Making Civics: Active Learning for Political Efficacy and Trust

• In Event: Racial Equity, Justice, and Democratic Education in the United States

Abstract

Civic education is the primary formal opportunity for students to develop the knowledge, skills,
and dispositions needed for democratic life. However, civics courses are often inadequate and
unjust because they teach and assess knowledge of a narrow set of political facts irrelevant to the
lives of many young people, particularly students from race-class subjugated communities who
experience politics in distinct ways from their white, more resourced peers. This paper tests the
impact of active learning classrooms where youth are positioned as expert policymakers tasked
with creating a new civics. Randomization (n=23) of 12 students to this control and 11 to a
traditional classroom treatment group show active learning may promote higher levels of self-efficacy and trust in the governing process.

Author

• Abigail Dym, Providence College