Making civic engagement go viral: Applying social epidemiology principles to civic education

• Published date: 01 February 2019
• Date: 01 February 2019
• Author: Catherine d.P. Duarte,Alexander Pope,Alison K. Cohen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1857

ACADEMIC PAPER

Making civic engagement go viral: Applying social epidemiology

principles to civic education

Alexander Pope

1

|Alison K. Cohen

2

|Catherine d.P. Duarte

3

1

Department of Secondary and Physical

Education, Salisbury University, Salisbury,

Maryland, USA

2

Department of Public and Nonprofit

Administration, School of Management,

University of San Francisco, San Francisco,

California, USA

3

University of California, Berkeley School of

Public Health, Berkeley, California, USA

Correspondence

Alexander Pope, Department of Secondary

and Physical Education, Salisbury University,

1101 Camden Ave, Salisbury, MD 21801,

USA.

Email: axpope@salisbury.edu

This paper explores the connections between education for youth civic engagement

and theories and strategies from public health (specifically, epidemiology). We

illustrate this with four applications of epidemiologic theory to youth civic

engagement: social determinants and fundamental causes, vulnerable populations

and cumulative disadvantage, positive spillover, and herd immunity and critical mass.

Formalizing concepts of current civics, in schools and the public, as a civic epidemic,

we present a case for individual‐and group‐level interventions based around targeted,

school‐based, effective civic education initiatives. Grounded in epidemiological

theory, such approaches call attention to the simultaneous need to improve broad

civics education and ensure that particular populations receive necessary attentions.

1|INTRODUCTION

Problemsin public educationin the United States oftenreceive the label

“epidemics.”A quickreview of recentreports includesreferencesto drop-

out epidemics (Wolk, 2011), suspension epidemics (Eitle & Eitle, 2004),

and school violence epidemics (Spivack & Prothrow‐Stith, 2001).

1

Epidemicsmay also be foisted upon schools, as we look toeducation to

battle the obesity epidemic (Baranowski, Cullen, Nicklas, Thompson, &

Baranowski, 2002) or the teen pregnancy epidemic (Osuchowski‐

Sanchez, Tigges,Mendelson, Lobo, & Clark,2012). Generally, theuse of

“epidemic”to describeconditionsin and aroundschools carriesa negative

connotation. Parallels are implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) drawn to

scares in public health; people associate epidemics with outbreaks of

contagiousinfectious diseaseslike influenza or HIV/AIDS.

Epidemiologists define epidemics as unexpectedly high numbers

of cases in a particular population at a particular time; in popular

culture, “epidemic”is often used to describe a growing and important

problem to make it newsworthy. “Epidemic”also suggests that large

populations are affected and/or at risk and that solutions at the pop-

ulation level, rather than simply individual treatments, are essential.

Contemporary descriptions of the opioid epidemic highlight the broad

complexity. Prescription drugs, mental health, alternative medications,

economic concerns, and education are just some of the topics consid-

ered important to a useful effort at “combatting”such an epidemic (A.

R. Williams & Bisaga, 2016).

In this paper, we conceptualize generally low levels of civic

engagement, as well as disparities in civic engagement among subpop-

ulations, as an ongoing civic engagement epidemic with negative

impacts on civic and physical health. We then argue that epidemio-

logic theory can also be used to inform ways to leverage resources

to bring about positive, dramatic change. Harnessing epidemiologic

insights can suggest educational strategies to help address inequalities

in civic engagement with added benefits of increasing overall health.

Though sites for learning about and engaging in civic action are not

limited to any particular institutions, formal schooling is an efficient and

effective means of targeting youth. First, nearly every young citizen in

the United States experiences formal schooling, allowing these experi-

ences to potentially cut across socioeconomic status and other bound-

aries. Second, formal schooling also reaches groups of youth together

rather than as individuals, helping to build the possible herd immunities

and positive spillovers described in this framework. Third, schools are

implicitly and explicitly charged with developing engaged citizens.

Thus, we situate our work within the context of public K–12

education. We begin by sharing our conception of civic engagement.

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This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided

the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Authors Journal of Public Affairs Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

1

Recent increased concerns notwithstanding, concerns about a school violence

epidemic trace back to at least the 1970s. See Brodbelt (1978).

Received: 18 July 2018 Accepted: 2 August 2018

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1857

J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1857.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1857

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of10