Nurturing a Capacity That May Well Be Limitless: Supporting Student Worth as a Matter of Civic Urgency

Abstract

This chapter shares another finding of a study of high-school teachers who included Twitter as part of their civic education teaching. Teachers in this study felt that students did not consider themselves to be worthy of participating in civic life. The teachers believed that their students felt that they were not yet seen as members of the community, and thus did not have either a right or a responsibility to participate in civic life. Teachers used social media to encourage students to see their own value as civic participants, primarily by having them interact with experts, elected officials, and members of their communities. The teachers believed that the way to address students’ feelings of unworthiness was by having students participate in civic activities that were real; the teachers saw social media as a way to do this.