Civic Engagement in the Here and Now (Poster 4)

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

Abstract

In this poster presentation, I argue that we need civic practices in classrooms. In order to delineate civic practices in the context of classroom talk, I focus on analyzing the conversational moves in classroom discussions in order to highlight opportunities teachers can create for their classroom communities. My central research question is: What conversational moves does a teacher employ which create opportunities for the practice of civic engagement within the classroom? To answer this, I use reconstructive discourse analysis (Luke, 2004; Taylor & Hikida, 2023) to examine the discourse between students and teacher in a high school classroom, examining dialogue as a way for enacting a practice of civic engagement.
In Kurian’s classroom, civic engagement was facilitated by 1) the way he structured his curriculum/units of study 2) the texts they learned from and 3) the ways he facilitated classroom discussion and responded to student comments. Thus, we can talk about civic engagement in terms of both the content they were engaging with and the nature of the discussions. Kurian fostered civic engagement through discussion in two ways. Kurian positioned his students as capable practitioners of civic discourse by designing a curriculum in which their expertise was valued and creating a discursive space in the classroom where students could be themselves. Students did not have to make sure their contributions were correct or worded in a specific way before sharing; Kurian centered students’ ways of knowing, speaking, and being consistently in his curriculum as well as in classroom discussions. In fact, the kinds of language practices he encouraged that allowed students to participate could be done in any classroom as a civic practice, regardless of the content area. His classroom was a place where many kinds of contributions were welcomed, but still not a place where anything goes. Specific to his content objectives, he knew his students were capable of deep analysis, so he did not allow them to derail conversation with comments that he read as bad-faith distractions from their focus on social issues. In these ways, Kurian and his students were engaged in the practice of civics.
There are often tensions when it comes to fitting student-directed social justice projects into the confines of school curriculum, which tends to be more teacher-centered and linear. These tensions warrant more attention in order to help educators more deeply understand and more meaningfully implement such projects. One specific aspect of youth social justice projects that is not talked about enough is that there are often voices of skepticism and negativity mixed in with the agency and hope that are more commonly discussed in educational journals. In such projects, there is frequently at least one student who stands out because they question whether or not the project can truly make a difference in the world. In the few instances in which these critics are discussed in the literature, the teens’ skepticism and negativity are usually attributed to their lack of “buy-in” and framed as a problem to be fixed.

Author

• Karla M. Zaccor, Chicago Public Schools