“City Council Meetings Are Cool”: Increasing Student Civic Engagement Through Service Learning

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura van Assendelft
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
City Council

scholarly journals Together, We Can Make This Place Our Home: Civic Engagement Among Asian Immigrants

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 99-99
Author(s):  
Cindy Bui ◽  
Kyungmin Kim ◽  
Qian Song ◽  
Yuri Jang
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Asian American ◽  
American Culture ◽  
City Council ◽  
Asian Immigrants ◽  
The City ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Acculturation Factors

Abstract Civic engagement is an important dimension of age-friendly communities but has been understudied among Asian immigrant groups. While research has attributed greater civic engagement among immigrants to acculturation factors, the influence of acculturation may be conditioned upon Asian immigrants’ social network and place attachment to their city. We used data from the Asian American Quality of Life survey to analyze civic engagement activity (e.g., City council meeting, voting in a City election) among a diverse sample of middle-aged and older Asian immigrants in Austin, Texas (N = 994). 34.5% of the sample had participated in at least one civic engagement activity in the past 12 months. We examined how such civic engagement is associated with acculturation factors, and further examined whether one’s friend network and perception of their city moderated the association. We found that number of years lived in the U.S., familiarity with mainstream American culture, and number of friends in one’s social network were positively related to civic engagement activity. Furthermore, we found that the association between years lived in the U.S. and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with larger friend networks; the association between familiarity with American culture and civic engagement was more pronounced for immigrants with more positive perceptions of the city. These findings highlight that acculturation may not operate alone in civic engagement among Asian immigrants. Rather, it may also be important to create opportunities for Asian immigrants to feel connected to their community and build meaningful friend networks to encourage civic engagement.

Service-learning effects on student civic engagement and community - A case study from India

2021 ◽  
pp. 174619792110413
Author(s):  
Siamack Zahedi ◽  
Rhea Jaffer ◽  
Camille L Bryant ◽  
Kala Bada
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
School Classroom ◽  
K 12

The development of student civic engagement has featured in Indian educational policies for decades as a critical goal of schooling. However, the narrowness of the prescribed K-12 curricula, and the intense focus on competitive exams, do not support such an outcome. To overcome this problem, ABC School in India decided to pilot service-learning in its middle-school classroom. The idea was to assess the effects of such a program on students and the community’s welfare. Analysis of data from surveys, focus groups, and interviews showed that the service-learning project might have supported increased civic engagement in some students while also enhancing the welfare of the community served. No prior peer-reviewed empirical studies have been published on the nature and effects of service-learning at schools in India.

scholarly journals The Public and Private Spirit of Engagement

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Young Teacher

From the early days of my career as an educator, I recall a discussion with students about their service-learning experiences in the community. “What I learned is that I really don’t like poor people,” one student said, without rancor. Chuckles of acknowledgment could be heard around the classroom. As a young teacher trying to learn how to facilitate reflection, I suddenly saw a space open up in the conversation for possibilities. One student’s honesty had allowed all of them to consider, without the anxiety of judgment, what they thought about what was going on inside themselves. Something had happened. That something was civic engagement.

Weakening the Strong Mayor: Partisan Division and Presidential Intervention in Istanbul

2021 ◽  
pp. 0160323X2110453
Author(s):  
İhsan İkizer
Keyword(s):  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Central Government ◽  
City Council ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Central Government Agencies ◽  
Mayoral Leadership ◽  
The City ◽  
Ruling Party

Istanbul, the leading city of Turkey, is a good case for analyzing the conflictual relations of the mayor with the city council and the central government. Istanbul had been governed by the mayors from the ruling party, the Justice and Development Party ( Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi; AKP) and its predecessor parties since 1994. In the local elections held in March 2019, which was repeated only for Istanbul after two months with a highly suspicious decision by the Supreme Election Board, the AKP lost this city. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, has harsh relations with the city council, which is dominated by the AKP and its alliance party, the Nationalist Movement Party ( Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi; MHP). What exacerbates this situation is the partisan intervention of the increasingly authoritarian central government that weakens the mayor's position. The mayor tries to counterbalance the power of the city council and central government agencies through livestreaming the city council meetings and attracting civic engagement on his side. This article is expected to contribute to the literature on mayoral leadership, partisan constraints to mayoral powers as well as the mayor's strategies against the authoritarian intervention of the central governments. Mayor İmamoğlu's strategies and measures adopted for overcoming the efforts of blocking his agenda by both the council and central government might inspire other mayors experiencing similar partisan constraints.

Global Civic Engagement as an Empowering Device for Cross-Ethnic and Cross-Cultural Understanding in Taiwan

2019 ◽  
pp. 276-297
Author(s):  
Mei-Ying Chen ◽  
Fu-hsing Su
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
General Education ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Understanding ◽  
Motivational Readiness ◽  
New Immigrants ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Oral Presentations

This study observed the feasibility of a general education course in facilitating global civic engagement for twenty-six participants from a Taiwanese university. Such a commitment was considered crucial to the fostering of cross-ethnic and cross-cultural understanding of immigration and new immigrants as a global issue within the Taiwanese context. Oral presentations, film/video watching, and service learning sessions were arranged to promote critical appraisals of things, persons, and issues related to foreign ethnicities and cultures. Data of the study consisted of relevant writings produced by the participants. The results of analyses revealed that the participants developed an awareness of persons, things, and issues that were cross-ethnic or cross-cultural in nature. Consequently, they achieved attitudinal and perceptional change of foreign ethnicities or cultures or generated critical appraisals of specific things or issues. Additionally, a considerable number of them displayed motivational readiness for global civic engagement.

Service learning, civic engagement, and science.

2015 ◽  
pp. 37-52
Author(s):  
Robert G. Bringle ◽  
Roger N. Reeb ◽  
Margaret A. Brown ◽  
Ana I. Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Civic Engagement

Community Engagement in the Liberal Arts: How Service Hours and Reflections Influence Course Value

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 416-430
Author(s):  
David Lynn Painter ◽  
Courtney Howell
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Arts Community ◽  
Individual Conversations

Background: In response to critics’ charges that the liberal arts lack practical value, most colleges have incorporated service-learning in their curricula. Ideally, these service-learning activities not only benefit the community but also enhance the course’s (a) pedagogical effectiveness as well as the students’ (b) civic engagement and (c) professional development. Purpose: This investigation uses a survey to measure the extent to which service-learning in community engagement courses at a liberal arts college achieved these three outcomes. Methodology/Approach: Specifically, we parsed the influence of service hours and reflection activities on 740 students’ ratings of pedagogical effectiveness, civic engagement, and professional development. Findings/Conclusions: The results suggest students in community engagement courses that included at least 15 service hours and three different types of reflections reported significantly greater outcome achievement than those with fewer hours or reflections. Moreover, class discussions and individual conversations were rated the most effective types of reflection activities. Implications: Based on these findings, we provide some best practice suggestions for service hours and reflection activities in liberal arts community engagement courses.

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