Higher Education Contexts and Practices Promoting the Civic Capacity of Diverse Students

• In Event: 43.025 - Exploring Civic Engagement in Postsecondary Education: Multimodal Perspectives From Diverse Students' Experiences

Abstract

One of the key functions of higher education is cultivating our engaged citizenry (Hurtado, 2007). Past literature has demonstrated that civic engagement in college influences future civic participation of students (Coley & Sum, 2012). However, limited research has explored the civic development of racial/ethnic minority students (Alcantar, 2014). The purpose of this study is to explore the institutional- and student-level characteristics that affect the development of students’ level of civic values after four years of college enrollment, especially for racially diverse college students.

This study is grounded in a Critical Quantitative (Stage, 2007) approach and conceptually guided by the Civic Learning Spiral model (Musil, 2009) and the Model for Diverse Learning Environments (DLE; Hurtado, Alvarez, Guillermo-Wann, Cuellar, & Arellano, 2012). The Civic Learning Spiral is composed of six elements: Self, Communities and Cultures, Knowledge, Skills, Values, and Public Action (Musil, 2009). Each element is intertwined within the model to foster, “lifelong engagement as an empowered, informed, and socially responsible citizen” (Musil, 2009, p. 59). For this study, I will specifically focus on civic values as a dependent variable as this may predict a lifelong commitment to civic engagement, and most aligned with the social agency construct found in the dataset I will be analyzing and has been used in past research on civic engagement using national datasets. Values is an individual’s personal value of promoting public good and “espousal of democratic aspirations of equality, opportunity, liberty, and justice for all” (Musil, 2009, p. 63). The DLE model takes into consideration the contextual factors which impact diverse students college experiences. This study includes institutional variables such as Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) designations.

This quantitative study utilized the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) dataset, a large longitudinal dataset that allowed for a multilevel analysis of college students (N = 18,800) nested in colleges (N = 335). The study draws data from two of their longitudinal surveys, the 2004 Freshman Survey (TFS) and the 2008 College Senior Survey (CSS). The TFS is administered during the first year of college and asks students about their high school experience, background, and aspirations during college. The CSS asks students about their college experience, views, current status, and future career and educational aspirations.

This study found differences in the factors that promote civic values based on race/ethnicity and institutional contexts. More specifically, various civic-related curricular and co-curricular college experiences and institutional contexts influenced the development of civic values of racial/ethnic minority students differently. For example, service learning, a proven curricular approach that promotes the civic values and engagement of students, negatively influenced the civic values of Latinx students as compared to White students. Additionally, Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) were particularly influential in promoting civic values of students.

The findings of this study will help higher education researchers and practitioners understand the factors that promote the development of civic values, as well as shed light on higher education institutions that develop the next generation of leaders and engaged citizens.

Author

• Cynthia Maribel Alcantar, Claremont University - Pitzer College