The Limits of Political Efficacy: Educating Citizens for
                                a Democratic Society

Kahne, Joseph; Westheimer, Joel

doi:10.1017/s1049096506060471

Cited by 189 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Accordingly, community service and service-learning have been positively associated with the subsequent importance assigned to helping other people (Serow 1991;Scales et al 2000;Kahne and Westheimer 2006), community involvement (Johnson et al 1998;Kahne and Sporte 2008), and such moral values as being just and caring (Yates and Youniss 1996). However, other studies have revealed null or mixed findings (e.g., Melchior 1999;Raskoff and Sundeen 1999;Pratt et al 2003;Cemalcilar 2009).…”

Section: Community Service and The Formation Of A Prosocial Value Orimentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cultivation of a Prosocial Value Orientation Through Community Service: An Examination of Organizational Context, Social Facilitation, and Duration

Horn

2011

J Youth Adolescence

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Community service is widely regarded as a fundamental experience in preparation for good citizenship, but it remains unclear whether common variants of service are consequential for civic outcomes. This study examines changes in the relative importance assigned to prosocial and egoistic values associated with service through different types of organizations, service prompted by external contingencies, and service that spans a narrow or wide frame of time. Data were drawn from the survey responses of 16,749 secondary school students (50 percent female, 28 percent ethnic minority, modal age = 15) who participated in the National Educational Longitudinal Study during their sophomore year in 1990 and completed a follow-up survey during their senior year in 1992. Results from a propensity score analysis indicated that service through humanitarian organizations but not other types of organizations was positively associated with the adoption of a prosocial value orientation. Service prompted by an institutional mandate or social pressure was negatively associated with prosociality relative to service characterized as strictly voluntary, although all students except those with an initially egoistic value orientation benefited from mandatory service relative to no service. While short-term service during the sophomore year had no enduring effect, long-term service predicted gains in prosociality above and beyond the effect of concurrent service. The findings suggest that the relationship between community service and prosocial value development can be optimized to the extent that service through a humanitarian organization is prompted by autonomy-supportive conditions over the course of 2 years.

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Section: Community Service and The Formation Of A Prosocial Value Orimentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cultivation of a Prosocial Value Orientation Through Community Service: An Examination of Organizational Context, Social Facilitation, and Duration

Horn

2011

J Youth Adolescence

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“…As one Pro-Vice-Chancellor remarked, the theory is that by providing volunteering opportunities this will engender students' awareness of their responsibilities, yet in practice there is less evidence of how this may be achieved (Kahne and Westheimer, 2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Volunteering, choice and control: a case study of higher education student volunteering

Holdsworth

Brewis²

2013

Journal of Youth Studies

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There has been a step change around youth volunteering in the UK in recent years as this once unheralded and taken for granted activity has moved more centre stage, particularly as a key strand of recent Government initiatives directed towards welfare reform, employment and education policies. This article uses the case study of student volunteering to explore the paradox inherent in articulations of volunteering in policy discourses that emphasise self-responsibility for employability and community cohesion. We review the tensions inherent in escalating the expectation that young people should volunteer through situating volunteering as a conduit of control society, and consider how the promotion of participation destabilizes the capacity for sovereign action and choice. Drawing on qualitative research with both HE stakeholders and students, we map out the external policy drivers that universities are reacting to in promoting volunteering, and students' response to these initiatives. Our analysis demonstrates that students resist the expectation that they should volunteer if this is interpreted as devaluing their engagement. Both students and stakeholders recognise that the promotion of volunteering should seek to align institutional practices to promote and support volunteering with young people's own expectations and aspirations.

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“…If we assume that the participation in EPS might decrease students' trust and increase their cynicism, then it could be argued that the youth councils would not encourage children to become (or remain) uncritical compliant subjects (Adu-Gyamfi, 2013;Raby, 2012). Instead, if we, like Kahne and Westheimer (2002) and like some of our participants, understand that low levels of trust in politics can be explained by a critical analysis of politics, we could wonder whether the councils actually encourage critical analysis of how politics is currently conducted. Similar analyses can be applied to our data looking at anticipated participation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting participation at a time of social and political turmoil: what is the impact of children’s and young people’s city councils?

Sant

Davies

2017

Cambridge Journal of Education

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Youth councils are examined as spaces of citizenship education where young people are educated as political subjects. At a time of political and economic instability data were collected in a Catalan city through tests and focus groups involving 112 students, three teachers and two youth council managers during one academic year. Students' political trust decreased and their cynicism towards politics increased; there were no changes in students' anticipated future participation. The article avoids drawing simplistic causal links between students' involvement in a council and the expression of their views. The participants also discuss the councils as performance sites. It is speculated whether, in students' views, this metaphor of performance applies not only to the councils but to the wider political context in which they live. It is argued that youth councils are, in some ways, potentially valuable for promoting participation and recommendations are made in light of the findings.

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The Limits of Political Efficacy: Educating Citizens for a Democratic Society

Abstract: You can try and change things, but basically it will just make you feel bad for trying. They didn't even want to hear what I was saying. They don't care."-Justin, a high school senior, when asked about the semester he spent working to improve his community

Cited by 189 publications

References 11 publications

The Cultivation of a Prosocial Value Orientation Through Community Service: An Examination of Organizational Context, Social Facilitation, and Duration

The Cultivation of a Prosocial Value Orientation Through Community Service: An Examination of Organizational Context, Social Facilitation, and Duration

Volunteering, choice and control: a case study of higher education student volunteering

Promoting participation at a time of social and political turmoil: what is the impact of children’s and young people’s city councils?

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