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Building Citizenship: How Student Voice in Service‐Learning Develops Civic Values
Author(s) -
Morgan William,
Streb Matthew
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/0038-4941.00014
Subject(s) - citizenship , service learning , civic engagement , politics , service (business) , active citizenship , public relations , psychology , survey data collection , citizenship education , sociology , social psychology , political science , mathematics education , pedagogy , business , marketing , law , statistics , mathematics
Objective . Though many decry the decline in political participation and interest, few academic studies present a clear approach to help reverse these trends. This paper examines the impact of service‐learning programs on students' self‐concept, political engagement, and attitudes toward out‐groups. Methods . The data come from a pre and post survey given to more than 200 high school students in 10 different schools. We use Huber regression to assess the impact of student voice in the service‐learning project on six dependent variables. Results . We show that if students are involved in service‐learning projects in which they have a high degree of voice and ownership, their self‐concept and political engagement will improve, and they become more tolerant toward out‐groups. Conclusion . In short, having a voice in service‐learning programs builds citizenship.