9
In a paper presented at the 2003 International Conference on Civic Education,
Elizabeth Beaumont of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching states
that “carefully designed civic and political education courses can positively impact”
future political participation. Beaumont’s analysis focuses on changes to students’ sense
of political efficacy. The characteristics of such courses include (13-19):
•
Making politics transparent by demystifying the processes
•
Showing students that politics is an effective way to make concrete changes
•
Offering students direct contact with candidates and public officer holders
•
Offering public service opportunities, for credit, in government offices
•
Offering broad and positive definitions of politics and bureaucrats
•
Showing students the role politics play in their daily lives
•
Presenting a realistic approach to government; recognizing that change is
incremental and there are always trade offs (opportunity costs)
•
Showing students the human faces of politics
•
Developing a sense of membership in a community
•
Engaging students in actual democratic processes
•
Engaging students in coalition building
Based on its 2002 national survey of college undergraduates, The Institute of Politics
at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, identifies factors that
will motivate political engagement in young citizens (9-10). These can be integrated into
course work.
•
Provide more practical information about politics.
•
Emphasize political activity in the same way that community service is being
emphasized.
•
Encourage students to get engaged and to invite a friend to join them (students
report that they are more apt to engage in political activity when invited by a
friend to do so).
•
Provide students more direct contact with elected officials, political candidates,
and others in government.
Life-Long Political Engagement
Political activity encouraged and supported by school-based programs may be
habit-forming, leading to life-long political engagement. Gerber, Green, and Shachar
(2003) found that “voting in one election substantially increases the likelihood of voting
in the future” (540). Even when controlling for other factors that are correlated with
voting, such as age and education, “voting and nonvoting per se appear to create
behavioral patterns that persist over time” (548). Voting becomes part of a person’s self-
identity; it is what “people like me do on election day” (548).
Metz and Youniss (2003) put forth that school required service was a “positive
motivating force” for future service. They specifically note that the service requirements
seem to create a habit of service which “may be the basis of an identity in which
individuals come to understand themselves as political actors who are obligated to be
participating citizens” (285).
So citizenship education that has students engaging in political activity may lead
to life-long participation if for no other reason than creating the habit of political activity.
Convention