Opportunities for Civic Engagement in K-8 Classrooms via Digital Media: Examples around the World

• In Event: Digital spaces for human rights, activism, and civic engagement

Proposal

Social media is a part of daily life for many people today all over the world. It is broadly defined as Web 2.0 tools that enable content and profile creation by users and online networking among users within the same platform (Obar & Wildman, 2015). Born into a world surrounded by digital tools (Montgomery, 2014), young children have more access to technology than ever before (OECD, 2019). Although researchers caution against the possible negative associations of increased social media use among children, studies have shown benefits of social media use for enhanced social connections, or social capital, (Anderson & Jiang, 2018; Ellison et al., 2007), academic achievement (Suhr et al., 2010; Tienken & Wilson, 2007), and civic engagement (Chapman & Greenhow, 2021).

Adler and Goggin define civic engagement as: “how an active citizen participates in the life of a community in order to improve conditions for others or to help shape the community's future” (2005, p. 241). Affordances of Web 2.0, such as sharing multimedia easily, creating personalized profiles, and interacting and collaborating with people around the world (Greenhow et al., 2009), enable civic engagement. There are studies about high schoolers’ and adults’ social media use and civic engagement, including studies focused on environmental issues (Pearson et al., 2016; Robelia et al., 2011), media literacy (Hobbs & Donnelly, 2013; Kahne & Bowyer, 2017), and civic participation (Chapman, 2019; Vromen et al., 2014). However, less attention has been given to the relationship between social media use and civic engagement practices among young learners, particularly elementary and middle school children (Montgomery, 2014). Therefore, this literature review synthesizes existing literature about elementary and middle school students’ civic engagement practices on digital media platforms to illuminate the state of the field, reveal the areas that need further research, and to suggest implications for practice which align with the theme of CIES and CANDE Calls for Proposals. Grounded in the frameworks of critical civic education for young children (Swalwell & Payne, 2019), the bioecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), and the three-dimensional space of civic growth (Hauver, 2019), the synthesis was guided by the following questions:

1) What common themes emerge in how social media are used for the civic engagement of elementary and middle school students?
2) What are the affordances or challenges of using social media in or out of school to support civic engagement practices among elementary and middle school students?

Method
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Standards, which outlines a step-wise review and reporting process, guided this review. There are four steps in the PRISMA standards: 1) identification of possible records, 2) screening of records, 3) assessment of article eligibility, and 4) application and refinement of inclusion and exclusion criteria (Moher et al., 2009).

Identification
I searched four major databases in education: ERIC (on EBSCO), ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Science. I used the following keywords to search: “civic engagement” OR “civic participation” OR “civic awareness” AND “social media” OR “social network” OR “media” AND “K-12” OR “elementary school” OR “middle school.” I searched for articles that had been published in peer-reviewed journals between 2010-2021. I will extend this search to 2025, which will bring more articles to review. Then, I will repeat and revise the next steps based on my latest search.

Screening
I screened 175 articles in this initial phase by looking at the title and abstract for each article. I applied three exclusion criteria to guide this initial elimination process of 119 articles: 1) articles were not empirical, 2) articles were published before 2010, or 3) articles did not focus on civic engagement, social media, and elementary or middle school students. Fifty-six articles deemed relevant to addressing the review questions were available for full-text review.

Eligibility
Next, I read fifty-six articles for eligibility. The specific criteria that guided inclusion in the final article set was:

1)Articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Articles that did not clearly explained any sections (e.g., research questions, method, discussion) were excluded. In addition to empirical research articles, two practice pieces were included that described the existing literature in a more extensive way.
2) Published within the last eleven years, including 2010. The field of social media research in education has grown rapidly in the last decade (Greenhow & Askari, 2017). To see the attention given to young children in this growing field, articles published in or after 2010 were searched.
3)Relevancy to the topic. Articles focusing on civic engagement and social media practices of elementary school or middle school students were selected. Studies were not limited to in-class activities of children as long as they concentrated on digital media and civic engagement.

Inclusion
Eleven articles were included in the final dataset. Forty-five of fifty-six articles were excluded because they were found in more than one databases and not concentrating on primary or middle school students, digital media, or civic engagement.

Findings
The initial full-text review yielded eleven articles for analysis, including nine empirical studies, one literature review, and one conceptual paper. Empirical studies were conducted around the world, including Argentina, Denmark, Jamaica, the US, Portugal, and five Asian cities (Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, and Tokyo). The US had the highest number of studies, followed by one study in each country. Of the empirical articles, six studies implemented qualitative methods, two used quantitative methods, and one adopted mixed methods.

The themes stemming from this review of eleven articles based on the guiding questions are: 1) themes in how social media are used for civic engagement among elementary and middle school students (Chapman & Marich, 2020; Krutka, 2017; Lin et al., 2010; Marques et al., 2020; Mathews, 2016; Mihailidis, 2020; Montgomery, 2014; Porto, 2016; Schmier, 2019) and 2) themes in the affordances and challenges of using social media have for civic engagement practices (Greenhow & Chapman, 2020; Gleason & Von Gillern, 2018). Detailed findings and their contributions will be presented.

Author

• Betul Demiray Sandiraz, Michigan State University