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Civic education in the United States faces worsening divides, often cast along partisan lines. Student-led civics, a form of experiential civics introduced through Massachusetts’s 2018 civics reform, is not immune to these tensions. Yet civic education should not be reduced to an either-or choice; it requires attention to all dimensions. We should rethink how to design civics curricula to help students make choices that are not only culturally relevant but also socially bridging and tactically effective for civic engagement in a diverse democracy. While each of these strands has its own scholarly lineage, they are often framed as competing rather than complementary forces in curricular design. To develop an integrated and cross-ideological curricular approach, I draw on Danielle Allen’s theory of egalitarian empowerment as a theoretical underpinning and align its core principles with corresponding pedagogical strategies. Concurrently, I introduce the Voice–Influence Model to articulate these triadic relations and guide curricular design and pedagogical practices. Since binary tensions impact not only student-led civics but also various experiential civics models, including service-learning, action civics, and youth participatory action research, this essay carries broader implications for curriculum research, design, and policymaking in civic education beyond state and national borders.
Chaebong Nam (Wed,) studied this question.