Youth Civic Development: Historical Context and Emerging Issues

Abstract

The civic domain has taken its place in the scholarship and practice of youth development. From the beginning, the field has focused on youth as assets who contribute to the common good of their communities. Work at the cutting edge of this field integrates research and practice and focuses on the civic incorporation of groups who often have been marginalized from mainstream society. The body of work also extends topics of relevance to human development by considering themes of justice, social responsibility, critical consciousness, and collective action.

Full text

Flanagan, C. A., & Christens, B. D. (2011). Youth civic development: Historical context and
emerging issues. In C. A. Flanagan & B. D. Christens (Eds.), Youth civic development:
Work at the cutting edge. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 134, 1–9.
1
Youth Civic Development: Historical Context
and Emerging Issues
Constance A. Flanagan, Brian D. Christens
Abstract
The civic domain has taken its place in the scholarship and practice of youth
development. From the beginning, the field has focused on youth as assets who
contribute to the common good of their communities. Work at the cutting edge
of this field integrates research and practice and focuses on the civic incorpo-
ration of groups who often have been marginalized from mainstream society.
The body of work also extends topics of relevance to human development by
considering themes of justice, social responsibility, critical consciousness, and
collective action. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, no. 134, Winter 2011 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). • DOI: 10.1002/cd.307 1

2 YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT: WORK AT THE CUTTING EDGE
Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of
the civic/political domain as a context for adolescent and youth
development. Signs that this field has come of age include the for-
mation of CIRCLE (www.civicyouth.org), a national research organization
and clearinghouse on youth civic engagement and the publication of the
fi rst Handbook of Research on Civic Engagement in Youth (Sherrod, Torney-
Purta, & Flanagan, 2010). In addition, two prominent international
reports on youth in the majority world devoted chapters to citizenship.
Both Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Develop-
ing Countries (Lloyd, 2005) issued by the National Research Council and
Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Population and World Development
Report: Development and the Next Generation issued by the World Bank
(2007) considered the civic engagement of younger generations important
in its own right, but also critical for the health of communities, econo-
mies, governments, and societies.
An Evolving Field
Scholarly interest in the civic/political domain had been increasing in North
America and Western Europe, in part, due to concerns that recent cohorts of
young adults had become disengaged from politics and civic life, and that
the community organizations that ushered younger generations into civic/
political life were on the decline (Putnam, 2000). Consequently, attention
turned to the developmental precursors of adult political engagement and
to a definition of civic life that expanded beyond electoral politics.
From its inception, this field involved practitioners and scholars from
multiple disciplines, most notably, education, youth development, politi-
cal science, and psychology. Besides its multidisciplinary character, it also
was a field that believed in the reciprocal relationship between theory and
practice. In this regard, the contributions of two bodies of scholarship are
especially noteworthy. Research on positive youth development (PYD) and
on service learning/community service both have focused attention on
the contributions that young people make to their communities (Benson,
Scales, Hamilton, & Sesma, 2006; Furco & Root, 2010). These fi elds have
contributed to our understanding of youth as assets to their communities
and as agents of social change; they also have pointed to the opportunities
for civic engagement in the contexts where young people spend time.
Research on civic education and on extracurricular and community-based
organizations has complemented this scholarship.
What have we learned? First, youth are more likely to be civically
active as adults if they have had opportunities during adolescence to work
collaboratively with peers and adults on engaging issues and to discuss
current events with parents, teachers, and peers. Interest in political issues
tends to be generated by controversy, contestation, discussion, and the
perception that it matters to take a stand. Second, young people’s sense of
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3 YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT
social incorporation (solidarity with others, identification with commu-
nity institutions, being respected and heard by adults) is a psychological
factor that is positively related to youth assuming social responsibility for
others in their communities and for taking civic actions (e.g., voting and
volunteering) in young adulthood. These relationships are true for youth
from different social class and ethnic backgrounds. Third, there is a class
and racial divide in the civic opportunities available to young people:
cumulative disadvantage built up over the years of pre-school through
twelfth grade (including the lack of opportunities to practice civic skills,
the competing demands on attention and time of living in economically
stressed communities, and especially events such as dropping out of
school or getting arrested) depresses civic incorporation and civic action
later in life. Fourth, besides opportunities, there are traits of personality
(e.g., extraversion, confidence, optimism) that predispose some youth to
join organizations and get engaged in civic action. Fifth, youth engage-
ment in meaningful civic projects is positively associated with their psy-
chosocial well-being and mental health.
This volume of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development
builds on the extant body of work and pushes the boundaries in cutting-
edge theoretical, empirical, and practical directions. Like the PYD and ser-
vice learning paradigms, the focus is on youth as assets, acting in the
broader and best interests of their communities. Nevertheless, contributors
to the volume press beyond these paradigms by raising issues of social jus-
tice and unequal access to society’s resources for groups of youth who are
marginalized from the mainstream. Further, besides identifying inequalities
in access, the authors expound on ways that young people are contesting
those injustices by taking action. Moreover, several chapters focus on
groups of youth who often have been left out of the literature on youth
civic engagement. Three chapters focus in particular on the political/
civic actions of youth in the United States who are marginalized due to
their social class, ethnic minority, or immigrant status. Two others draw
from research on youth in the majority world.
The volume also makes cutting-edge contributions to theory in this
field and in the broader field of adolescent development, in part because
contributors have extended the boundaries of questions to ask, and of
groups of young people to include in answering them. The lens is on the
value of collective action and commitment to a common good for adoles-
cent development. In itself, this is a departure from the more common
emphasis on individual and interpersonal relationships in the fi eld of
youth development.
Organization of the Volume
Laura Wray-Lake and Amy Syvertsen open the volume with a chapter
on the developmental origins of social responsibility in childhood and
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4 YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT: WORK AT THE CUTTING EDGE
adolescence. This value orientation, which is based on empathy with oth-
ers, transcends self-interest and links one’s well-being and fate with those
of fellow human beings. Thus, social responsibility refers to obligations
for our common good or shared self-interest with fellow citizens and
human beings. Arguing that this value orientation is at the heart of civic/
political action, Wray-Lake and Syvertsen trace its developmental founda-
tions to socialization that emphasizes principles of care and justice and
that respects children’s rights to participate in democratic decision
making. Socialization practices such as modeling prosocial action (e.g.,
parents’ own involvement in community action) or emphasizing standards
of concern or care for others when communicating with children nurture
socially responsible children and adolescents.
In the next chapter Brian Christens and Ben Kirshner provide an inte-
grative and historical analysis of the interdisciplinary field of youth orga-
nizing. They trace the evolution of this field that from the beginning was
attentive to the insights and the anger of young people who were margin-
alized from mainstream institutions. The authors characterize the fi eld of
youth organizing as a combination of community organizing, with its
emphasis on ordinary people working collectively to advance shared inter-
ests, and positive youth development, with its emphasis on asset-based
approaches to working with young people. Based on an impressive body
of scholarship employing different theoretical perspectives, Christens and
Kirshner identify common elements of this form of youth civic engage-
ment including relationship development, popular education, social
action, and participatory research and evaluation. In just a little over a
decade, youth organizing has evolved from an innovative, but marginal
model to one that is widely recognized, respected, and adopted by com-
munity-based youth development organizations.
In the next chapter on critical consciousness, Roderick Watts, Matthew
Diemer, and Adam Voight also apply a historical lens by locating the theo-
retical origins of this approach to youth political development in Paulo
Freire’s classic work in Brazil. The capacities of people—regardless of their
background or education—to analyze their society and their place in it is
the process of becoming conscious, as Freire advocated. Not surprisingly,
issues of social justice emerge when it is the powerless who participate in
this process. However, awareness is only the beginning. According to Watts,
Diemer, and Voight, besides critical reflection, critical action and political
efficacy are core components of critical consciousness as an approach to
youth political development.
The political consciousness and action of Latina/o immigrants is the
subject of the next chapter. Author Hinda Seif illustrates several ways in
which attention to the political activities of this group enrich the fi eld of
youth civic engagement. First, although undocumented immigrants are, in
principle, the object of anti-immigrant discourse and policies, discrimina-
tion also is leveled at Latina/os who are citizens of the United States or
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5 YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT
legal residents because of their shared cultural/ethnic identity. Thus,
Latina/o youth, regardless of their legal status, have a vested interest in a
shared political cause. Second, attention to the forms that immigrants’
engagement takes expands the concept of civic participation. Although
immigrant youth may not be eligible to vote, many volunteer in their
communities and mediate between their cultural group and mainstream
culture, often interpreting policy and the law for older members of their
ethnic group. The high level of young Latina/o participation in protests
against anti-immigrant legislation belies assertions that they are politically
disengaged. Finally, Seif raises a developmental argument about the dawn-
ing of political consciousness in this group. Whereas they are guaranteed
rights to public education in childhood, they are excluded from other
routes to citizenship upon graduation from high school. Attaining the
American dream via access to education has become the political cause
uniting Latina/o youth and lobbying for DREAM legislation has resulted
in many becoming political leaders, symbols for younger and older
co-ethnics.
The last two chapters move beyond the United States. First, Robert
Serpell, Paul Mumba, and Tamara Chansa-Kabali describe an innovative
elementary curriculum in a rural community in Zambia and document
the long-term impact on social responsibility in young adulthood. The
Child-to-Child (CtC) curriculum focuses on health education and prac-
tices that enable children to assume responsibility for the health of
younger peers. President Kenneth Kaunda officially launched the program
in Zambia with a call for all children to consider themselves champions of
people’s health. The curriculum builds on the common practices of many
African cultures of assigning children responsibilities for the community
early in life. Mumba describes the democratic practices that he adopted as
a teacher of the CtC curriculum including mixed-gender peer groups
that emphasized interdependence in learning; gender neutrality in the
allocation of tasks and leadership; group collaboration and evaluations
based on group performance, which encouraged faster learners to help
slower students; children’s rights to voice and to disagree with one
another; and opportunities for contributing to the nurturant care of
younger children and for engagement in public service. The authors end
their chapter with a summary of their follow-up research with young
adults seventeen years after completing the CtC program. Participants
reported that involvement in CtC promoted their personal agency, cooper-
ative disposition, attitudes toward gender equality, and civic responsibility
in early adulthood.
The volume closes with a chapter by Constance Flanagan, M. Loreto
Martinez, Patricio Cumsille, and Tsakani Ngomane. Drawing from studies
and historical events in many parts of the majority world, these authors
argue that there are certain universal aspects of the civic domain in youth
development. These include the primacy of collective action for forming
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6 YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT: WORK AT THE CUTTING EDGE
political identities and ideas and the greater heterogeneity of encounters
in the civic when compared to other activity domains; the groupways or
accumulated opportunities for acting over the course of childhood and
adolescence due to the groups (cultural, gender, social class, caste, etc.) to
which a young person belongs; and the role of mediating institutions
(schools, community-based organizations, etc.) as spaces where the
younger generation’s collective actions contribute to political stability and
change. The authors argue that theory in the broader field of youth devel-
opment could be enriched by systematically attending to these common
elements of the civic domain.
Conclusion
The chapters in this volume have in common a set of understandings that
are drawn from the contemporary scholarship on positive youth develop-
ment and civic engagement. For example, all of the authors embrace per-
spectives on young people as societal assets that should be supported to
develop to their greatest potential, rather than treated as latent problems
or sheltered from interactions with their communities. All of the authors
argue for more intergenerational and inclusive public policies and prac-
tices in community and organizational settings. Moreover, all authors
share the perspective that societies are enhanced when young people are
able to participate and contribute in meaningful ways. These core under-
standings have been steadily gaining wider acceptance, not only in the
study of childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood, but also in
practice across many fields and settings.
However, the chapters in this volume also go further by pointing to
emerging directions within the young field of youth civic development.
Drawing out the various strands from this issue, we believe that there are
cases to be made for several pertinent and emerging directions for theory,
research, and action. First, issues of justice and power continue to dwell at
the margins of the larger discussions on positive youth development and
the most prevalent models for youth civic engagement (e.g., service learn-
ing, volunteering). More of these models, and more of the empirical and
theoretical work on positive youth development, should consider the
implications of systematic injustices and the possibilities for building
power among marginalized groups and solidarity across lines of difference.
Second, the majority world should feature more prominently in research on
youth civic development—for theory’s sake, if not for the simple reason
that the majority world is home to the vast majority of young people. Third,
the challenges faced by marginalized populations in both the majority and
minority worlds should become the focus of more action-oriented work on
positive youth development and civic engagement. Growing inequalities
mean that the need is ever greater for models that engage young people in
the task of addressing social and political challenges through democratic
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7 YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT
action. More of the research on youth development and civic engagement
should meet these challenges head on (Watts & Flanagan, 2007).
The contributions of the volume to theory also derive from the fact
that the authors take seriously Kurt Lewin’s (1951) commitment to action
research and his appreciation that both theory and practice are enriched
when scholars and practitioners collaborate in defining the questions and
methods of inquiry. Lewin’s observation is now six decades old but still
resonates today:
Many psychologists working today in an applied field are keenly aware of
the need for close cooperation between theoretical and applied psychology.
This can be accomplished in psychology, as it has been accomplished in
physics, if the theorist does not look toward applied problems with high-
brow aversion or with a fear of social problems, and if the applied psycholo-
gist realizes that there is nothing so practical as a good theory. (p. 169)
The intimate connection between theory and practice is a common
deno minator in these chapters. For example, youth organizing is based on
an integration of community-based practice with scholarship and analysis
of the practice. Theory about social change in the gender attitudes of
young adults in Zambia emerges from a careful analysis of the practice in
the CtC curriculum that tried to change those attitudes.
Through this interconnected view of research and practice, the chap-
ters in this volume also identify applications to practice. These are relevant
across the full spectrum of youth-oriented and intergenerational settings
(e.g., educational institutions, after-school programs, nonprofi t organiza-
tions) and the policies that support this work. Critical consciousness (Watts,
Diemer & Voight, this volume) and social responsibility (Wray-Lake
& Syvertsen, this volume) provide two conceptual anchor points for prac-
tice. In addition, both concepts represent potential target outcomes for
youth programming and education. Experiential education and participa-
tory action research are two of the most promising mechanisms for develop-
ing social responsibility and critical consciousness. Examples of programs
and settings that incorporate these mechanisms include youth organizing
initiatives like those described by Christens and Kirshner, youth-led curri-
cula like the CtC curriculum described in the chapter by Serpell, Mumba,
and Chansa-Kabali, and involvement in social movements like the young
leaders organizing for immigrant rights described in the chapter by Seif.
Further, the more common settings that youth inhabit (e.g., schools, sports
teams, and other extracurricular activities) can become more explicit in
their intent to cultivate civic development including social responsibility
and critical consciousness.
Besides practice, theories of youth development also are enriched by
attention to the civic domain. As Flanagan, Martinez, Cumsille, and Ngo-
mane discuss, there are universal aspects of this domain that transcend
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8 YOUTH CIVIC DEVELOPMENT: WORK AT THE CUTTING EDGE
particular polities and cultures. Scholarly attention to the collective
actions of young people working to make their schools or their nations
more inclusive may yield new insights into ways that people fulfi ll the
human need to belong. Exposure to more heterogeneous people and per-
spectives through civic action may enhance adolescents’ intellectual and
reflective capacities. Moreover, understanding why young people engage
in civic work may expand theories of motivation and purpose. In particu-
lar, attention to the civic actions of young people who are all too often
absent from research should expand our paradigms of youth development
and the way we frame our inquiries. This volume of New Directions in
Child and Adolescent Development signifies that youth civic engagement
has come of age as an important domain of youth development. Nonethe-
less, in its relatively short life span, the field has evolved and the future
is wide open.
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CONSTANCE A. FLANAGAN is professor of human ecology at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. E-mail: cafl anagan@wisc.edu
BRIAN D. CHRISTENS is assistant professor of human ecology at the University
of Wisconsin–Madison. E-mail: bchristens@wisc.edu
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR CHILD AND ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT • DOI: 10.1002/cd