Global Civic Engagement Education: Ideas, Directions, and Calls for Action

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

A thriving and peaceful democracy requires an informed and engaged citizenry, but such citizenship must be learned. Declining rates of civic and political knowledge and engagement among young adults across the world have sparked calls to action in the last twenty years or so as well as a strengthening commitment to teaching the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to sustain a democracy. Educators around the globe are faced with challenges in teaching politics in an era in which populist values are on the rise, authoritarian governance is legitimized, and core democratic tenets are regularly questioned and undermined by leaders and citizens alike. To combat anti-democratic outcomes and citizens’ apathy, educators need a wider range of pedagogical tools to help the current generation learn to effectively navigate and lead debates and changes in local, national, and global political issues, policies, and systems.

In this panel, participants review the overall situation of civic engagement education across disciplines around the world and recommend next steps to advance the scholarship of teaching civic engagement around the globe. Attention will be paid to civic engagement in established democracies as well as establishing democracies. The panel is composed of a selection of authors from the APSA publication Teaching Civic Engagement Globally (2021).

Sub Unit

• Division 10: Political Science Education

Cosponsor

• Division 58: Civic Engagement

Individual Presentations

• Stop Training Political Hobbyists! Citizens via Trans-National Women’s Activism - J. Cherie Strachan, Virginia Commonwealth University; Lori Poloni-Staudinger, Northern Arizona University; Candice D. Ortbals, Abilene Christian University

• Importing Civic Education into Authoritarian China - Taiyi Sun, Christopher Newport University

• Appraising Civic Education in the Secondary School Curriculum of Mauritius - Sheetal Sheena Sookrajowa, University of Mauritius

• My Participation is Often Dismissed: Youth Experts in Societal Change Processes - Niina Meriläinen, Tampere Univeristy

Chair

• Alasdair Blair De Montfort University

Discussants

• Elizabeth A. Bennion Indiana University South Bend

• Dmitry Lanko St. Petersburg State University