Creating student leaders through civics

Abstract

Building on the literature of student leadership development, Natalie Sew, Adrianne Billingham Bock, and Danielle Allen share an approach to civic education: Deeper Civic Learning. This approach offers students the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and key civic dispositions needed to engage in their communities and develop their leadership capacities. This article shares insights from the authors’ work co-designing an 8th-grade civics curriculum with Massachusetts educators. It highlights student perspectives on their experiences with the curriculum through extended stories of the application of civic skills and dispositions in their lives.