Toward a More Perfect Pedagogy: Developing Constitution Week Activities to Support a Business Law and Ethics Curriculum

• Published date: 01 June 2018
• Author: Jehan El‐Jourbagy,Matt Roessing
• Date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jlse.12077

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 35, Issue 2, 255–275, Summer 2018

Toward a More Perfect Pedagogy:

Developing Constitution Week

Activities to Support a Business Law

and Ethics Curriculum

Matt Roessing∗and Jehan El-Jourbagy∗∗

I. INTRODUCTION

In a 2016 survey, just 26% of Americans were able to name all three branches

of government, and 31% failed to name even one branch.1In 2011, the Amer-

ican Bar Association’s (ABA) Commission on Civic Education in the Nation’s

Schools called the progress of civic education “worrisome” and said, “there is

reason to be alarmed at the state of Americans’ civic knowledge.”2The good

news is that educational institutions, and law professors in particular, can ad-

dress this concern by planning activities for Constitution Day (September 17)

and Constitution Week (September 17–23). The U.S. government has long

encouraged its citizens to use these days, which commemorate the 1787

signing of the U.S. Constitution, to discuss governance, civil rights, and

civic engagement.3In fact, federal law requires each U.S. educational

∗Lecturer in Legal Studies, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia.

∗∗Assistant Professor, J. Whitney Bunting College of Business, Georgia College & State University.

1See Americans’ Knowledge of the Branches of Government Is Declining, ANNENBERG PUB.POL’YCTR.

(Sept. 13, 2016), http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-knowledge-of-the-

branches-of-government-is-declining.

2See A.B.A. COMMISSION ON CIVIC EDUC.IN THE NATION’SSCHOOLS, House of Delegates

Resolution #11A-300 1-2 (Aug. 2011), https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/images/

public_education/2011augustabapolicyresolutionandreportmandateciviced0080911.pdf.

3Celebrating Constitution Day,NATIONAL ARCHIVES, https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/

constitution-day (last visited Feb. 18, 2018); The History of Constitution Day,C

ONSTITUTION-

FACTS.COM, https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-day/history-of-constitution-

day/ (last visited Feb. 18, 2018). For a focus on President George Washington’s Farewell Address

C2018 The Authors

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2018 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

255

256 Vol. 35 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

institution receiving federal funds to offer a Constitution Day program.4

This mandate, supported by groups like the ABA,5the Daughters of the

American Revolution (DAR),6and the American Democracy Project,7is an

opportunity for professors to connect their classroom material with current

events and present a compelling program that gets students thinking about

the U.S. government and their role in it.

The authors of this article teach business law and ethics at public uni-

versities and have spent five years organizing and presenting Constitution

Week activities. (To assist in developing a Constitution Week program, the

authors have included a recommended timeline in Appendix 1.) In 2016,

they assessed the impact of Constitution Week on students who attended

each event.8Professors of business law, ethics, and related fields can use

this article as a roadmap for developing their own engaging and impactful

Constitution Week activities.

Part II of this article discusses the origins of Constitution Day and Con-

stitution Week and the development of a federal mandate for educational

institutions. Part III addresses the value of Constitution Week activities as

cocurricular educational programming. In Part IV, the authors describe

the best practices they have developed for planning Constitution Week

activities that appeal to students and reinforce classroom learning. In Part

V, the authors discuss the best practices they have developed for executing

Constitution Week activities efficiently and with maximum educational

benefits. In Part VI, the authors discuss how they assessed Constitution Week

activities, using a survey instrument, to gauge student interest in each activity

and the impact of each activity on educational goals. In Part VII, the authors

in the context of Constitution Day, see Notes & Comments, Constitution Day, The New Criterion

1–3 (Oct. 2017), https://www.newcriterion.com/issues/2017/10/constitution-day-8953. For a

full discussion on the history of Constitution Day celebrations, see infra Part II,.

4Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, 36 U.S.C. § 106 (2018).

5See Constitution Day, A.B.A. DIV.FOR PUB.EDUC.(Sept. 17, 2017), https://www.americanbar.org/

groups/public_education/initiatives_awards/constitution_day.html (last visited Feb. 5, 2018).

6See Constitution Week, DAUGHTERS OF THE AM.REVOLUTION, http://www.dar.org/national-

society/education/constitution-week (last visited Feb. 5, 2018).

7See Constitution Day and Citizenship Day,AM.ASS’NOFSTATE COLL.AND UNIV.,

http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/constitutionday (last visited Feb. 5, 2018).

8At the time these programs were developed, implemented, and assessed, coauthor Matt

Roessing was an Assistant Professor in the J. Whitney Bunting College of Business at Georgia

College & State University.