Chapter 3
©️2022 by Solution Tree Press
The Power of Action Civics and Authentic Experiences
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efore diving into action civics, it helps to define what we mean by a traditional approach to civic education. Most traditional educators tend to focus on systems and structures of government. In the United States, this comes with an in-depth study of the founding fathers, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments. Along with these topics, these teachers tend to revere the United States and its institutions, with a goal to promote a sense of unifying patriotism and civic responsibility (Levine & Kawashima-Ginsberg, 2015). Although framing this as an either-or scenario oversimplifies it, there are key differences between a traditional approach and action civics. Educators who advocate for action civics tend to encourage students to identify societal problems and design public policy solutions to address them. This approach also encourages students to reach out to public officials and mobilize support for their public policy solutions. Action civics has significant overlap with other concepts, such as service learning, project-based learning, experiential learning, and others. Despite the overlap, the idea of action civics has gained traction with civic education organizations in a way that weaves these concepts into a more comprehensive approach to teaching civic action (Levine & Kawashima-Ginsberg, 2017). Understanding the founding era, the U.S. Constitution, and other, more traditional concepts is still considered important, but
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