Child-Driven Civics: A Framework to Recognize the Everyday Civic Action of Young Children

• In Event: (Re)Defining Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom

Abstract

Schools as institutions bring together children from varied private spheres and are therefore seen as ideal spaces for civic education. Yet, how do we attend to the knowledge and ways of being civic that children embody in their everyday lived experiences as they negotiate what it means to live together at school? Analyzing data from a year-long video-cued ethnography, this study argues for a child-driven version of civics. We draw on observations, informal interviews, and focus groups with four Head Start classrooms to present a framework of fourteen civic actions that typified how young children acted with and on behalf of their community.

Authors

• Katherina A. Payne, The University of Texas at Austin

• Anna Falkner, University of Memphis

• Jennifer Keys Adair, The University of Texas at Austin