We All Have Stories That Are Meaningful: Critical Civic Engagement in an Urban Classroom

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Civics; Citizenship Education; Citizen Participation; Urban Schools; High School Students; Program Implementation; Advanced Placement; United States Government (Course); Cooperative Learning; Urban Education

Critical civic engagement is a pedagogical framework that suggests a return of civic education to American schooling is not simply about providing civics for all students, but that civic education, particularly among marginalized urban high school students, must engage lived experiences, develop critical thought, and facilitate informed civic action. The author proposes that implementation of a critical civic engagement framework can lead to important outcomes in students' civic identity development. Using teacher interviews, classroom observations, and a student focus group in a diverse urban high school, this blended phenomenological/instrumental case study in an AP Government classroom examined how a teacher enacted and experienced critical civic engagement pedagogy and how her students experienced the learning process. The author found evidence that the teacher found renewal in her practice and, as students engaged in issues that are important to them and their families, critically examined political systems, and acted purposefully in collaboration with their peers, experienced growth in their sense of civic identity, purpose, and political efficacy.

As Provided

2021

EJ1317515