Writing Our Civic Futures (November): Reimagining Civic Participation

October 31, 2017
By Educator Innovator

Last month we kicked off Writing Our Civic Futures, a collaboration of the National Writing Project and Marginal Syllabus that supports conversations about civic engagement and learning over the course of the 2017-18 academic year. Refer to the syllabus for information on all the annotatable readings, which will go “live” on the first Monday of each month, along with related events hosted by CLTV and others.

This Month’s Topic: Reimagining Civic Participation

For November’s reading, we are focusing on reimagined definitions of civic education and engagement that take systemic inequality into account and foreground youth voice and experience.

We invite you to read “Civic Participation Reimagined: Youth Interrogation and Innovation in the Multimodal Public Sphere” by Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia and annotate the text with your own thoughts and reactions. This chapter was originally published in Vol 41, Issue 1, 2017 of American Educational Research Association (AERA)’s Review of Research in Education and is used with permission from Sage Publishing.

In their chapter, Mirra and Garcia explore ideologies that inform traditional forms of civic engagement and education in the U.S. and offer updated visions that take into account ongoing struggles for social justice and the impact of digital media and participatory culture on public and political life. The authors also look to youth participatory action research (YPAR) as a model for supporting youth civic leaders.

Access the full text via Educator Innovator. Using this link will enable you to view annotations (yellow highlights indicate annotations; the annotation tool displays along right side of your browser) others have added to the text.

Related CLTV Episode: Re-Imagining Youth Civic Engagement

The Conversation

As you read “Civic Participation Reimagined,” we encourage you to read through annotations that others have added as well as add your own. Annotations are being added via the web annotation platform Hypothes.is. To add your thoughts, as well as to respond to others, sign up for your free account.

For more support, see this annotation tutorial from Marginal Syllabus or this overview of Hypothes.is from KQED Teach.

Share your annotations as you read or any time throughout the week. While we encourage your participation in the week-long annotation of the text (November 6-10), the readings will remain online for annotation and discussion through the month and into the new semester. We also encourage you to use these readings and the opportunity to annotate however it best works for you—organize a study group, bring a class you are teaching, engage as an individual, or connect it to a meeting.

Additional Resources