Deliberating Public Policy Issues with Adolescents: Classroom Dynamics and Sociocultural Considerations
- Resource Type
- Journal Articles
Reports - Research
- Authors
- Crocco, Margaret; Segall, Avner; Halvorsen, Anne-Lise; Jacobsen, Rebecca
- Source
- Democracy & Education. 2018 26(1).
- Subject
- Public Policy
Adolescents
Discussion (Teaching Technique)
Civics
Controversial Issues (Course Content)
Social Studies
Immigration
Immigrants
High Schools
Democracy
Citizenship
Citizen Participation
Decision Making
Learner Engagement
High School Students
Citizenship Education
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1085-3545
Classroom discussion and deliberation have been widely touted in the research literature as a centerpiece of high quality civic education. Empirical studies, however, of such processes are relatively few. In a public policy deliberation on immigration conducted in three Midwestern high schools during the academic year 2015-16, the authors found that analysis of a set of deliberations on the subject of immigration policy in the United States reveals the ways in which sociocultural identity aspects of the settings and participants influenced the processes and dynamics of these classroom events. Reflecting upon this analysis suggests a set of factors that reveal the degree to which classroom deliberations are shaped by factors other than rational consideration of the topic.