People Like Me? Enhancing Course Relevance and Political Efficacy

Scholars, journalists, and educational professionals have called for renewed efforts to make American civics coursework more relatable to students. Relatable coursework should spur students’ sense that the material is relevant to them and yield greater gains in key learning outcomes—namely, increased internal political efficacy. We developed a series of “regular people” profiles that were used to introduce weekly topics in an introductory college-level American Government course. Each profile highlighted the role of an outsider or a behind-the-scenes actor, drawn from disproportionately young and historically marginalized backgrounds, who has made or is making an impact on American politics. We find that students who received the regular people lessons were significantly more likely to rate the course material as personally relevant. Moreover, they exhibited significantly greater growth in internal political efficacy—that is, the feeling that they have the knowledge and skills to make a difference in the political process—during the semester.