In School for After School: The Relationship Between Extracurricular Participation and School Engagement

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 20. K-12 Interventions and Academic Achievement

Abstract

School engagement is a predictor of academic achievement and attainment, and the social structures shaping students' opportunities to learn influence their levels of school engagement. Engagement is typically divided into three distinct but mutually-reinforcing categories: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional. A large body of literature has established a positive relationship between behavioral engagement and academic outcomes. However, little work has been done to detail the mechanisms linking behavioral engagement to improved academic performance. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with two debate teams in Chicago Public Schools, I demonstrate that behavioral engagement in the form of participation in interscholastic debate contributes to cognitive and emotional school engagement, which together promote academic achievement and attainment. Specifically, I document the ways in which debate team participation can strengthen peer relationships among students (emotional engagement), strengthen relationships between students and adults in school (emotional engagement), and influence participants' beliefs about the “student” role (cognitive engagement). I argue that debate participation can improve students' excitement about learning as a process, and promote a stronger of belonging in school via relationships-building. In other words, I show how behavioral engagement can produce cognitive and affective/emotional engagement, which all work in concert to boost academic outcomes. The findings presented in this paper can help inform diverse efforts to improve schools; regardless of the aims of education, students must be engaged in the process in order to reap its rewards. Here, I illustrate one avenue for promoting school engagement across multiple dimensions of the construct.

Author

• Karlyn Gorski, University of Chicago