Imagining More Just Civic Futures (Poster 1)

• In Event: Research for Remedy: Supporting Civic Literacy Development

Abstract

Traditional civics education efforts have historically struggled to incorporate the ideas, concerns, and experiences of young people (Banks, 2017; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004), yet youth have demonstrated interest in and ability to grapple with pressing social issues (Duncan, 2023; Rubin & Hayes, 2010). Unfortunately, schooling conventions, including curricular standards and textbooks, typically constrain how educators engage with youth around the issues they care about (Garcia & Morrell; 2022; Wray‐Lake, & Abrams, 2020). In response, speculative framings have emerged to encourage educators to challenge these norms and speak back to deficit framings (Mirra & Garcia, 2022; Sinclair et al. 2023) positioning youth as agents of change. Here, we present one implemented example from Fall 2023 learning design for imagining better futures (Mirra & Garcia, 2023). We introduced a semester-long community-based inquiry project using digital storytelling tools to support civic engagement and learning in a 7th grade civics class.
Across the term, we modeled for students how to address civic issues from a past and present perspective, before thinking about future changes. For example, we examined trash in the local community which students self-identified as a pressing civic issue. Students learned about local landfills historically being located outside of the city, but discovered recent growth meant and some homes were now very close to a big landfill. We shared a news article about a local incinerator catching on fire, impacting trash disposal, and had students consider approaches for a more socially responsible, just and sustainable way of dealing with trash. Following the in-class modeling, we asked students to speculate a more just social future at their school for homework, which we report on here. We inventoried students’ collective responses (n=19) which we grouped thematically into three overarching categories: safety, academic support, and well-being. Specifically, students’ identified current barriers to allow easier pathways for better school futures, such as opening space to let “students do more things to learn” and helping students get to school “safer and easier, and faster” envisioning a better space for parents dropping off and picking up their children, more parking for students and teachers who drove to the school, and a better place to secure bicycles. As pedagogical implication, we posit potential topics or contexts to get students engaged in speculative imagining that can be simple and familiar. We further found purposeful and intentional scaffolding across assignments can deepen students’ speculative imagining skills.

Author

• Matthew R. Deroo, Florida International University