Educating Elementary and Secondary School Students for Civic Engagement: The Impact of Teacher Professional Development
By Diana Owen
Civics instruction for American elementary and middle school students is deprioritized despite its potential to achieve strong positive outcomes. A lack of teacher preparation in civics is one explanation for the lack of civic education for young students. This study examines the connection between teacher professional development (PD) and students’ civic outcomes focusing on the Center for Civic Education’s We the People: Civics that Empowers All Students (CEAS) program. CEAS provides PD to teachers who instruct the Center’s We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution curriculum in their classes. It addresses the central questions: (1) To what extent do teachers gain knowledge of civics and government from the CEAS PD program? (2) How and to what extent do teachers incorporate pedagogical approaches from the CEAS PD program in their classrooms? (3) Do students whose teachers received the CEAS PD make significant gains in civic knowledge and skills? The findings demonstrate that teachers and their students made substantial gains in civic knowledge due to their participation in CEAS. Teachers consistently integrated active learning pedagogies integral to We the People that promote civic skills in their classes. Students developed communication and civil discourse skills and teamwork and collaboration skills after participating in We the People.