"How Can Educators Motivate Young People to Participate in Civic Life?" by Brett L.M. Levy
 

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0977-7938

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

Introduction:

In a democratic society, why do some people engage in civic and political action while others sit on the sidelines? What — if anything — can educators do to support informed civic participation among a wider segment of the population, even at a time of political cynicism?

These are challenging and vital issues, as we see during each election cycle and the periods in between, and I’ve tried to address them from various angles.

As a middle school social studies teacher in the early 2000s, I aimed to motivate young people to be civically engaged — sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. My efforts to lead discussions of current events, highlight the connections between the past and the present, and structure opportunities for students to contact local officials worked well for some, but I knew that I was missing something.

Comments

Posted with permission. This is the publisher's version. The version of record can be found here: Levy, B. L.M. (2024). How can educators motivate young people to participate in civic life? Social Studies Journal, 44 (2), 67-70. https://sites.google.com/view/socialstudiesjournal/issues/current-issue?authuser=0#h.vwqb3iu1enng

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