The Power of Action Civics and Authentic Experiences
45
Challenges of Action Civics Despite the enthusiasm and momentum behind action civics programs, they are not without their challenges. First, some argue that action civics focuses too much on political issues and social justice while not enough on core understanding of the political system and underlying values. There is also the challenge that many students will gravitate toward ideas and issues that they already care deeply about and on which they have preconceived perspectives. Therefore, this process could further polarize their thinking along ideological lines. Some also contend that there is an underlying “progressive bias in the assumptions underlying many of the projects” (Kissel, 2019).
Another barrier is professional learning. Action civics is, in many ways, an inquiry- or project-based learning (PBL) pedagogy. Many educators may have heard of PBL, but the vast majority have not had any formal educator training in this instructional approach. Guidance and support for educators to plan and implement PBL are often necessary for action civics experiences to be as effective as possible. Conversely, students need to develop the skill sets and dispositions to thrive in a more student-centered, collaborative project setting.
Conclusion It is no coincidence that the first topic we choose to focus on is action civics. All the shifts in approaches to civic education since the early 2000s focus on involving students in authentic experiences through which they actively engage in the work of citizens, which holds the greatest potential. Despite some claims to the contrary, you can apply action civics to a wide range of ideological viewpoints and provide students with real-world experiences in active citizenship and all its complexities. Due to these inherent complexities and challenges of advocating for ideas and developing consensus, the ability to engage in productive civil discourse is an essential corollary skill to civic action. We turn to this topic in the next chapter.
©️2022 by Solution Tree Press
Adam Kissel (2019) published a list of action civics project ideas for conservative students to help balance out the conversation and provide educators with a broader spectrum of driving questions. Driving questions help guide student inquiry, typically during the brainstorming phase of public policy solutions. For example, how might we mitigate the unintended negative consequences of rent control in our community (Kissel, 2019)? Since action civics projects typically involve proposing an idea to a government authority, students may also be disillusioned if their proposal is not accepted and enacted (Wexler, 2020).
