Engaging Civic Engagement: Framing the Civic Education Movement in Higher Education

Civic education in higher education is housed in various types of institutions (i.e., community colleges, four year universities, public and private institutions), institutional offices, academic departments, and larger, cross-campus initiatives and organizations. Civic education programs promote numerous activities to foster student engagement both inside and outside the classroom. Many in higher education have embraced the civic education movement; however, as with other social movements, the civic education movement is still a contested area. Defining civic education (i.e., civic engagement, service learning, political engagement, community engagement, etc.) becomes problematic because there seems to be as many terms for civic education as there are civic education scholars. Engaging Civic Engagement: Framing the Civic Education Movement in Higher Education provides a comparative analysis of major approaches to civic education in the civic education moment, including implications for higher education.

Table of Contents:
Contents Chapter 1: Civic Education in Higher Education Chapter 2: Conceptualizing Frames Analysis Chapter 3: Civic Education Frames Chapter 4: Developing a Civic Education Pedagogy Appendix A: Analysis Process Overview Appendix B: Civic Education Framing Matrix References About the Author

About the Author :
Chad Woolard is instructional assistant professor of communication at Illinois State University.

Review :
Scholars interested in the civic education movement in higher education have long struggled with efforts to reach consensus on a definition for civic engagement. In this book, Dr. Woolard exposes the lack of conceptual clarity and offers ground breaking analysis of many of the predominant perspectives in this debate. With his very thorough Gramscian analysis, Woolard provides a virtual epistemology of each singular approach to civic education—its history, aims, pedagogy, even its scholarly literature and rhetoric…Woolard uses his analysis to develop a pedagogy that could make a collection of disparate approaches more unified in its intentions. His frames analysis offers hundreds of reasons why these singular programs are more compatible than we think, and how clear, common goals can be discovered. His practical lists of major scholars, sponsors and practitioners makes this booka uniquely valuable resource for champions of civic education. With many institutions in higher education embracing civic engagement as a core value, experiences and best practices of civic engagement vary widely as universities prepare students for citizenship. Dr. Woolard’s comprehensive book contributes useful insights into concept articulation as well as strategies to help scholars and teachers deal with the changing landscape of this dynamic concept.