Bonding, Bridging, and Boundary Breaking: The Civic Lessons of High School Student Activities

摘要

This article presents evidence designed to expand scholarly knowledge of how high school co-curricular activities generate the positive effects previous scholarship has found. Studies of empowerment across various fields identify a sense of autonomy, self-belief, self-expression, the ability to work together with diverse others, and a critical social consciousness as key factors that can enable people to achieve things. The evidence presented here from four state student council association workshops suggests that co-curricular activities may create the conditions in which students can learn a sense of autonomy, self-belief, self-expression, and, to a limited extent, the ability to work with diverse others. Therefore, the causal mechanism that this study recommends future Large-N studies test is that co-curricular activities cause students to gain these traits, which then translates into the gains in civic behaviors and other positive outcomes.View full textDownload full textKeywordscivic education, political socialization, student councilRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15512169.2011.590079