‘To engage or not to’: translating civic education to civic engagement

ABSTRACT

This paper draws from a broader study on citizenship education in Western Uganda to explain how civic education knowledge translates into civic engagement through people’s lived experiences. The paper addresses two questions, that is the contextual understandings of civic education and civic engagement by the partner NGO. Secondly, what explains people’s decision to engage or not to engage. We employed critical research methodologies with multiple data collection methods as a means of empowering rural community members to dialogue with stakeholders in civic education. We present the findings based on three themes, that is rationality, power dynamics, and mutual interests. We draw on Rational Choice Theory to theorise reasons for civic engagement. We particularly argue that drivers for and against civic engagement are largely individual and driven by assumed benefits and losses. Individual assumptions can also translate to group or larger social conclaves based on common drivers, beliefs and interests. We conclude by noting that actors in civic education and awareness programmes ought to note that civic engagement is rooted in individual rationality albeit contextual.

KEYWORDS:

• Civic education
• civic engagement
• rational choice theory

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to 1) The Academy of Finland for funding this study 2) Prof. Katariina Holma, University of Oulu, Finland and Prof. Tiina Kontinen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland; the Principal Investigators of the Cs-Learn project 3) Alice Nankya Ndidde, Makerere University, Uganda (Head of Ugandan research team).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approvals

Makerere University School of Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee, and research process by Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Academy of Finland under Grant [number 24302771].

Notes on contributors

Twine Hannington Bananuka

Twine Hannington Bananuka, PhD, is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with the Academy of Finland based at the University of Oulu, Finland, and a lecturer at Makerere University, Uganda. Twine's teaching and research interests are in areas of Participatory and visual research methods; adult learning and community education; and citizenship education.

David Mugarra

David Mugarra is the head of Governance and Policy Advocacy at Kabarole Research and Resource Centre (KRC). My research interests are in community empowerment and active citizenry that define own path to development.