Becoming Change-Makers: How Social-Emotional Learning Can Enhance Agency Development in a Grade 8 Civics Curriculum

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: Social and Emotional Learning as Pedagogies to Support Care, Belonging, Agency, and Empathy (Table 17)

Abstract

To prepare students for active participation in a democratic society, scholars argue civic education should foster development of civic competencies, including agency. The cultivation of civically-oriented social and emotional learning (SEL) offers numerous potential benefits to this end. Through this multi-site case study, we analyze an 8th grade student-led civics curriculum piloted across Massachusetts to surface the active curricular ingredients that foster civic competencies. Specifically, we utilize an SEL framework to investigate how the pedagogical concept “the changemakers” supported development of civic agency. This study adds insights to growing evidence on the ways in which intentional SEL curriculum design and implementation can enhance student civic learning across socio-political populations.

Authors

• Tom Nachtigal, Stanford University
  Presenting Author

• Ariana Zetlin, University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lisa Utzinger Shen, N/A
  Non-Presenting Author