Exploring the Civic Engagement Gap: Hispanic/Non-Hispanic Differences in Responses to Classroom Civic Engagement Interventions

• In Event: Strategies and Challenges of Teaching Diversity and Inclusion in the Classroom

Abstract

Based on analyses of a 2023 original quasi-experimental research, this paper studies the impact of classroom model community building in facilitating civic engagement among first-year university students. The research aims to better understand differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic student responses to civic engagement programs in higher education. The paper summarizes analyses of quantitative and qualitative survey data from a fall of 2023 original quasi-experimental research project, at a large public university. The paper investigates how active-learning programs in Introduction to American Politics courses facilitate stronger civic engagement among first year students, and why such efforts are often less successful with Hispanic students. We argue that these programs have been successful in engaging students politically because of their capacity to create model civic community in the classroom, but that Hispanic students experience this community differently, with a less impactful effect in terms of engaging them politically. More specifically, it is the involvement of students in peer-to-peer activity around these civic concerns that produces positive shifts in civic attitudes and behaviors, but the experience of the classroom community is mediated by students’ social, economic and cultural backgrounds.

Authors

• Scott J Spitzer, California State University, Fullerton

• Lori M. Weber, California State University, Chico