What's New in Civic Education and Youth Civic Engagement Work .... (December 2007 Archive Section)

December 28, 2007


Now available: CIRCLE has recently updated its "quick facts" at http://www.civicyouth.org. Below is a sample of just a few.

Youth Demographics
- Nearly 20 percent of all young Americans were either immigrants or the children of immigrants in 2006.

Youth Voting
- In 2006, the metropolitan areas with the highest youth turnout were the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St.Paul, 47 percent), Milwaukee (39 percent), and Detroit (38 percent).

Signe-up for the monthly CIRCLE e-updates at http://www.civicyouth.org.


December 26, 2007


Congressional Research Awards Announcement

The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress. A total of up to $30,000 will be available in 2008. Awards range from a few hundred dollars to $3,500.

The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying Congress. Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible. The Center encourages graduate students who have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus to apply and awards a significant portion of the funds for dissertation research.

The awards program does not fund undergraduate or pre-Ph.D. study. Organizations are not eligible. Research teams of two or more individuals are eligible. No institutional overhead or indirect costs may be claimed against a Congressional Research Award.

There is no standard application form. Applicants are responsible for showing the relationship between their work and the awards program guidelines. Applications are accepted at any time. Applications which exceed the page limit and incomplete applications will NOT be forwarded to the screening committee for consideration.

All application materials must be received on or before February 1, 2008. Awards will be announced in March 2008. For complete information about eligibility and application procedures go to The Center's Web site at: http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_grants_CRAs.htm. You may also contact Frank Mackaman, program officer: mailto:fmackaman@dirksencenter.org.


December 21, 2007


Citizenship Matters, released by the National Center on Learning and Citizenship at Education Commission of the States, highlights the following:

What is described as the largest gathering of youths and practitioners from the service-learning movement takes place April 9-12, 2008 in Minneapolis at the 19th Annual National Service-Learning Conference. Early bird registration deadline is December 3, 2007. Complete conference information is on the National Youth Leadership Council's Web site.
https://programs.regweb.com/metro/NYLC2008/index.cfm?page=registrationinfo

NCLC is hosting an administration academy during the Annual National Service-Learning Conference. District and school leaders will explore ways service-learning contributes to students' academic achievement and civic, social and career development. Check the conference Web site for more details on the Administrator Academy and to register for the conference.
https://programs.regweb.com/metro/NYLC2008/index.cfm?page=registrationinfo


December 19, 2007


Reminder: Scholarships for Service in Montana

$150,000 in scholarships are available for high school seniors who perform service to their community. Students who perform 100 hours of community service before May 16, 2008 will qualify for a $1,000 educational award. One student per high school may apply and the scholarships will be awarded on a first come first served basis. For more visit the ECS website at: http://www.ecs.org/00CN3676


December 18, 2007


Thaddeus Ferber Selected in Case Foundation's Top 100 Make It Your Own Awards

The Case Foundation's Make It Your Own Awards are given to individuals who connect, innovate, and activate their communities. This grants program challenges people from all walks of life to discuss what matters most to them, decide what kind of community they want, and take action together. We are proud to announce that the "Democracy in Facebook" proposal submitted by Thaddeus Ferber (program director at the Forum) was selected as one of the the Top 100 ideas submitted by nearly 5,000 applicants from all across the country. In February, the Case Foundation will reveal the Top 20 finalists.

For more go to: http://miyo.casefoundation.org/democracy-in-facebook


December 17, 2007


A new report, "New Times Demand New Scholarship II: Research Universities and Civic Engagement - Opportunities and Challenges" (by Timothy K. Stanton, Stanford University) recently published by UCLA calls for research universities to embrace community engagement and outlines steps they can take to make that happen. The report, developed at a February meeting of nearly two dozen research universities hosted by the UCLA Center for Community Partnerships, recommends that universities engage undergraduate and graduate students in research that addresses local community needs, develop courses that enable students to link their academic studies to service, and convene faculty seminars on civic engagement.

For more go to: http://www.compact.org/initiatives/research_universities/Civic_Engagement.pdf


December 11, 2007


From Sunday's Washington Post:


Election? Here's How You Do It, Mate

"From our downunder perspective here in Australia, the United States is all about choice. Everywhere you look, there are so many options. The huge variety of breakfast cereals in the average American supermarket is enough to make me feel like I've just escaped the Soviet Union circa 1958. It's the same with your presidential politics; the spectrum of candidates and political ideologies you have to choose from is positively dazzling. By contrast, Aussie politicians mostly tend to follow the Henry Ford principle, slightly modified: "Any color you like, as long as it's beige."

We recently had an election here, and the whole thing was like that, pretty beige. We had precisely two candidates, and they were barely distinguishable, except that one headed the Liberal Party (the main conservative group) and the other was the candidate of Labor (founded by the union movement). Our entire federal election campaign lasted exactly six weeks -- a long slog, according to pundits and voters alike. After a month, most people were moaning, "I just want it to be over!"
So you can see why, to us Aussies, your two-year process, from candidate announcements to Inauguration Day, might seem a tad excessive. If not downright, well, absurd.

This past summer in Iowa, I had the chance to size up most of the current crop of U.S. presidential candidates, and I had to wonder how on Earth you're going to choose from this most diverse field ever of would-be presidents. Gadding about the Hawkeye State, I saw Rudy Giuliani and John McCain working the crowd with one-liners, Bill Richardson cornering people in dark alleys at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, and Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Biden explaining how the six or seven candidates ahead of them in the polls were going to crash and burn just like Howard Dean in 2004…" By John Barron, 12/9/07, The Washington Post.

December 10, 2007


The Knight Foundation, First Amendment Center to Sponsor Exclusive New Leadership Academy for K-12 Principals (Washington, D.C. - July 7-11, 2008)

This is an opportunity to become part of the inaugural class of Five Freedoms Leadership Fellows, a select group of K-12 public and independent school leaders committed to providing a more equitable, collaborative and transformational type of school leadership -- and to cultivating the 21st Century skills young people need to be responsible members of a free society.

During the five-day Leadership Academy and beyond, Fellows will work together to achieve the following:

- Link theories of leadership with daily practice
- Transform school cultures in ways that support meaningful student voice and shared decision-making
- Develop individual and organizational capacities for improving student and faculty motivation
- Work collaboratively to address real-life challenges, from First Amendment conflicts to community engagement strategies
- Inspire specific policy changes that reflect a commitment to First Amendment principles
- Identify a discrete set of leadership skills to cultivate, both individually and schoolwide, in order to effect meaningful, systemic change

Applications will be made available in January 2008. Go to: Leadership Academy to read the announcement. Or, to learn more about the Academy in the interim, submit a letter of inquiry today to fellows@fivefreedoms.org.


December 6, 2007


Coming Soon at CIRCLE:

As follow-up to the recent report "Millenials Talk Politics: College Student Political Engagement" (see Nov. 8 below on What's New) new resources for sharing the findings of "Millennials Talk Politics" with students, administrators and faculty on campus will soon be available. In the meantime, download the complete report from CIRCLE's Web site at: http://www.civicyouth.org/?page_id=250.


December 5, 2007


The Brookings Institution announces the following event:

The Youth Vote (December 5, 2007; 10:00 am to noon)

Voter turnout by young people will be crucial in the 2008 election. Harvard University's Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, has been conducting regular polling of America's college students for seven years, highlighting key trends and issues related to politics and public service. This fall's IOP poll offers new in-depth data on the candidates that young people support in the race for president in 2008. The poll results also provide the 18-24 year olds' views on politics and their attitude toward health care, foreign policy, trust in government and other institutions, community service and other critical issues.

On December 5, Brookings's Opportunity 08 Project and the IOP will release the findings of the Fall 2007 Youth Survey on Politics and Public Service. Opportunity 08 Director Michael O'Hanlon will introduce the event with Kenneth M. Duberstein, who serves in an advisory capacity to both Opportunity 08 and the IOP. James A. Leach, a former member of Congress and IOP director, and John Della Volpe of IOP will present the new findings, accompanied by two students that will present the youth perspective.

After the program, panelists will take audience questions.

For more information or to register go to: http://www.brookings.edu/events/2007/1205_youth_vote.aspx?emc=lm&m=210508&l=56&v=29494


December 3, 2007


Call for Book Chapter Proposals: Problematizing Service-Learning: Critical Reflections for Development and Action (working title)

Edited by:
Trae Stewart, Ph.D., College of Education, University of Central Florida
Nicole Webster, Ph.D., College of Agricultural Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University

Publisher: Information Age Publishing
Scheduled publication date: Fall 2008

Efforts have been made to institutionalize service-learning across K-12 and higher education. However, the research on service-learning is not conclusive enough to warrant such institutional, financial, and philosophical commitment. To address this concern, individuals within, and outside of, the field of service-learning need to object freely and to offer alternatives for examination. This realization is ironic given that formative and summative reflections are central to the philosophy and practice of service-learning. Yet, no substantive, inclusive critique on the guiding theories/philosophies, research methodologies, pedagogical approaches, and policy implications has been offered.

The proposed book attempts to allow service-learning's major criticisms to be examined, challenges to be voiced, and research agendas to be laid. Myriad perspectives will be offered, including empirical, theoretical, practical, policy, and community perspectives. Authors challenge preconceived notions of service-learning, who is benefited by this pedagogy, outcomes of participation and implementation, and most importantly the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological lenses through which service-learning is even considered.

This book will parallel service-learning's presence and popularity across various disciplines/fields. To do so, chapters should be written from broad perspectives and should aim to inform service-learning researchers and educators, community organizations, and policy makers who consider service-learning as a means to address civic responsibility. Respectively, the book is divided into four sections: theory, research, pedagogy, and policy. The book also raises fundamental questions for undergraduate and graduate courses with social justice themes by considering philosophical, sociological, and policy foundations of educational approaches and the impact that methodological choices have on students and community.

Authors are encouraged to submit chapters on the following:

Theory: This section will focus on exploring theories, philosophies, and epistemologies which can further ground service-learning research. Ideal chapters will present arguments for the inclusion of not only additional, but also more critical theories.

Research: This section will critically examine the conceptual frameworks, research designs, methods, and analytic approaches commonly used within the service-learning field. These examinations will be discussed around the general lack of rigor in service-learning research and how the questions asked and methods used dictate the findings.

Pedagogy: Chapters in this section will be founded on the belief that education delivers both overt and covert messages. While service-learning's attempt to address current community needs is honorable, the strategies, techniques, and approaches used to achieve this goal can be ill-matched and destructive.

Policy: This section will examine how service-learning can use and inform public policy. Chapters will present arguments as to why policy makers do not use service-learning research often in their decision-making. They will offer insight into the importance of taking advantage of policy windows and disseminating valid, usable, and understandable information about the impact of service-learning to policy makers and stakeholders who share a vested interest in the academic growth and development of all learners. Historical analyses of service-learning are also welcomed.

Submission Procedure:

Individuals interested in contributing to this volume should forward their chapter proposals electronically to the editors by December 21, 2007. Proposals should not exceed 5 double-spaced pages (approximately 1500 words). Authors will be notified as to the decision regarding the submission of a complete manuscript by January 11, 2008. At that time, authors of accepted proposals will have until March 14, 2008 to submit their chapter. Complete manuscripts will undergo a blind peer-review process.

Chapter proposals should be forwarded electronically to:

Trae Stewart, Ph.D. at: pbstewar@mail.ucf.edu