Preparing Students with Disabilities for Civic Engagement

• In Event: Civic Learning on Campus: Bringing Political Science In Mini-Conference I: Countering Democratic Backsliding through Civic Education for All Students

Abstract

Providing robust civic education for all students is a viable mechanism for instilling a commitment to democracy and confronting retrenchment. At present, there are vast disparities in the availability and quality of civic education, especially for high-need students. The civic education experience for students with disabilities (SWD) has been given far less attention than that of other high-need student populations, such as students living in poverty, even in studies that seek to be inclusive of diverse populations. SWDs are not only marginalized in schools, they also are sidelined in civic education research. The dominant theoretical models of civic education do not readily accommodate students with disabilities. They assume a restrictive notion of citizenship based on conformity to limited conceptions of intellectual ability, communicative competence, social independence, and behavior. When they are not entirely excluded, students with disabilities are relegated to lower-level civic learning opportunities which have deleterious consequences for their civic capacity. They are less likely to have the chance to participate in class discussions of issues where they can gain skills in deliberation. They develop fewer self-advocacy skills and are less inclined to make decisions for themselves. They are left out of the planning process for community engagement projects and are given perfunctory tasks when they volunteer. As a result, students with disabilities are less likely to follow local and national politics or to participate in the full range of citizen actions. They have lower voter registration and voter turnout rates than their non-disabled peers. This study addresses the core research question: How can students with disabilities be prepared for democratic engagement through civic education? It uses data collected on teachers and students who received the Center for Civic Education’s We the People curriculum intervention that was adapted for SOWs.

Author

• Diana M. Owen, Georgetown University