civic engagement and democratic participation. We also examine how opportunities for cultivating civic capacities as critical citizens were supported and constrained. Pertaining to the AERA theme, we discuss the value of collaborative ethnographic research for contributing both to ongoing program development and to scholarship.

Authors

• Louise B. Jennings, Colorado State University

• Carolyn Ann Brunson, Colorado State University

• Margit Hentschel, Colorado State University