Developing Participation through Simulations: A Multi-Level Analysis of Situational Interest on Students’ Commitment to Vote

Lo, Jane C.

doi:10.1016/j.jssr.2015.06.008

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…However, the cases do suggest that exposing students to civics in middle school is a good idea because students tend to be engaged in the course and enjoy learning about their rights as citizens. Moreover, the course does help students obtain more civic knowledge, which helps them become more interested in politics, confirming prior findings about the relationship between knowledge and interest (e.g., Delli Carpini & Keeter, 1996;Lipstein & Renninger, 2006;Lo, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Requiring Civics Then and Now: Potentials and Pitfalls of Mandated Civics Curriculum

Kisa

2021

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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Background In recent years, the United States has seen a resurgence in calls for mandating civics coursework across the country. For decades, scholars have identified classroom practices that help make civics courses more impactful to students’ civic engagement and knowledge. As more civics courses are required of young people, one begins to wonder if these courses include the kinds of curricular goals and pedagogical practices that can support students’ understanding of politics and promote their engagement with the system. Purpose With increasing calls for mandating middle school civics coursework across the country, it becomes necessary to better understand what happens in these courses. To gain insights into a mandated civics curriculum, the study presented in this article examined students’ experiences in a mandated middle school civics course and how the course influenced students’ civic knowledge and engagement outcomes. Research Design We used a fully mixed concurrent triangulation design to develop a robust understanding of how a mandated middle school civics course was implemented. We collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously to confirm, cross-validate, and corroborate findings. The qualitative portion of the study looked to understand quantitative trends by examining these relationships through in-depth interviews and classroom observations. Findings Three takeaways were elucidated by analysis of data: 1. Students’ experience of a mandated civics course varied a great deal between the two cases explored in this study; 2. these differences were instigated by the academic pressures associated with an end-of-course exam; yet 3. certain kinds of civics instruction have the potential to promote some desired civic outcomes in middle school. These findings suggest that middle school civics has the potential to promote students’ developing civic knowledge, interest, and engagement. However, these findings hint at a troubling civic inequality that exists as early as middle school. Conclusions Our study found that middle school is a good time to introduce students to civics content because they seem to have fairly positive attitude toward civic-mindedness. At the same time, we found that the civic opportunity gap can manifest as early as the middle grades. Specifically, these inequalities are exacerbated by the existence of a high-stakes end-of-course exam, which negatively impacts students who are already considered low academic performers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Requiring Civics Then and Now: Potentials and Pitfalls of Mandated Civics Curriculum

Kisa

2021

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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“…The research question is: How do young people construct their political space and what are possible risks and vulnerabilities in having a voice, but not a vote? Lo () argues that if the goal of education is to ‘create politically engaged citizens, it is important to gauge whether pupils would actually engage with the governmental system in the future, [and not] continue to skirt traditional political actions’ (Lo, , p. 245).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Voice, but not a Vote: A Youth Generation at Risk?

Borge¹,

Mochmann

2019

Children & Society

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The aim of this paper is to address risks young people in the late 20th and 21st century are exposed to with regard to political participation. Based on qualitative data and ordinary language interviews with 27 Norwegian pupils in upper secondary school, we address how the construction of the political space is understood by young people themselves. By analysing how young people define political interest and engagement, the findings indicate that a gap exists in the perception of ‘own’ and ‘institutionalised’ political participation. This paper concludes that exploring the understanding of politics among the young may reduce vulnerability of this particular group in their democratic participation as well as facilitate their political empowerment.

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