Local History Research as Civic Engagement: Student Participation in Enriched Critical Citizenship Education about the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2022, a group of 32 high school students in a metropolitan region of the Southeast conducted a local history research project that focused on how the documentation of diverse experiences of community members during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to their demonstration of historical empathy. Interestingly, we observed that the students exhibited deep affective connections to how their historical research impacted their beliefs about citizenship and definitions of community. This article examines whether high school students’ local history research about community members’ experiences during the pandemic could impact their demonstration of enriched critical citizenship education (ECCE). Major findings indicate that students can display ECCE through analysis of how their local history research about the pandemic impacted their (1) knowledge construction of contexts, (2) development of skills when discerning multiple perspectives, (3) identifying values of a community, and (4) raising dispositional awareness to take informed action on civic matters.