Explore projects in Civic Engagement!
Projects in civic engagement investigate how children, adolescents, and young adults develop the knowledge, skills, and motivation to participate in civic and community life. These studies explore a range of activities, including volunteering, activism, voting, community organizing, and social responsibility. Research often focuses on the developmental pathways that lead to civic involvement, such as moral reasoning, identity formation, and opportunities for meaningful participation in schools and communities. Many projects also examine how family, peers, educators, and sociopolitical contexts influence civic attitudes and behaviors. The goal is to better understand how to foster engaged, informed, and socially responsible citizens in a democratic society.
“Civic engagement, including volunteering, is conducive to democratization. These volunteers are cleaning up after the 2012 Hurricane Sandy.” by Woo-Giyeon is licensed underCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International via Wikimedia Commons
- CAREER: The Origins of Discourse: How Children Develop Communicative Rationality Across Three Diverse SocietiesProject Abstract/Summary To become reasonable and responsible members of society, children have to acquire skills of citizenship. This proposal focuses on a key citizenship skill: how children learn to be proficient and critical contributors to public discourse. Research on how children acquire these essential skills is lacking. Rational discourse consists of two main skills: Reason-Responsiveness, the ability to form, maintain, or revise one’s beliefs appropriately in response to reasons provided by others; and Reason-Giving, the ability to provide adequate reasons… Read more: CAREER: The Origins of Discourse: How Children Develop Communicative Rationality Across Three Diverse Societies