Adolescents Developing Identities as Citizens: Simulations and Role-Play in a Civics Classroom

• In Event: 29.083 - New Directions in Research on Civic Knowledge and Practice

Abstract

The civic-educational practices of simulation and role-play have been linked to students’ political knowledge and their commitments to political participation in the future (e.g. Kahne & Middaugh, 2008; Torney-Purta, 2002; Torney-Purta, Amadeo, & Richardson, 2007). However, little is known about why these practices might promote youth political engagement. González, Moll, and Amanti (2005) indicate that employing real-world simulations can stimulate learning by connecting disciplinary practices to students’ funds of knowledge and outside interests. Further, Nasir and Hand (2008) argue that learners’ practice-linked identities are developed through opportunities to take on integral roles within a domain of learning and express themselves through those roles. This paper asserts that simulations and role-play may offer students access to the political domain and opportunities to express and reflect on their beliefs and positions within it.

This paper examines three purposively sampled case studies of students in a US Government class that utilizes simulations and role-play as authentic learning experiences. The first case follows a student who expressed strong interest in political issues before the course began. The second case follows a student who is a part of student government, but who expressed neutral interest in political issues before the course. The last case follows a student who expressed low interest in political issues before the course. Data sources include three sets of interviews with each participant throughout the course, with classroom observations and questionnaires to triangulate findings. The researcher used both open and analytic coding to interpret interview transcripts and analyzed individual cases separately before conducting cross-case analysis to find common patterns and distinct differences (Stake, 2005).

The analysis reveals three initial findings. First, role-play helped students engage with various perspectives on political issues, regardless of their initial interest in politics. The roles challenged students’ thinking about political issues and expanded the complexity of that thinking. Second, authentic simulations facilitated students’ engagement with the domain, bridging classroom participation with how they might participate in politics in real life. Last, simulations and role-play promoted substantive learning about issues that the students previously had ignored or thought unimportant. This paper provides insights into how a civics curriculum that is situated in authentic learning experiences might help students develop practice-linked identities as citizens, to draw from Nasir and Hand’s (2008) framework. The implications of using an identity framework to study the political learning of youth are discussed.

Author

• Jane C Lo, Florida State University