Whatever you can do is the best thing: insights into how youth in personalized learning environments perceive civic engagement
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Abstract
An engaged and active citizenry is essential to a functional democracy. Historically, the purpose of public schools has been to prepare young people with the knowledge and skills to be civically engaged. However, the civic education pedagogy and curriculum often do not use approaches likely to meet this goal, whether due to narrowed curriculum due to standardized testing, or due to not being culturally responsive to the learner. At the same time, research had not been done on newer approaches that may better support civic engagement in youth like personalized learning. Currently there is a narrative in the research that young people are civically disengaged or are unprepared to be active and engaged citizens. Despite this narrative, there is evidence that youth may be participating in ways not traditionally measured. There is a need for additional research, centered around youth voices, to gain a better understanding of how youth perceive civic engagement and how they believe they develop civic engagement. This phenomenological qualitative study used surveys and interviews to gain insight into how Generation Z high school seniors in personalized learning environments perceive civic engagement and its development. This study was guided by two research questions: 1. How do high school seniors in a personalized learning environment perceive civic engagement? and 2. How do high school seniors in a personalized learning environment believe they develop civic engagement? The theoretical frameworks guiding this study were empowerment theory and experiential learning. This study was set in a personalized learning program within a school district. Thirty-three survey responses were collected and 10 interviews were conducted. Data was analyzed using a qualitative analysis spiral, codes were identified, and themes were developed. The eight themes were (a) informed agency, (b) civic engagement as a current, persistent, and collaborative action, (c) emphasis on civic skills over civic knowledge, (d) developing civic engagement from a broad spectrum of classes, (e) developing civic engagement through experiences outside of school, (f) developing civic engagement through self-directed continuous learning, and (g) learning aligned with personalized learning. This research provides support for national and state level agencies to re-evaluate the role, support classroom teachers in cross-curricular learning experiences by creating cross-curricular crosswalks, adjust graduation requirements to allow for more release time for internships and other outside of the classroom learning experiences, and explore shifting curriculum from content based to a more skill-based approach. Teachers in the classroom could use the results from this research to shift from a deficit view of students to recognizing the bodies of knowledge youth are bringing to the classroom. Teachers could also work across buildings to identify common skills, use common vocabulary to teach those skills, and model research skills often in their classroom. Future research could identify teachers and practices that support how youth are perceiving and developing civic engagement and work to communicate that clearly to current classroom teachers to support these shifts.
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Introduction -- Literature review -- Methodology -- Findings and discussion -- Implications -- Appendices -- References
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Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)