The dynamic components of citizenship education and student engagement: lessons for leaders and educators

Abstract

The study utilized a traditional qualitative case study approach to investigate two curricula offered at a single middle school in a suburb of a major metropolitan area. Three groups of participants, totally 50 individuals, were interviewed. Participant groups included middle school administrators, middle school teachers, and middle school students. Interviews were analyzed by using idiosyncratic analysis within each participant group and nomothetic analysis across all participant groups. Interview analysis was augmented with document analysis. Pre-interview questionnaires were used to provide a prelude to this qualitative study.Information from a review of four focused literature sets provided the foundation for the conceptual framework for this study. Through an exploration and review of literature, several key concepts were found to contribute to student engagement. The themes that consistently appeared in literature that were germane to this study were divided into three main categories: academic engagement, civic engagement, social engagement. Data were analyzed by examining characteristics that impact student engagement identified by administrators, teachers and students. Major findings of the study revolved around the characteristics most often perceived by participants as causing student academic, civic, and social engagement. Without a doubt, the components of citizenship education that produce full student engagement are numerous. In sum, full student engagement is the result of a variety of external and internal components whose nature can be characterized in terms of "doing", "being", or both. A newly introduced Model for Capturing Descriptions of Engagement (Figure 3, p. 237) summarizes these various components, and suggests the difficult reality that exists when interpreting qualitative data in a highly quantitative paradigm.