The I Have a Dream (IHAD) program provides financial, academic, and social support to randomly selected classes of youth throughout the country. Each program is sponsored by a philanthropist who becomes personally involved with the youth he or she supports. This personalized philanthropic approach aims to forge relationships that bridge social class as well as racial and ethnic divides. When such bridges are built, proponents argue, the impact on both those who receive support and those who provide it can be substantial. Drawing on a 3-year study of IHAD, this study investigates whether such bridges can be built, the factors that enable and constrain these efforts, and the significance of philanthropists' personal involvement for themselves and for those they are trying to both know and help.
This article investigates the factors that shape the circulation of political content on social media. We analyze an experiment embedded within a nationally representative survey of U.S. youth that randomly assigned participants to see a short post designed to resemble content that circulates through social media. The post was experimentally manipulated to vary in both its ideology and whether it contained factually inaccurate information. In general, we found that participants' intentions to circulate a post on social media were strongly influenced by whether that post aligned with their ideology, but not by whether it contained misinformation. The relative effects of ideological alignment and misinformation were found to differ according to participants' level of political knowledge and engagement, indicating that different groups of young people are susceptible to particular kinds of misinformation.
El aprendizaje-servicio es un método que se utiliza con frecuencia en la educación para la ciudadanía en los EEUU. Proporciona oportunidades a los jóvenes para definir y abordar las necesidades de la población, y al mismo tiempo, reflexionar sobre los conocimientos, habilidades y relaciones que requiere dicha tarea. De acuerdo con este enfoque, la educación para la ciudadanía democrática debe ayudar a los jóvenes a comprender que forman parte de una comunidad más amplia, fomentar su sentido de función y eficacia como agentes cívicos, y mejorar su capacidad para analizar cuestiones sociales y políticas, entendiéndose que estos resultados se consiguen de mejor forma si el aprendizaje es a través de la experiencia. Crear estas condiciones puede suponer un reto en el contexto escolar donde el alumnado suele estar apartado de la comunidad, muy controlado en sus actividades, y con un tiempo limitado para comprender las complejidades de ciertos temas. El presente artículo responde al papel creciente de los nuevos medios en la actividad cívica y política. Analiza específicamente cómo la integración de los nuevos medios en el servicio-aprendizaje puede facilitar o cuestionar los objetivos pedagógicos básicos de este enfoque de la educación cívica y las implicaciones para la práctica de fomentar la participación cívica de los jóvenes en los entornos escolares. Basándose en una revisión de los programas existentes y los resultados de estudios realizados, los autores muestran la forma en que nuevos medios pueden ser utilizados para apoyar los cuatro objetivos principales del aprendizaje-servicio: el diseño de entornos de aprendizaje auténtico, la creación de enlaces con la comunidad, apoyar la voz de los jóvenes y alentar la participación en cuestiones de justicia social. ; Service-Learning, a popular approach to citizenship education in the US, provides youth with opportunities to define and address public needs while reflecting on the knowledge, skills, and relationships needed to do such work. This approach assumes education for democratic citizenship must help youth understand themselves as part of a larger community, increase their sense of agency and efficacy as civic actors, and increase their ability to analyze social and political issues. It also assumes that these outcomes are best learned through experience. Creating these conditions can be quite challenging in the context of schools, where students are typically separated from the community, highly controlled in their activities, and have limited time to grasp the complexities of a given topic. This piece responds to the growing role of new media in civic and political activity. Specifically, it examines how the integration of new media into service learning may facilitate or challenge the core pedagogical goals of this approach to civic education and the implications for the practice of supporting youth civic engagement in school settings. Based on a review of existing programs and research, the authors illustrate how new media can be used to support four primary goals of service learning – designing authentic learning environments, connecting to community, supporting youth voice, and encouraging engagement with issues of social justice.
Justin is not alone. In a recent study of high school seniors from California, for example, only 28% agreed that "I think people in government care about what people like me and my family need" (Kahne and Middaugh 2005). Related findings are common. A survey by the National Association of Secretaries of State, for example, revealed that two-thirds of all young people agreed that "our generation has an important voice, but no one seems to hear it." Moreover, those youth who were least trusting were also the least likely to vote, to believe that government can affect their lives, or to pay attention to politics (National Association of Secretaries of State 1999). These findings, combined with numerous other indicators that show low and in many cases declining civic and political participation, indicate that forms of engagement required for a participatory democracy to thrive are in need of attention (Macedo et al. 2005). The initial research for this essay was generously supported by a grant from the Surdna Foundation. Subsequent research and writing was generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We also wish to thank Melinda Fine, Barbara Leckie, Tobi Walker, and James Youniss for helpful feedback on earlier drafts. The authors are solely responsible for any and all conclusions.
Draws on evidence from a study of 10 school-based programs on democratic citizenship to consider the kinds of citizenship promoted therein. Focus is on three visions of citizenship: (1) the personally responsible citizen, (2) the participatory citizen, (3) the justice-oriented citizen. These visions are described before attending to conflicts that arise between them. It is seen that the majority of school-based initiatives promote the first vision -- a commitment to service, but not to democracy, ie, citizenship without politics. It is argued that emphasizing personal responsibility & character over social action & social justice inadequate to the demands of educating a democratic citizenry. This is addressed by looking at two high school programs, one looking to develop participatory students, the other justice-oriented students. It is asserted that the justice-oriented program encouraged more political engagement than the program stressing participatory citizenship. Implications for designing a fruitful curriculum to teach democracy are touched on in closing. 1 Table, 2 References. J. Zendejas
This report draws from the 2008 Pew Teens, Video Games, and Civics Survey, a national survey of youth and their experiences with video games done in partnership with Amanda Lenhart at the Pew Internet and American Life Project, with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. That survey led to the report, "Teens, Video Games, and Civics," which examines the nature of young people's video game play as well as the context and mechanics of their play. In addition to examining the relationship between gaming and youth civic engagement, "Teens, Video Games, and Civics" also provides a benchmark for video and online gaming among young people on a national level and the first broad, impartial look at the size and scope of young people's general gaming habits.
