ABSTRACT
In this chapter we argue that elementary school civic education can and should build on students’ politicized educational experiences. Drawing from long-term ethnographic studies with Latinx and African American elementary school students in Pennsylvania and Ohio, we propose validating and incorporating these knowledges for impactful civic education. By recognizing and incorporating students’ experiences for academic goals, civic education can move beyond teaching and learning sanitized versions of U.S. history, government, voting, or volunteering. In this way incorporation of children’s knowledge and experiences can meet top-down assessment goals while also fostering pathways for all students to develop critical understandings of civic life in which they work towards change as civically engaged members of their communities.
