The Action Civics Program Generation Citizen's Impact on Students, as Perceived by Student Participants

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: Media Integration in Social Studies Education

Abstract

Action civics is part of a suite of active, engaging civics education approaches that also includes guided experiential civics education and youth participatory action research. In this study, we evaluated one school-based action civics program, Generation Citizen, through systematically documenting youth participants’ reflections on their experience. (Many Generation Citizen classes are in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to this year’s AERA.) We found increased civic awareness and skills, but that there was still room for improvement in the area typically most difficult to change: behaviors. We connect our findings to research done by others and also make recommendations for improvements.

Authors

• Alison Klebanoff Cohen, University of California - San Francisco

• Yasmine Mahdavi, Generation Citizen

• Neha Zahid, University of California - Berkeley

• Peter McCormick Cipparone, The University of Michigan

• Sarah Andes, Generation Citizen