16.055 - Salvaging Civic Education: Powerful Teaching and Learning to Address the Civic Opportunity Gap

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session provides four perspectives on varied curricular practices aimed at fostering civic engagement among young people: an action civics curriculum among underserved youth, youth participatory action research programs in teacher preparation, civics coursework for developing “powerful knowledge,” and approaches to teaching and learning about economic inequality in high schools. This set of work, conducted by scholars in political science and in education, is based on both quantitative and qualitative data sources, national samples of social studies teachers, longitudinal surveys of students, teacher interviews, student focus groups, classroom observations, and cross-sectional surveys of middle school students. This symposium considers the vital question of how to renew meaningful civic learning for all students in the face of a narrowing curriculum.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Social Studies Research

Chair

• Hilary Gehlbach Conklin, DePaul University

Papers

• Having a Voice and Lending an Ear: Student Learning From an Action Civics Curriculum - Molly W. Andolina, DePaul University; Hilary Gehlbach Conklin, DePaul University

• Confronting the Civic Opportunity Gap: Integrating Action Research With Youth Into Preservice Teacher Education - Beth C. Rubin, Rutgers University; Thea R. Abuel-Haj, Rutgers University; Eliot Graham, University of Montana - Missoula; Kevin Lowell Clay, Rutgers University

• Powerful Knowledge in Action: The Role of Civics Coursework in Supporting Civic Engagement - Jane C Lo, Florida State University

• Just Economics? A Mixed-Methods Study Examining Whether and How Social Studies Teachers Address Economic Inequality - John S. Rogers, University of California - Los Angeles; Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa

Discussant

• Meira Levinson, Harvard University