ERIC Number: EJ1395969
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 28
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1081-4760
EISSN: N/A
Centering Youth Voices: An Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Approach to Civic Engagement
Dobbs, Kirstie Lynn; Hsu, Laura M.; Garrone-Shufran, Stephanie; Barber, Nicholas; Kourouma, Fatoumata; Perez-Castillo, Yarielis; Rich, Samantha
Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies, v40 n2 p11-38 Fall 2022
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many youth felt disconnected from on-the-ground engagement with their peers, their communities, and the wider society. School closures also impeded progress in some students' abilities to write, speak, and express themselves through various media. A team of interdisciplinary and intergenerational faculty and undergraduate students from Merrimack College in Massachusetts sought to investigate and redress these challenges by building young people's interest in engaged citizenship along with their writing, speaking, and team-building skills through a civic engagement program with middle school students, facilitated in collaboration with the local YMCA. In designing and delivering the program, we took an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach that centers the voices of youth in both research and action. Drawing on our team members' disciplines of biology, criminology, education, health sciences, history, human development, and political science, we developed a conceptual framework to co-create a civic engagement curriculum for BIPOC and multilingual youth in a neighboring community that is currently ranked as having the lowest per capita income in Massachusetts. We made a point of incorporating the views of our youngest team members, our students, and also those of the middle school youth we hoped to serve. A focus group that we conducted with the undergraduate students after the first iteration of the program was completed revealed that their understanding of civic engagement and desire and capacity to pursue it were positively impacted as a result of the interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and intergenerational collaboration that we describe below.
Descriptors: Interdisciplinary Approach, Civics, Citizenship Education, Program Design, Partnerships in Education, Middle School Students, Curriculum Development, Curriculum Design, Participatory Research, Action Research, Undergraduate Students, Citizen Participation, Definitions
Association for Interdisciplinary Studies. Oakland University, Macomb County, 44575 Garfield Road Building UC2 Suite 103, Clinton Township, MI 48038. Tel: 586-263-6098; Fax: 586-263-6261; e-mail: ais@interdisciplinarystuides.org; Web site: https://interdisciplinarystudies.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Massachusetts
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A