Civic Pedagogies: Teaching Civic Engagement in an Era of Divisive Politics

This book comes at a crucial time as the USA and countries around the world wrestle with an ongoing period of democratic backsliding that shows little sign of abating. Alarmingly, study after study shows that younger people are not convinced that democracy will endure – and that a sizable number are no longer convinced that it should. Especially as changing educational and political landscapes make efforts to educate for democracy both more necessary and more fraught, contributors to this book offer innovative pedagogies and praxis grounded in political and civic theories aimed at strengthening democratic norms, practices and institutions.

Part I: Introduction.- Part II: Theoretical Considerations for Civically-Engaged Pedagogy.- Chapter 1. First Comes Trust: Civic Engagement Strategies for Jump-Starting the Civic Voluntarism Model.- Chapter 2. Structurally Dynamic Public Spheres: Making Sense of Relationships, Polarization, and Civic Engagement.- Chapter 3. American Paideia: Reclaiming the Rhetorical Tradition in Civic Education.- Chapter 4. Tailoring Civic Learning for Divisive Politics: Rude Politics and College Students’ Political Engagement.- Chapter 5. Toward a Critical Theory of Service Learning at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.- Chapter 6. Civic Education for the Majority: Centering Women in Civic Education.- Part III: Practical Examples of Civically-Engaged Pedagogies.- Chapter 7. Digging In: Academic and Practitioner Insights on Cultivating Reciprocal, Sustained Campus-Community Undergraduate Research Partnerships.- Chapter 8. Enacting Engagement: Teaching State-Level Policy Advocacy.- Chapter 9. Tearing DownWalls: Teaching Political Science in Prison.- Chapter 10.Simulation-Enhanced Interprofessional Education: Larping Legislators and Lobbyists.- Chapter 11. The Holocaust Education Service-Learning Project as Deliberative Community Engagement.- Chapter 12.Together Beyond: Fostering Agency and Connection within Campus Communities.- Chapter 13. USF St. Petersburg-YMCA Civic Fellows: Developing University-Community Partnerships to Improve Civics Education.- Part IV: The Benefits and Challenges of Civically Engaged Pedagogy.- Chapter 14. Civic Engagement at Teaching-Focused Universities: Navigating the Challenges for Pre-Tenure Faculty.- Chapter 15. Against the Grain: Fostering Civic Engagement Through Expanding Your Research Agenda.- Chapter 16. Creating and Sustaining Civic Engagement Initiatives on Campus: Four Questions Administrators Should Always Ask.- Chapter 17. Toward the Transformative: The Benefits to Students of Reimagining Civic Pedagogy.- Part V: Assessing Civically Engaged Pedagogies.- Chapter 18. Using Classical Behavioral Theory to Build Assessment of Civic Engagement.- Chapter 19. Assessing a Campus-wide Civic Engagement Initiative.- Chapter 20. Assessing Civic Skill Instruction in Political Science.- Chapter 21. Is the Engagement Working? Assessing Political Engagement Across Multiple Departments.- Part VI: Concluding Thoughts: Civically-Engaged Pedagogy in an Era of Divisive Politics.

Lauren C. Bell is James L. Miller Professor of Political Science and Special Assistant to the Provost, Randolph-Macon College, USA.

Allison Rank is Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Politics, SUNY Oswego, USA.

Carah Ong Whaley is Academic Program Officer, Center for Politics, University of Virginia, USA.