Loyola School of Education received a $3.5 million grant from the Department of Education to fund Democracy in Community Practice. This new civics education program, currently being implemented in several Chicago-area public schools, connects existing civics classes with a wide network of teachers, museums, politicians, and resources. .
A total of 1,000 students and 20 teachers from eight different schools have already participated in the initiative, and the number of participants is expected to grow over the five-year life of the grant. Project leader John Schmidt said the program is currently in a “beta phase,” with only a select few activities ready for full launch next year.
The grant was announced in a Jan. 25 press release that briefly described the Democracy in Practice initiative in the community and its value to the development of democratic citizenship, according to the release. The four high schools participating in the program are Sullivan High School, Senn High School, Amundsen High School, and Lakeview High School, and the four elementary schools participating in the program are Haight Elementary School, William C. Gowdy Elementary School, McCutcheon Elementary School, and Ravenswood Elementary School.
The first event funded by this grant will be held over three Zoom sessions in March. The meeting, in collaboration with the Lebanese American University and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, was a collaboration between small groups of students from participating high schools in Chicago and Lebanese students, said Mariel St. Amand, Program Manager for Practicing Democracy in Communities. It is said that it will be held among high school students.
In these three dialogue sessions, students will discuss a different topic each day related to the principles behind a “just and equitable society,” said St. Amand, who earned a master's degree in elementary education from Loyola University in 2021. They say they will talk.
Although the grant officially began on October 1st, Practicing Democracy in Communities is expected to begin in earnest next year, once more programs are ready. Schmidt said much of the current work is focused on bringing people together and creating the necessary relationships with museums and politicians.
A representative from the Department of Education declined to comment on the grant-funded initiative.
Schmidt said that while the program is more generative than standard grants, which typically have more specific objectives, the program is more open to collaboration between Loyola and various other interested parties. said. He said he believes this generative element helps “Practicing Democracy in the Community” stand out from other grants.
“This is a set of civic experiences that students don’t typically have access to,” Schmidt said. “They're not out in the community very often, they're not going to museums, they're not meeting with elected officials. So a lot of those things aren't happening. And they're all , as we like to say, is part of building citizen power.”
Another of the initiative's first events will be a Model United Nations scheduled for May 17, with about 300 students from 15 schools expected to participate, St. Amand said. Other upcoming events include museum visits, an October election simulation, an urban-rural exchange program in collaboration with the University of Montana, paid summer internships with community partners, and opportunities to work with elected officials at the local, state, and federal levels. This includes meetings with
Emily Wagner, a civics teacher at Sullivan High School who graduated from Loyola with a bachelor's degree in history in 2017, and her students are already preparing talking points and questions for the next Lebanon Dialogue session. However, only 5 out of 30 students have been accepted. It remains unfulfilled.
“Having this conversation with students who are literally on the other side of the world and understanding how they are the same and how they are different makes it easier for them or my students to be like themselves. I really hope we can go head-to-head and essentially pop the bubble,” Wagner said. “And you think, 'Oh, there's a whole world out here that I can explore and learn more about than just Chicago.'” That's confidence. ”
Both Schmidt and St. Amand differentiated this effort from regular social studies education, saying that civics goes beyond memorization and civics knowledge such as facts about how government works. Instead, they said, civics focuses on interactions with government and how students can make a difference in their communities.
“Especially in 2024, a lot of people are talking about the jeopardy of democracy this year and the big election in November,” Schmidt said. “What we're really looking at is, 'What are my passions?' How do you think about this? What is your experience? And how can you turn that into a civic opportunity?” Is it possible to connect them?”
Having spent five years teaching government and civics classes at various private schools, Ms. St. Amand said she had the flexibility to create curriculum, but the number of students, teachers, and museums she needed was limited. He said he feels “pretty spoiled” in his current role because of his abundance. She works together.
“This past year, I was teaching civics,” St. Amand said. “This is something that I've become really passionate about, and that civics is not just some kind of social studies field, but a course that actually applies directly to students' lives, and that our students are the ones that we love to teach in class. I realized that we can take action based on what we talk about.'' Classroom, slash, we can take action together. ”
Wagner said she discovered her passion for civics and education through her work in the area. People tend to think it's just the government, she thinks, but she thinks it's about what it means to be part of the community.
“They may feel that the students may be a little disinterested, that the students may not have the passion,” Schmidt said. “And I'm not, you know, sometimes we can easily misinterpret what seems to us to be indifference to other things, right? I don't think so. I think people with the right kind of prompts and the right kind of learning opportunities can tap into some of their passions.”
Schmidt said “Democracy in Community Practice” reflects the university's vision and mission by providing opportunities for both students and faculty to build strong communities.
Featured image by Leslie Moratz / Phoenix
