Impacts and Issues in P-20 Civic Engagement Education Partnerships

• In Event: TLC at APSA: Diversity & Inclusiveness: Teaching and Reaching All Students

Abstract

Many P-20 civic engagement education initiatives are opportunities which allow more privileged college students to help less privileged students in K-12 education. In contrast, the Towson University-Baltimore County Public Schools Model United Nations conference is a program which brings together students in K-12 programs and at the university from similar and different socio-economic backgrounds to pursue mutual learning goals. For civic engagement to be successful in its goals of building the skills, knowledge, values, and efficacy for active, lifelong citizen participation, it must reach all students at all levels and socio-economic statuses to build a ladder of civic learning experiences that engenders a democracy in which everyone can effectively and positively participate. However, as a discipline, we are still developing a wide variety of effective civic engagement education opportunities within the collegiate level and between the collegiate level and K-12 partners which are accessible to students regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds. As we do so, we need to avoid past mistakes and create and support effective partnerships that achieve learning goals for all students. This paper provides an example of one such P-20 civic engagement education partnership and 10 years of quantitative and qualitative data from both institutions to explore where we are on the questions of: who exactly are we helping? Which learning goals are we achieving or not and how? What changes are needed in order to maximize our program and build lifelong citizens?

Author

• Alison Rios Millett McCartney, Towson University