Did You Know?!… Cultivating Online Public Voice in Youth

Abstract

Drawing on a mixed methods study of a district-wide initiative to integrate civic learning practices into the high school humanities curriculum in an urban school district in Northern California, this article examines the relationship between face-to-face versus online civic learning opportunities and students’ motivation for engaging in practices related to online public voice, the affordances of online civic learning opportunities for the expression of public voice, and the features of online civic learning opportunities that optimize the expression of public voice. The findings provide insight as to whether and under what conditions digitally mediated civic learning opportunities promote the expression of public voice.

Keywords:

• adolescence
• civic education
• democratic education
• high school
• social media
• youth voice

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors bear sole responsibility for the content of this article. We wish to thank Young Whan Choi, Elyse Eidman-Aahdahl, Erica Hodgin, Joseph Kahne, Ravi Lau, Paul Oh, Stan Pesick, and Shelly Weintraub, as well as the teachers and students who gave their time.

Notes

¹ Readers interested in details about the longer survey can contact the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by the generous support of the S. D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation and Stephen Bechtel Fund (Grant No. 221516) and the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (Grant No. 13-103537-000-USP) through the Educator Innovator Fund.