Case Studies of Effective Learning Climates for Civic Reasoning and Discussion

• Published date: 01 January 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231178627
• Author: JAMILA Lyiscott,Cati V. De Los Ríos,Christopher H. Clark
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Classroom Climate for Civic Development

138 ANNALS, AAPSS, 705, January 2023

DOI: 10.1177/00027162231178627

Case Studies of

Effective

Learning

Climates for

Civic Reasoning

and Discussion

By

JAMILA LYISCOTT,

CATI V. DE LOS RÍOS,

and

CHRISTOPHER H. CLARK

1178627ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYCASE STUDIES OF EFFECTIVE LEARNING CLIMATES

research-article2023

While the national media continues to highlight the

tensions of cultural politics in education, there is a need

for young people and educators to be equipped for the

daunting local, national, and global challenges that

mark their everyday lives. Many educators and young

people alike are interested in engaging youth in civic

reasoning and discourse that prepares them to meet

those many challenges. This article highlights applica-

tions of civic reasoning and discourse in three contexts:

a traditional high school social studies classroom, a

hybrid school-community action project, and an out-of-

school Youth Participatory Action Research program.

We argue that these case studies show a path forward

for developing students’ civic reasoning and discourse

skills because the students turn toward and lean into

what we define as moments of critical dissonance: in

each case, the students and educators work together to

engage, rather than avoid, complex sociopolitical reali-

ties, even while holding a variety of racial, ethnic,

political, and cultural identities.

Keywords: civic education; classroom learning; cur-

riculum; adolescent literacy

Correspondence: jlyiscott@umass.edu

Jamila Lyiscott is an associate professor of social justice

education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

There, she is the founding codirector of the Center of

Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research, and co–

editor-in-chief of the Journal of Equity & Excellence in

Education. Her community-engaged research examines

race, language, and the capacity of African Diasporic

cultures to transgress coloniality.

Cati V. de los Ríos is an associate professor of adolescent

literacy at the University of California, Berkeley’s

School of Education. Her research explores the critical

literacies and civic engagement of Latina/o/x bilingual

youth and has appeared in Harvard Educational

Review, Applied Linguistics, Journal of Literacy

Research, and Race and Social Problems.

Christopher H. Clark is an assistant professor of sec-

ondary education in the department of Teaching,

Leadership, and Professional Practice at the University

of North Dakota. His research blends approaches from

political science, psychology, and communications to

focus on how students and teachers think about politics,

news media, and civic life.

CASE STUDIES OF EFFECTIVE LEARNING CLIMATES 139

In the U.S., public schools have become primary sites for volatile discursive

battles about how communities understand their complex shared histories and

the ongoing effects of colonialism, oppression, and struggles for racial and social

justice. With these battles comes a refusal to contend with the polarizing tensions

that arise from our long history as a nation. Instead, about half of all U.S. states

have moved to pass legislation or executive action to ban or otherwise limit teach-

ing and learning about racism, gender, and sexuality (Schwartz 2021), and politi-

cians, like those in the high-profile 2022 governor race in Virginia, have been

successful in leveraging said hysteria for political gains (Stein and Meckler 2022).

School boards have been rife with tension as they have been tasked with deci-

sions that require complicated trade-offs in public health, student social and

emotional well-being, and various stakeholders’ desires.

As the national media continues its commentary on the shifting cultural poli-

tics of education, calls have emerged for tangible examples of how youth engage,

inside and out of classrooms, in civic reasoning and discourses that respond to the

daunting local, national, and global challenges on the horizon. Civic reasoning,

according to the National Academy of Education (2021), is the ability to think

through public issues by using rigorous inquiry skills to weigh varying points of

view and available evidence. Civic discourse is an intentional communication

about challenging public issues in order to promote both individual and group

understanding. Moreover, “It also involves enabling effective decision-making

aimed at finding consensus, compromise, or in some cases, confronting social

injustices through dissent” (2021, 1).

The National Academy of Education’s (NAED) recently released report,

Educating for Civic Reasoning and Discourse (2021), highlights both formal and

informal educational environments as sites that educate students to engage with

civic and political issues and simultaneously interrogate them. The report

addresses the myriad ways both formal and informal settings—for example, K–12

classrooms versus digital platforms—can contribute to the development of stu-

dents’ civic reasoning and discourse as they confront the complexities of current

politics and civic life (Barber, Clark, and Torney-Purta 2021; Garcia et al. 2021).

In this article, we highlight applications of civic reasoning and discourse in

three varied contexts: traditional high school social studies classrooms, a hybrid

school-community project, and an out-of-school Youth Participatory Action

Research (YPAR) program. These three case studies serve as exemplars of what

we call critical dissonance in civic reasoning and discourse. The concept of critical

dissonance emerges out of our understanding of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive

dissonance is the mental discomfort that can emerge from conflicting/dissonant

beliefs that arise when our varying racial, ethnic, political, and cultural identities

engage with complex sociopolitical realities (Harmon-Jones and Mills 2019).

Critical dissonance means turning toward moments of cognitive dissonance, and

employing a critical lens that can illuminate, critique, and challenge the structural

and ideological forces that lead to discrimination and inequalities.