ABSTRACT
Prior research has revealed perceived barriers to youth civic engagement including middle grades students’ beliefs that their peers do not desire to engage in civic action and students’ perceived lack of support from and ability to network with youth and adult partnerships in the community. The author revisits this research in relation to current civics curriculum models. These include (a) curricula based on citizenship theories from Scholars of Color, particularly in terms of the relational nature of citizenship when addressing the adolescents’ concerns regarding the recruitment of civic action among their peers; (b) the inclusion of civil society within civics curriculum as a way to address the need for partnerships in order to do collective civic work; and (c) the need to teach specific, present-day organizing strategies drawn from current social movements. The author develops these ideas as a way to think about the possibilities of deepening our civics curricula to be more nuanced, practical, and engaged with the complexities of democratic citizenship.
