More Than Picking Up Trash: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study on Action Civics

• In Event: New Uses and Settings for Mixed- and Multimethod Research

Abstract

Action civics is one model for the teaching and learning of citizenship that has the potential to
counter existing problems in citizenship education and to empower students by inviting them to take on more active civic dispositions. The purpose of this explanatory mixed-methods study is to add to scholarship on action civics by examining and describing student movement across a civic engagement typology created by Westheimer and Kahne (2004) after completing an action civics cycle. Three primary themes emerged from our qualitative cross case analysis: appropriation of language from the camp curricular frameworks, an emphasis on collective action, and envisioning oneself as capable of enacting change.

Authors

• Kenley Bailey Ritter, Baylor University

• Tori Smith, University of Alabama

• Nate Scholten, Baylor University

• Tony Lee Talbert, Baylor University

• Brooke Blevins, Baylor University

• Kevin Russel Magill, Baylor University

• Karon Nicol LeCompte, Baylor University