Trends in Teaching Political Science Research: Trends and Challenges in Teaching Civic Engagement

In these politically contentious times, educators are wondering what they can do to help students navigate this period and build their futures in a democratic context. Since 2001, faculty have created innovative classes and learning experiences to bring youth civic engagement education in a democratic context globally across all disciplines and levels, using a wide variety of methods and tools to counteract a deficit in democratic knowledge, skills, and values. These educators persist despite numerous challenges, including the questioning of the value of higher education and democracy itself. This article reviews where the practice of civic engagement education stands, beginning with an evaluation of how civic virtue serves as a foundation for civic engagement education. It concludes that vibrant, multi-level civic engagement education is a necessary step to building and maintaining our democracies and that political science as a discipline should continue to lead the development of this pedagogy for all higher education around the world.