Young Children's Persistence in Civic Action

• In Event: 34.071 - Rethinking Civic Action as Embodied and Child-Driven in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

Scholars have argued that civic education should have students focus on solving real-world issues, often done through service-learning curriculum or community service activities (Kahne & Westheimer, 2006; Ohn & Wade, 2009). Yet for young children, civic education often comes in the form of social-emotional lesson plans about feelings or community helpers.  These lessons deny children the ability to embody persistence, a skill that is exercised not taught (Tizard & Hughes, 2008). Focusing on civics as lessons or simplistic activities may not give students an understanding of how to use persistence in civic matters. Furthermore, formally constructing civic experiences underestimates children’s capabilities for civic action.

We explore young children’s capabilities as they respond to challenging tasks or issues in their classroom community. We look specifically at examples of persistence as an embodied civic capability children use when given agency in their everyday schooling lives. We argue that rather than learning through formally constructed civic learning experiences, young children work for and with their community in everyday ways (Author, 2018), engaging in civic action to solve problems or build community.

This paper is part of the larger Blinded Study project, an international comparative ethnographic study of young children’s civic action in preschool. Data for this paper comes from four Head Start classrooms in two U.S. preschools.  We draw on ethnographic data including field notes, photographs, and films from four classrooms. We spent over 500 hours observing and documenting children’s civic actions, defined as working on behalf of the community.  To analyze the data, we first open-coded the data, then engaged in constant comparative analysis to build consensus on core themes. As we narrowed themes, we noted characteristics of children’s civic action, including persistence.  We then compared and contrasted examples to create a subset of themes around children’s capabilities in responding to challenges.

Using Guinier and Torres’s (2009) idea of power-with, which they describe as, “the psychologic and social power gained through collective resistance and struggle” (p. 141), we demonstrate how young children use persistence as power in their collective resistance and struggle. We position young children as capable civic actors who learn through trying out ideas, strategies, and questions (Gopnik, Meltzoff, & Kuhl, 2000).  We found persistence was an important element of children’s civic action. We learned that persistence is sometimes about resistance but is more often about belonging and a desire to contribute to the larger community. Young children demonstrated the capability to persevere in working on behalf of the community. Children tried multiple solutions, with individuals abandoning their own strategy when another child’s strategy was more effective. Children practiced civic action in collective ways even when they failed to solve the problem or meet their goal.

These findings suggest the importance of stepping back and allowing young children to work on behalf of their community.  In doing so, they can maintain civic capabilities they already have (such as persistence) and refine strategies. These findings also support research about embracing the complexity of authentic civic action, including acknowledging ways students learn from their failures.

Authors

• Anna Falkner, University of Memphis

• Jennifer Keys Adair, The University of Texas at Austin