"You've Gotta Know About Your Neighborhood": Youth Perceptions of a Place-Based Action Civics Curriculum

• In Event: Youth Development and Civic Education

Abstract

This paper details qualitative findings from the first year of a longitudinal, quasi-experimental mixed methods study of Design Your Neighborhood (DYN), a place-based action civics education initiative that engages urban middle school youth in addressing community issues through planning and design of the built environment. Data was collected through focus groups with a sample of 117 middle school students from a large urban school district who had participated in the DYN curriculum in their classrooms. Findings reveal that youth gained critical awareness of local civic issues and felt compelled to educate others in order to create change, but struggled to identify strategies to address these issues independently. Implications for implementation and evaluation of place-based action civics are discussed.

Authors

• Katy Morgan, Vanderbilt University

• Brian D. Christens, Vanderbilt University