Action Civics in Rural Communities

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Innovations in Teaching and Learning in Rural Schools and Communities

Abstract

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 14.6 million children in the United States attend public schools in rural areas (McFarland et al., 2019). To understand how students in rural communities conceptualize and pursue civic life, we worked through a week-long action civics curriculum with two fifth grade classrooms in a rural community. We looked to Baiocchi, Bennett, Cordner, Klein, and Savell’s (2014) concept of the civic imagination to analyze rural students’ beliefs about themselves as citizens as they engaged in an action civics inquiry model of learning. Furthermore, we considered the ways in which students’ civic knowledge, attitudes, and dispositions changed as a result of completing an action civics inquiry cycle.

Authors

• Karon Nicol LeCompte, Baylor University

• Brooke Blevins, Baylor University

• Kevin Russel Magill, Baylor University

• Tori Smith, University of Alabama

• Nate Scholten, Baylor University

• Kenley Bailey Ritter, Baylor University