Empowering community-changers: Developing civic efficacy in elementary classrooms

Abstract

This study examined the effects of behavioral and social engagement and classroom supportiveness on the development of civic efficacy in fourth-grade science classrooms. We define civic efficacy as children's beliefs that they are not only capable of making a difference in their community, but they also feel a responsibility to do so. This study enrolled 815 students (48% female) across 39 classrooms, including 31 fourth-grade teachers at 25 schools in a large urban school district in the South Central U.S. Stepwise regression showed that behavioral engagement, social engagement, and classroom supportiveness in science class all positively predicted civic efficacy, and social engagement accounted for the greatest amount of variance in that civic efficacy. Findings suggests that social engagement is a stronger driver of civic efficacy than behavioral engagement and classroom supportiveness, pointing to the importance of collaboration and teamwork in science classrooms. We discuss implications for elementary classroom practices.

Acknowledgements

The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through Grant R305A150272 to the University of Virginia. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education. For more information about Connect Science, see Connectscience.org. We thank Tracy Harkins, Candace Lapan, Ashley Hunt, and everyone on the team, including our school partners and participants. Special thanks to Clay Ford at the StatLab for all the statistical guidance and support.

Declaration of interests

IRB approval was obtained from the University of Virginia (protocol number 2611). We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.