Building Faculty-Staff Learning Partnerships to Enhance Student Civic Engagement: Lessons Learned from the 2012 Election Season

In the aftermath of the October 2000 Martin County coal waste spill, which leaked over 300 million gallons of coal waste into two creeks, local residents expressed concerns related to water contamination. This chapter outlines the series of actions taken by government agencies and the local water district, many of which eroded confidence in the safety of public water supplies and decreased trust in government. Based on over ten years of research and engagement on the issues raised by this disaster, we reflect upon the lessons learned by this disaster and subsequent government, media and citizen action in response to it. We conclude that high levels of civic engagement and local newspapers are key factors to promote democracy, justice, and resilience at the community level.

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Civic Engagement in the Online Classroom: Increasing Youth Political Engagement in an Online American Government Course

eJournal of Public Affairs ◽

10.21768/8.1.3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 31-68

Keyword(s):

Service Learning ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Learning Community ◽

Political Process ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Discussion Board ◽

American Government ◽

Community Based Research ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Current Events

This article discusses the development and implementation of a civics project in an online American government course and explores the challenges and opportunities around managing civic engagement projects in an online format. Data analyzed for this article included 11 semesters of responses to anonymous pre- and post-project surveys, university end-of-course evaluations, Center for Civic Engagement surveys of Citizen Scholar courses, student reflection papers, and discussion board posts. Findings revealed that participation in the civics project increased students’ civic knowledge and helped them develop the skills needed to become active citizens. Students indicated that they intended to continue following current events and that they would stay involved in the political process. Lessons learned are applicable to courses in fields seeking to incorporate service-learning, community-based research, or civic engagement in an online context.

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Development of a Required Service-Learning Course: Lessons Learned and Stakeholders’ Perceptions

10.29007/hjb7 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lauren W. Redden ◽

Robert A. Bugg

Keyword(s):

Service Learning ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Construction Management ◽

High Impact ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Knowledge Gain ◽

Construction Process ◽

Curriculum Revision ◽

Perceived Knowledge ◽

Required Service

There is a growing movement for universities to include high-impact educational practices. This study explores the implementation and efficacy of one such practice in a construction management undergraduate program. During a recent curriculum revision, faculty decided to include a required service-learning course in the curriculum to enhance both student learning and civic engagement. The course assimilates all components of the construction process. Key assessments of the course include: written proposal & preconstruction presentation to the owner, project update reports, a mid-semester site inspection, and a final presentation accompanied by a written reflection. Students and owners voluntarily completed surveys at the end of the semester to determine the elements requiring improvement, elements that should remain unchanged, and the perceived knowledge gain through the experience. The results indicate the project owners were satisfied and the students acknowledged learning benefits. Owners, students and faculty all noted major challenges/frustrations with the course and the need for improvement. The paper summarizes the data to evaluate the efficacy of the required course and highlights lessons learned to improve the course. Dissemination of the results may be useful in starting or improving service-learning courses at other institutions.

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Digital Civic Engagement in the EU: Analysing Examples, Tools, and Sentiment in Latvia and Estonia

Studia Europejskie-Studies in European Affairs ◽

10.33067/se.4.2021.5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 83-99

Author(s):

Martins Vargulis ◽

Keyword(s):

Civic Engagement ◽

Voter Turnout ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Digital Tools ◽

Political Agenda ◽

Member States ◽

Eu Member States ◽

Using Data ◽

The Eu

The decline of civic engagement has been an issue for several EU Member States. To promote civic engagement, digital tools have been perceived as one of the possible solutions both at the EU and national levels. Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has intensifi ed digitalisation in many forms and sectors, the issue of digital solutions for civic engagement has regained its relevance and topicality. In the last decade, Latvia has been among other EU Member States in which civic engagement has become a concerning and long-term challenge. For instance, as opposed to Estonia, voter turnout in the most recent national and European parliamentary elections has gradually declined in Latvia. There are also limited digital possibilities through which Latvian society can participate and influence the political agenda daily. Therefore, this article provides an overview of the provisions and guidelines at the EU level to address the issue of civic engagement by promoting digital democracy tools. Secondly, it analyses what digital tools exist in Latvia to promote civic engagement. Thirdly, by comparing the digital civic engagement solutions implemented in Estonia and Latvia, the lessons learned are drawn. Finally, using data from quantitative (polls) studies (before and during the COVID-19 pandemic), the article provides recommendations for Latvia in the context of I-voting.

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Connecting Generations in Senior Housing: Promising Practices and Challenges

Innovation in Aging ◽

10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2604 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. 733-733

Author(s):

Nancy Henkin

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Social Networks ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Promising Practices ◽

High Quality ◽

Senior Housing ◽

National Initiative ◽

Intergenerational Programming

Abstract Senior housing can be an ideal platform for high quality intergenerational programming. Often older adults who move to congregate housing settings experience feelings of loneliness and a loss of purpose. Creating long term partnerships with educational and youth-serving organizations can help senior housing providers expand residents’ social networks and create meaningful civic engagement opportunities. A 3-year national initiative involving an environmental scan of intergenerational practice in senior housing communities, the development of a toolkit for senior housing providers, and the piloting of intergenerational partnerships and programs in six national housing communities was conducted by Generations United and Leading Age and supported by the Retirement Research Foundation. Promising practices, challenges, and lessons learned from this initiative will be shared and strategies for “scaling” this work will be discussed.

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Evidence and Lessons Learned Regarding the Effect of Equitable Quality Education on ‘Open Society’

10.19088/k4d.2021.094 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Astrid Fieldsend

Keyword(s):

Civic Engagement ◽

Social Cohesion ◽

Political System ◽

Political Process ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Quality Education ◽

The Political ◽

Open Society ◽

Evidence Of Impact ◽

Considerable Body

The purpose of this review is to assist FCDO in understanding the evidence of impact and any valuable lessons regarding the effect equitable quality education can have on ‘open society’. The search revealed that there is a considerable volume of evidence which focuses on education’s ability to reduce poverty, increase economic growth, boost employability and achieve better health outcomes. There is less which focuses on the aspects of ‘open society’ as defined in this paper. The scope of this review was narrowed to focus upon areas of the ‘open society’ definition where the most evidence does exist, given the timeframe for the review. The scope was narrowed to focus on: democracy, civic engagement, and social cohesion. The review of the literature found strong evidence that equitable quality education can have a range of positive impacts on democracy (specifically, its institutions and processes), civic engagement and social cohesion. There is a considerable body of evidence which indicates that there is a correlation between equitable quality education and benefits to societies (more peaceful, higher levels of trust, greater participation in politics, etc). However, there was no clear evidence that investment in equitable quality education directly leads to positive societal outcomes. This is because there are so many other factors to account for in attempting to prove causation. The lack of rigorous studies which attempt to attribute causation demonstrates a clear evidence gap. It is important to note that education systems themselves are politicised and cannot be divorced from the political process. The extent to which education can impact positively on open society depends a great deal on the value education has within the political system in which it is operating.

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Teaching Trump: Why Comparative Politics Makes Students More Optimistic about US Democracy

Political Science and Politics ◽

10.1017/s1049096518002123 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 347-352

Author(s):

Hannah Baron ◽

Robert A. Blair ◽

Shelby Grossman

Keyword(s):

Civic Engagement ◽

Comparative Politics ◽

The United States ◽

Relative Strength ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

American Democracy ◽

United States Today ◽

The World ◽

Democratic Norms ◽

Academic Year

ABSTRACTHow does learning about democratic erosion in other countries shape opinions about the state of democracy in the United States today? We describe lessons learned from a collaborative course on democratic erosion taught at nearly two dozen universities during the 2017–18 academic year. We use survey data, student-written blog posts, exit questionnaires, and interviews with students who did and did not take the course to explore the effects of studying democratic erosion from a comparative perspective. Do comparisons foster optimism about the relative resilience of American democracy or pessimism about its vulnerability to the same risk factors that have damaged other democracies around the world? Somewhat to our surprise, we find that the course increased optimism about US democracy, instilling greater confidence in the relative strength and longevity of American democratic norms and institutions. We also find, however, that the course did not increase civic engagement and, if anything, appears to have exacerbated skepticism toward activities such as protest. Students who took the course became increasingly sensitive to the possibility that some forms of civic engagement reflect and intensify the same threats to democracy that the course emphasized—especially polarization.

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Sustainability Literacy in a Time of Socio-Ecological Crisis: Using Reaccreditation as a Leverage Point for Innovation in Higher Education

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11185104 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (18) ◽

pp. 5104

Author(s):

Todd LeVasseur ◽

Christopher Ciarcia

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

South Carolina ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Liberal Arts ◽

Sustainability Education ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Ecological Crisis ◽

Leverage Point ◽

Sustainability Literacy ◽

Social Environmental

This article presents a case study of innovation in sustainability education in higher education. It does so by explaining the to-date progress of a multi-year reaccreditation process begun in 2016 for the College of Charleston (CofC), a public liberal arts and sciences university in Charleston, South Carolina of approximately 10,000 undergraduates and 1300 graduate students. The question addressed is how can a higher education institute strategically embed sustainability literacy that is focused on social/environmental engagement, in a way that contributes to measurable student learning gains? We argue that the leverage point of institutional reaccreditation provides a strategic entryway into embedding such sustainability across curricular and co-curricular settings in innovative capacities. We do so by discussing how sustainability education was implemented into a co-curricular civic engagement program, alternative break, to build students’ sustainability literacy at the College of Charleston. The article concludes by reflecting on lessons learned at CofC on how to use institutional reaccreditation as a driver of sustainability education through civic engagement in an era of socio-ecological collapse.

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Transforming Opioid Addictions Care in New Mexico: Combining Medication Treatment with Patient Autonomy, Civic Engagement and Integrative Healing

10.5772/intechopen.98463 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anjali Taneja ◽

William Wagner

Keyword(s):

New Mexico ◽

Civic Engagement ◽

Systems Of Care ◽

Systems Design ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Opioid Overdose ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Treatment Approaches ◽

Medication Treatment ◽

National Crisis

Opioid addiction is a complex issue. New Mexico has historically experienced some of the highest rates of deaths from opioid overdose, and opioid addictions have affected generations of New Mexicans -- starting many years before the more recent national crisis. Treatment approaches to opioid and other addictions are fraught with paternalism, stigma, surveillance, criminalization, shaming, racism, discrimination, and issues with access to care. Current treatment paradigms fail to take into account the social and economic factors of people, community, and context. New paradigms embracing a broader, more-just contextualization of addictions, along with evidence-based treatment approaches are needed to transform medicine’s historic role in the “war on drugs”. The Strong Roots/Raices Fuertes program was developed by two community clinics, Casa de Salud and Centro Sávila, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The program evolved from a desire to to acknowledge and right historical harms that the medical-industrial complex has caused; to provide rapid access to dignified, life-saving, evidence-based holistic treatment for opioid addictions in a community setting; and to build a model of care that transforms the biomedical model into one of solidarity with community and collective care. Five key concepts underpin the program design: 1) Harm Reduction, Autonomy, and Agency; 2) Healing-Centered Engagement; 3) Language and Cultural Humility; 4) Transforming Health Systems Design; 5) Workforce Diversity and Pipeline Training. The program’s core components include conventional approaches such as low-barrier access buprenorphine (suboxone®) to medication treatment, primary care, case management, syringe exchange, and counseling/therapy in addition to more community-rooted and integrative healing modalities such as healing circles, acupuncture, massage, reiki, ear acudetox, and civic engagement. In sharing the values, lessons learned, and tools from our work in the Strong Roots/Raices Fuertes program, we hope to inspire and encourage others wishing to develop new systems of care for people dealing with addiction issues.

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