Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Multi-Level Governance Processes - Citizens & Local Budgeting: Comparing Brazil, China, & The United States, Aimee Franklin, Dale Krane, Carol Ebdon

Public Administration Faculty Publications

Modifications to policy-making processes and actors are crucial when transitioning to multi-level governance. Civic engagement in budgeting processes, where crucial policy decisions are determined, is an important component of shared governance. Understanding the new roles for citizens in the budget process, then, can extend our knowledge of multi-level governance. This research explores the ways in which the budget process incorporates citizen participation to foster an ideal of civil society in the United States, Brazil, and China. The comparative case analysis probes the extent to which institutional changes have occurred, why they have occurred, and the degree to which municipal budget …

Reinventing Citizenship As Public Work, Harry C. Boyte

Civic Engagement

The fate of democracy is inextricably tied to the work of educators, as well as to the meaning of citizenship and the practices of civic education. If we are to create a citizen-centered democracy—with citizens capable of tackling the mounting challenges of our time—we must revisit conventional ideas. We will have to reinvent citizenship as public work, for the sake of ourselves as educators, as well as for our students and for the democracy itself.

Nebraska Immigration: Deliberative Polling And Civic Engagement On Broadcast And New Media Coverage, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Michael L. Hilt, David C. Ogden, Hugh J. Reilly

Communication Faculty Publications

Data were analyzed from an October 2007 deliberative poll event in Omaha, Nebraska. The focus of pre-event survey questions was on the usefulness of media sources on the coverage of the global immigration issue. The goal of the project was to promote civic engagement of citizens on an important public issue. The focus of post-event survey questions was on attention paid to media. Additionally, a post-event focus group explored public opinion on credibility of various news sources. While the deliberative poll produced some evidence of short-term effects in terms of citizens learning about the immigration issue, attitudes about media credibility …

Strategies For Becoming A Nation Of Service, Servicenation

School K-12

Strategies for Becoming a Nation of Service represents a vision, endorsed by more than 110 ServiceNation coalition members, to unleash the energy of citizens on our most pressing social challenges by strengthening and increasing community and national service opportunities. This policy agenda proposes meaningful opportunities for service at every key life stage, and for every socioeconomic group, from kindergarten through the post-retirement years. These proposals will help instill a culture of service at an early age and provide opportunities for Americans to continue serving throughout their lifetimes. The policy proposals aim to make service a defining ethic of what it …

Community Service Learning: Tenth Anniversary Edition, California State University

Higher Education

Beginning in the 1990s, the CSU started to recognize the power of service learning as a vehicle that would meet the state's changing educational needs while also imparting vital civic skills and knowledge. In the past decade, service learning has become a widely accepted and effective way of enhancing the in-class academic experiences of students with the real-world, out-of-class benefits of serving the community.

Developing Indicators And Measures Of Civic Outcomes For Elementary School Students, Bernadette Chi, Joann Jastrzab, Alan Melchior

Civic Engagement

Over the past decade, public attention on the importance of the civic development and education of youth has grown. To address these concerns, the East Bay Conservation Corps (EBCC) Charter School opened in 1996 with the explicit mission to prepare and engage students grades K through 12 as caring citizens who are capable and motivated to fully participate in our democracy. While content standards and assessments readily exist to articulate the academic and artistic development of students, youth civic development, especially at the elementary level, has been under-conceptualized. What is needed is a more robust, comprehensive developmental framework for citizenship …

So Close And So Small: Six Promising Approaches To Civic Education, Equity, And Social Justice, Debbie Abilock

Civic Engagement

Perhaps you feel, as I did when I worked in a school, that while teachers develop service projects with the best intentions, they make no effort to build on what is known about effective service learning, nor do they align their work with other service in the school. As a result, my school was full of feel-good, superficial activities and little curricular coherence.

Youth Helping America - Educating For Active Citizenship: Service-Learning, School-Based Service And Youth Civic Engagement, Kimberly Spring, Nathan Dietz, Robert Grimm Jr.

Civic Engagement

This brief is the second in the Youth Helping America Series, a series of reports based on data from the Youth Volunteering and Civic Engagement Survey, a national survey of 3,178 American youth between the ages of 12 and 18 that was conducted by the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2005 in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau and the nonprofit coalition Independent Sector.

The survey collected information on teen volunteering habits, experiences with school-based service-learning, and other forms of civic engagement. While the first brief in the Youth Helping America Series focused on youth volunteering and social …

Out Of The Classroom And Into The Community: Service Learning Reinforces Classroom Instruction, Roy Bonnette

Project Summaries

Technology students successfully developed four complete sets of house plans including floor plans, framing plans, and elevations. Because Habitat relies on donations of doors, windows, and cabinets, detail drawings and schedules vary and were not included. Unskilled persons who volunteered time and labor for Habitat needed concise and unambiguous directions from supervisors. The students' drawings of floor and elevation plans provided these workers with a clear and graphic representation of the construction goals. As noted above, students were held to professional and technical accountability. This process was put in place to replicate real-world practices and to give students a sense …

Youth Helping America - Building Active Citizens: The Role Of Social Institutions In Teen Volunteering, Corporation For National And Community Service

School K-12

At a time when many are worried that the United States is experiencing a general decline in civic and political engagement, volunteering appears particularly strong among today’s young people. While volunteering is just one form of community involvement, research has shown that it is often connected to other forms of engagement, and, among youth, volunteering plays a valuable role in shaping how youth learn to interact with their community and develop the skills, values, and sense of empowerment necessary to become active citizens.

Developing Civically Rich Culminating Projects, Project Service Leadership

School K-12

The Culminating Project is a new graduation requirement that has been passed by the State Board of Education. The graduating class of 2008 will need to complete these projects in order to receive a regular diploma from Washington state. By adopting a state-wide graduation requirement of a Culminating Project for all high school graduates, the State Board of Education has provided a new and challenging opportunity for students across the state to realize the vision articulated by Washington state’s education reform law.

Democratic Service Learning, Lew Allen, Kathy Thompson

Civic Engagement

The ultimate purpose of American public education is to help students learn how to be compassionate, problem-solving citizens in a democratic society. It is the job of schools to help each generation envision a better future and acquire the dispositions, skills, and experiences to make this vision a reality. Our youngest citizens need a democratic education, for which service-learning is an indispensable element.

Changing Landscapes: Enduring Values, Angela Bodino

Service Learning, General

The campus of Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) seems pastoral with 160 acres of woods, a pond, and gentle grassy slopes. Two miles to the west are two golf courses and farmland. Two miles east are homes built in the 17th and 18th Centuries close to the North Branch of the Raritan River, close to a colonial cemetery and the soaring spire of the Reformed Church. This setting reminds us of an early American ethic of hope and change, the promise of vast spaces, new destinies and new communities.

Highlights Of Campus Compact's Annual Membership Survey, Campus Compact

Service Learning, General

The trend toward increasing civic engagement among colleges and universities is stronger than ever. In Campus Compact's 2003 survey, member institutions reported not only record participation in community service but also an increase in structural and financial support for initiatives to improve communities and to make civic learning part of academic life.

Community Leaders' Perceptions Of University And College Efforts To Encourage Civic Engagement, Richard A. Brisbin Jr., Susan Hunter

Civic Engagement

"Students who volunteer in the community often end up staying or coming back after they graduate because they find out they can make a difference;' reports one economic development director in West Virginia. He and other community leaders agreed that getting college students involved in community activities not only had short-term benefits for the community but that often their experiences led to long-term gains for community life. This finding is important in a time when scholars, politicians, and pundits argue that a crisis of civic disengagement affects American politics. As a partial remedy for this crisis, educators have linked partnerships …

Civic Engagement And American Democracy, Richard Erdmann

Civic Engagement

Alexis de Tocqueville wrote of the United States during the 1830’s and his observations say much about democracy in general, democracy in the United States of the 1830’s and democracy today. His greatest fear for the United States was of apathy on the part of its citizens. He saw individualism and material wealth as potent contributors to the United States but also as potential distracters. He felt that the greatest threat existed because democracy might work so well that citizens would become apathetic. At this point the omnipotence of the majority would cause the democratic freedoms to slip away almost …

Navigating The Shoals Of Civic Education With Service-Learning: Ethical, Moral, And Political Constraints On Transformative Education, Don Hill

Civic Engagement

American democracy is threatened by an accelerating trend of disengagement from the fundamental responsibilities of citizenship.This disengagement is growing in all segments of society but is most pronounced in youth and young adults which makes it even more troubling. Many thoughtful educators argue persuasively that high quality service-learning can and should become a resource for tackling this problem, that it can stimulate youth to become active democratic citizens.They are, in my judgment, correct, but navigating the shoals of civic education with service-learning is difficult.

Executive Summary - The Philadelphia Freedom Schools Junior Leader Project, Shelley H. Billig

Special Topics, General

The Philadelphia Freedom Schools Junior Leader Project is a bold initiative to foster leadership and civic engagement for young people in the Philadelphia School District. Beginning in 1999, the school district project was developed to help young African American and other high school students to become strong leaders in their schools and communities. The Junior Leader project recruited freshmen, sophomores, and juniors in high school to learn about their heritage; work with young children to help them gain academic skills; participate in meaningful dialogue about social justice; learn and engage in community action strategies; develop leadership skills; and create pathways …

The New Student Politics Curriculum Guide, Keith Morton, Sandra Enos, Sarah E. Long

Curriculum

The New Student Politics: The Wingspread Statement on Student Civic Engagement (2002) can be assigned as a text in a political science service-learning course that has as an explicit course objective the exploration of contemporary conceptions of citizenship, or a sociology service-learning course that focuses on community building and social transformation. Additionally, the text can be incorporated in service-learning courses across the disciplines with the aid of The New Student Politics Curriculum Guide. The Curriculum Guide is designed to provide a structure for engaging students in reflection on their community service experiences in a way that allows for the …

Searching For The Meaning Of Youth Civic Engagement: Notes From The Field, Molly W. Andolina, Krista Jenkins, Scott Keester, Cliff Zukin

Civic Engagement

This article reports on the early lessons from a multiphase, multimethod study of youth civic engagement. It uses insights from expert discussions along with a series of focus groups to explore how young adults approach politics, volunteerism, community, civic duty, and generational identity. The study finds many of the distinguishing characteristics of today's youth to be subtle and nuanced, which poses unique challenges for qualitative research of the generation. The important implications of language are discussed in detail.

The Transformative Power Of Civic Education, Libby Ethridge

Civic Engagement

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer often speaks about his concern over people's apathy and lack of knowledge about the government (Tulsa World, 1999). Teachers in the public schools often comment on how students are not aware of current events and view politics as something that doesn't affect their lives. University professors often complain about how little their students understand about the democratic process. While many seem to agree that this is an issue of concern, few have proposed any systematic action that will actually transform the situation.

Youth Civic Development: Implications Of Research For Social Policy And Programs, Constance A. Flanagan, Nakesha Faison

Civic Engagement

Democracies must insure that each new generation of citizens identify with the common good and become engaged members of their communities. Such goals are prominent in the missions of public schools and community youth organizations. This report summarizes research which points to directions youth programs and policies should follow to achieve these civic goals.

What Kind Of Citizen? The Politics Of Assessing Democratic Values, Joel Westheimer, Joesph Kahne, Bethany Rogers

Civic Engagement

I was visiting a middle school the other day and saw a sign on a teacher's classroom wall that said "Assessment is your friend." It had a picture of a cuddly looking puppy on it. There was no explanation for the puppy, so I'm not sure why it was there. But it was cute and the message seemed to be saying that "assessment" if perhaps not man or woman's best friend, is, at the very least, something you need not fear. Now we are living in an era of high stakes testing and standards, so many would believe that there …

Education For Democratic Citizenship, Rosemary C. Salamone

Civic Engagement

Over the past decade, pollsters and pundits have raised warning flags of moral decay and declining political understanding and commitment among Americans. Scandals from Washington to Wall Street, voter apathy and cynicism, and the regeneration of the "me generation" in a climate of unprecedented prosperity have raised increasing concerns in the media over the moral state of the country. The most alarming evidence has emerged from education, validating and documenting the anxieties that Americans share over the failure of schools to create citizens of character. By the mid-1990s, half of the nation's high school students reported that drugs and violence …

Read And Lead: Fostering Literacy Through Cross-Age Tutoring (Facilitator's Manual To Implement A National Literacy Corps), Institute For Global Education And Service Learning

Curriculum

Congratulations on choosing the Read & Lead Facilitator's Guide for your cross-age tutoring program! This guide is designed to help you facilitate a National Literacy Corps in your own school, after school program, organization, or community. The National Literacy Corps began in Philadelphia high schools in 1991. Since that time the National Literacy Corps model has been implemented in schools across the country and in England. The National Literacy Corps was recognized as an exemplary model at the President's Summit on America's Future in April 1997. Since 2000, the model has been modified for successful implementation in middle and upper …

Every Student A Citizen: Creating The Democratic Self, Educational Commission Of The States

Civic Engagement

Despite 50 years of scientific and technological achievement, unabated wealth creation and gains in health, transportation, medicine, manufacturing a a host of other fields, a sens of "dis-ese" gnaws at the collective American soul. Something feels wrong.

New Efforts To Engage Youth In Legislative Advocacy, Wendy Schaetzel Lesko

Civic Engagement

The National Secretaries of State recent report confirms earlier findings that more Americans feel disconnected from government. The Council for Excellence in Government warns that "if each new generation continued to form a weaker attachment to government than the one before, the country would fairly soon find that only a small minority of citizens was connected to and involved with government." Concerted efforts are underway to test new approaches to entice young people to participate in the public policy arena at local, state, and national levels. A snapshot follows of a few promising initiatives along with some pointers on how …

Wingspread Declaration On Renewing The Civic Mission Of The American Research University, Harry C. Boyte, Elizabeth Hollander

Civic Engagement

Civic engagement is essential to a democratic society, but far too many Americans have withdrawn from participation in public affairs. Higher education can contribute to civic engagement, but most research universities do not perceive themselves as part of the problem or of its solution. Whereas universities were once centrally concerned with "education for democracy" and "knowledge for society," today's institutions have often drifted away from their civic mission.

A Lack Of Civic Commitment?, Pablo Eisenberg

Civic Engagement

A recent study on youth leaders.hip and community service, conducted by Peter D. Hart Associates for Public Allies (a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that promotes youth leadership), found that today's young Americans are committed to community service and direct, personal assistance to others. But the survey of 728 people between the ages of 18 and 30 also raised disturbing questions about the young generation's commitment to civic engagement and social change.

Education For Citizenship, Service Learning And Political Science, John Annette

Civic Engagement

In the recent "Crick Committee" report on "Education for Citizenship and the Teaching of Democracy in Schools", citizenship and service learning has made a welcome reappearance on the educational agenda, and the consultation document on Millennium Volunteering, for young people between 16 and 25, has placed an important emphasis on civic values. Religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Carey and the Chief Rabbi, Dr. Jonathan Sacks, have called for a renewed sense of moral responsibility. At present all the three main political parties appeal to the electorate's sense of civic responsibility and the "New Labour" government sees …