Civics Education in the Classroom and Community
Civics Education in the Classroom and Community
Civics education must happen in school, as well as other community-rooted institutions.
By Andrew Wilkes, Director of Policy and Advocacy
Civics education must happen in schools. But it can, and must, also happen in community centers, congregations, labor unions, and other membership-driven organizations. One way to define civics education is to focus on the development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to constructively participate in democracy. Assuredly, much of this work occurs in classrooms across the nation. High school classes in U.S. government, courses which promote a student-led, project based approach to policy change, participatory budgeting in schools — all of these activities, notwithstanding some differences, are forms of school-based civics education.
Alongside school-based civics education, however, lies what we might call community-rooted civics education. These two forms of civics education are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary approaches to preparing individuals to participate in our democracy. For many Americans, sanctuaries, workplaces, and assembly halls are the sites where the art of political debate is learned, organizing campaigns are planned, and lasting coalitions are built. These areas provide a sort of popular education in the practice of participatory democracy. The legacy of Septima Clark is instructive in this regard. Clark trained hundreds of Civil Rights activists through a grassroots citizenship education program at Tennessee’s Highlander school, eventually transitioning her work to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Alumni of Septima Clark’s citizenship education program constituted much of the first wave of post-Reconstruction, political leadership among African-Americans in the South.
My introduction to civics education mirrors the above-mentioned link between school-based and community-based civics education. In middle and high-school, my school offered social studies and government courses that were cognitively engaging but less ambitious — and less successful — in engaging my entire personality in the learning process. By engaging my entire personality, I mean that the experiential component — how does civics work in everyday life? — was missing. It wasn’t until college that I discovered such an experience. During the summer after my sophomore year at Hampton University, I taught at what was then Atlanta’s first Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom School. Based on the tradition of Mississippi Freedom Schools, the CDF Freedom School is a summer intensive in cultural and classroom-based education which seeks to instill academic achievement and civic commitment among low-income students of color. After a process of training and professional development, I had the distinct joy of teaching, and learning from, twelve second-grade African-American students. The classes covered CDF’s integrated reading curriculum — a series of lessons focusing on the themes of youth making a difference in their own lives, families, communities, nation, and world. Those experiences helped forge a culturally-rooted sense of civic resilience, skill, and knowledge in not only students, but also in me and my teacher colleagues, program administrators, and wider stakeholders of the program.
In my current capacity as Generation Citizen’s national Director of Policy and Advocacy, I look back on that experience and recognize that many forms of community-based civics education are Action Civics-adjacent forms of equipping young people for a lifetime of civic engagement. To strengthen participation in our democracy, we need a full continuum approach to civics education that highlights the importance of both school-based and community-based approaches. Nothing less, and perhaps nothing else, will adequately prepare a generation of young people to assume the opportunities and obligations of citizenship in our society.
Generation Citizen is a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 tax exempt organization which does not endorse candidates; our goal is to engage our staff, participants, and stakeholders in political and civic action on issues that matter to them personally and in their communities. The opinions expressed in this blog post are those of the writer alone and do not reflect the opinions of Generation Citizen.
I am a teacher and my English classes are beginning a problem- based learning project that will culminate in June. It is basically a Semester and a quarter project where students explore several problems they are interested in learning more about, select one problem to tackle in groups of 2-4 that they are passionate about and develop a solution to the problem to present at a school-wise expo in June. Students are encouraged to select Global, National or Community problems that most interest them. They are required to research to identify the root causes of their selected problem and develop a plan of action to tackle the problem they are attempting to solve. Student also explore Global Citizen.org to explore problems around the world and what steps people are currently taking to solve problems that interest them. We encourage students to join Globsl Citizen.org and speak take action in the form of signing petitions, sending tweets and sending emails using the GlobalCitizen.org platform. This helps students develop ideas for how action steps they can take to propose a solution to the problems they are working on solving. Do you have any advice or resources you can share with me to help my students complete this project or to help me improve how I teach this project?
Any and all feedback is welcome! It would be great to see students actually try to impliment some of the solutions they develop. In each class, students are working on 5-8 different topics of interest locally, nationally or globally. Students who pick Global Issues have a difficult time implimenting their plans, but I feel that students should be able to choose and pursue what is most stimulating to them. We live in a Global World and we are all part of a community of “Citizens Worldwide” – that was the name students came up with for their Expo last year.
This year, I am hopeful that students will do more action research and get more support from organizations related to their selected topics.
I look forward to receiving and materials or advice on taking this prohect to the next level.
Grateful for Your Help,
Danielle K.
Our English classes are beginning a problem- based learning project that will culminate in June. It is basically a Semester and a quarter project where students explore several problems they are interested in learning more about, select one problem to tackle in groups of 2-4 that they are passionate about and develop a solution to the problem to present at a school-wide expo in June.
Students are encouraged to select Global, National or Community problems that most interests them. Students are required to research and identify the root causes of their selected problem and develop a plan of action to tackle the problem they are attempting to solve. Student also explore Global Citizen.org to explore problems around the world and what steps people are currently taking to solve problems that interest them. We encourage students to join GlobalCitizen.org and speak out about causes that are important to them. Students can take action in the form of signing petitions, sending tweets and sending emails using the GlobalCitizen.org platform.
This helps students develop ideas for action steps they can take to propose a solution to the problem they are working on solving.
Do you have any advice or resources you can share with us to help our students complete this project or to help us improve how I teach this project?
Any and all feedback is welcome! It would be great to see students actually try to implement some of the solutions they develop. In each class, students are working on 5-8 different topics of interest locally, nationally or globally. Students who pick Global Issues have a difficult time implementing their plans, but I feel that students should be able to choose and pursue what is most stimulating to them. We live in a Global World and we are all part of a community of “Citizens Worldwide” – that was the name students came up with for their Expo last year.
This year, I am hopeful that students will do more action research and get more support from organizations related to their selected topics.
I look forward to receiving and materials or advice on taking this project to the next level.
Grateful for Your Help,
Danielle K.