Youth Participatory Action Research for a New Political Knowledge

• In Event: The Role of Education in Civic Engagement

Abstract

Political knowledge is central to navigating political pluralism. Youth in the United States have earned a reputation for holding low levels of political knowledge, an observed outcome that has largely been insufficiently disaggregated or redefined in recent scholarship. This paper argues this perception is limited by the ways we measure and define knowledge and outlines the process and results of a civic youth participatory action research (PAR) project that engages with diverse high school students from urban and suburban high schools in the Philadelphia region. Together, we build a new battery of political knowledge survey questions that reflect what knowledge and dispositions young people believe is necessary to navigating political participation in the 21st century. Students administer this survey to peers, using block randomization to incorporate more formal political knowledge questions. Students who do not receive formal political knowledge questions or encounter them after youth-created measures earn higher scores as ‘more knowledgeable’. Further, white students and students from higher-wealth communities earn higher marks on formal knowledge (e.g., questions about Congress), while Black students and students from lower-wealth communities in the sample earn higher marks on local political and policy knowledge. While this paper does not argue that all knowledge is equivalent in its potential to help young people be civically engaged and informed, it underscores the importance of centering voices from demographics not typically valued as the most politically knowledgeable and calls for a new approach to political education through civic engagement.

Author

• Abigail Dym, University of Pennsylvania