Poster #22 - Youth Civic Action Across the United States: Projects, Priorities, and Approaches

• In Event: 63.088 - MTCC Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: 63.088-4 - Democratic Citizenship in Education Poster Session

Abstract

Civic engagement is a cornerstone of democracy, and schools seek to prepare students for civic life. We document the civic action projects (n=1651) of urban public school students in multiple U.S. metropolitan areas from 2012-2017 who have participated in school-based programming supported by Generation Citizen, an action civics program. The most common issues students tackled were related to safety and violence (23%) or schooling (21%). Over half of projects focused on issues in the local community. We find that youth are engaging as participatory citizens through collective, community-based efforts. Action civics can help overcome the “developmental mismatch” of secondary school settings and allow for youth autonomy and choice in decision-making around issues of importance.

Authors

• Elena Gustafson, University of California - Berkeley

• Alison Klebanoff Cohen, University of San Francisco

• Sarah Andes, Generation Citizen