Civics Education in the Exoclassroom

 

Worcester, Massachusetts: How can students be connected as citizens? 

As politicians wrangle over the future of civics education in the United States this week, I sat down to develop a project that would enable students in a Comparative Government course to move beyond learning about citizenship by being and acting as citizens. Building upon an existing interview driven research project and Massachusetts’ Civic Project Guidebook (2018), the resulting six stage project challenges students to reflect upon the meaning of citizenship and community before conducting in depth research into a civic issue the results of which are then presented through a multimedia website and discussions with decisionmakers, influencers, activists, and community members. Critically, I endeavored to use the project to unite the rigorous skills and expectations of the classroom with the uncertainty and messiness of the exoclassroom. The full description is available here.