Brett Levy

In the United States, elected leaders and the general public have become more politically polarized during the past several decades, making bipartisan compromise difficult. Political scientists and educational scholars have argued that generating productive political cooperation requires preparing members of democratic societies to productively negotiate their political disagreements. Numerous prior studies on civic learning have focused on fostering youth political engagement, but little research has examined how educators can support both political engagement and political open-mindedness. The study described in this paper explores how students’ experiences in a unique high school government course may help to foster their open-minded political engagement (OMPE) which we define as an individual’s propensity to explore and participate in political affairs while maintaining a willingness to adjust one’s political views. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we examined the development of adolescents’ OMPE during their participation in high school government courses at three schools. Whereas participants at Standard High (N=87) completed a traditional government course, students at Green High (N=224) and Gomez High (N=94) were enrolled in the Legislative Semester course, an extended political simulation that required students to research, discuss, debate, and mock-vote on controversial public issues. At each research site, we gathered data through student surveys, teacher and student interviews, and classroom observations during the fall 2014-15 semester. We analyzed survey data using principal component analysis, t-tests, and OLS regression, and we conducted constant comparative analysis with our qualitative data. Students in the LS program became more politically engaged and open-minded than students in the traditional government course. Whereas studying and exploring various political issues was especially helpful for the development of political engagement, considering diverse political perspectives in an open classroom environment was helpful for the development of political open-mindedness. However, if students in the LS were encouraged to be partisan, they were less likely to develop greater political open-mindedness. Repeated opportunities to examine diverse political ideas with peers can foster the development of open-minded political engagement. Educators can support such exchanges not only through structuring substantive sharing of diverse political perspectives but also through creating emotionally “safe” classroom environments, encouraging the expression of minority viewpoints, and de-emphasizing partisan uniformity. Encouraging careful listening – rather than polite hearing – may be central for the development of political open-mindedness.

Many educational researchers across the United States have found that inquiry-based learning (IBL) supports the development of deep, meaningful content knowledge. However, integrating IBL into classroom practice has been challenging, in part
because of contrasting conceptualizations and practices across educational fields. In this article, we (a) describe differing conceptions of IBL, (b) summarize our own studies of IBL in three fields of education, (c) compare and contrast the processes and purposes of IBL in our studies and fields, and (d) suggest numerous opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaborations on IBL curriculum, teaching, and research that could bolster its inclusion in K-12 education. We ground our exploration in knowledge-generating conceptualizations and practices in these fields.

Many scholars have written about the Internet's potential for engaging youth in public issues, but there has been little empirical research on the political engagement outcomes from students' classroom-based use of web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, or the pedagogies involved in designing such experiences. This paper begins to address this gap by analyzing the development of political engagement among several dozen high school students who were required to complete political blogs for their required U.S. government course and by exploring their teacher's pedagogical strategies and challenges. We analyzed data from 22 classroom observations, 15 student interviews, three teacher interviews, and surveys from over 300 students (including a large comparison group) given at the beginning and end of the fall 2012À13 semester. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that students in the blog-focused classes developed greater political interest, internal political efficacy, and self-efficacy for political writing than other students. We also found that the teacher did not actively encourage interactive posting in order to avoid heated exchanges e but that many students expressed an interest in seeing more responses to their online writing. We discuss implications for practice and research.

Political interest is one of the most consistent predictors of political participation, but little research has examined how
it develops. This study explores adolescents’ political interest development during the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
The research team collected and analyzed longitudinal data (surveys, interviews, observations) in high schools located in
conservative, liberal, and centrist communities within one swing state. Findings indicate that students’ political interest
increased during the election. These increases were related to greater public attention to politics and having opportunities
to explore multiple sides of political issues and express political opinions. When guiding such experiences, some teachers
struggled with various challenges, including one-sided political environments and students’ political cynicism. This study
has numerous implications for education in democratic societies.

Researchers have found that when young people participate in discussions of controversial political
issues, they often become more politically engaged and informed (Hess, 2009). Nonetheless, some
educators avoid fostering such discussions because they can become heated and distract from
academic learning (Hess, 2002). Presidential elections, including the highly publicized debates,
provide substantial material for discussions of major national and international issues, but no
published research has examined how educators can leverage these events to generate productive
civic learning experiences. In this article, we analyze data collected in seven high school classrooms
during the 2012 presidential election to examine the challenges and opportunities associated with
generating substantive, dynamic discussions of presidential debates. Our findings indicate that
students enjoyed learning about candidates’ different perspectives and that certain strategies were
especially helpful for fostering substantive discussions: (a) scaffolding students’ preparation for
discussion; (b) providing opportunities for students to address open-ended questions; (c)
redirecting students’ engagement in competitive, interpersonal dynamics to learning about public
issues; and (d) countering students’ partisan tendencies. We discuss implications for practice and
research and present a conceptual framework for generating dynamic, substantive democratic
discussions.