High-school students’ civic engagement: we don’t just want to hear it, we want to see it.

 We met with five groups of four grade 12 students (n=20) to find out what meaning they gave to civic engagement and how their history course related to it. But we didn’t just want to talk to them, we also wanted to witness their civic engagement in action. That’s why the students also took part in debates to see if they were putting into practice what they were saying. 

Students’ civic engagement and history courses

Types of citizenship

A few theoretical tools can be used to measure civic engagement. First, there are typologies of citizenship that define the values towards which citizens tend. In this article, we used a combination of four theoretical models: Galichet (2003), Westheimer (2020), Sears (2014) and Pagé (2001). We grouped together five types of citizens:

1. Social-communitarian: Focused on helping others;
2. Liberal: Values individual freedom and the economy;
3. Political-participatory: Focuses on political involvement;
4. Social-justice oriented: Striving for justice and equality;
5. Nationalist: Emphasizes cultural or ethnic belonging.

Students displayed all the types of citizenship during our discussions. They want to fight for social justice by asserting their opinions; they want to be social communitarians by helping their neighbour; they wish to be political citizens by voting and respecting the law; they also want to be liberal citizens by paying their taxes; and they demonstrate a nationalist side by showing an attachment to Quebec’s identity and language.

When we put the students to work, the liberal and nationalist types were brought to the forefront more frequently, and were the outcome of all the debates. Up for debate: should volunteering be mandatory in high school? No group opted for social-community aid. They didn’t want to give up personal time and lose out on the possibility of earning income. Therefore, they came up with more liberal alternatives to protect their personal time. As for the debate on recreational snowmobiling, none of the groups wanted to put limits on this activity. For them, everyone should be able to do what they want. The environmental damage and breakages caused by snowmobiling are not significant enough to increase regulation compared to economic gain and enjoyment. A rather liberal response. During the most recent debate for or against French as a compulsory language of study in Quebec, many students expressed a desire to protect the French language at the expense of cultural freedoms, while others were more liberal.

Level of engagement

Then, to measure students’ level of engagement, we used Royer’s engagement scale (2018). This comprises three levels: the avowedly disengaged, the spectator who is interested in citizenship without taking any action, and the engaged young person. It’s worth mentioning that the students who participated were initially volunteers, so it’s harder to observe completely disengaged behaviour. During the discussions, the students showed themselves to be both spectators and engaged citizens. As they themselves put it, if it doesn’t affect them personally, they don’t want to take action. They do, however, express a desire to be informed and to vote at a later date.

 During the debates, students were mostly spectator citizens. They didn’t want to interfere or make decisions, a factor of the liberal type that dominates. Students were most engaged during the debate on the compulsory use of French. Students identify strongly with the Quebec national narrative and its traditional heroes. “But Paul Chevalier de Maisonneuve would never have wanted Montréal to be English-speaking.” (Student A-1)

Dimensions of citizenship

To assess students’ civic engagement, Sears (2014) identifies three dimensions of citizenship:

1. Cognitive dimension – The citizen must be able to apply and mobilize knowledge.
2. Active dimension – The citizen demonstrates skills such as critical thinking and autonomy.
3. Affective dimension – The citizen considers their personal values, as well as the values of their society.

During discussions, the students particularly mobilized the cognitive dimension. They are proud to justify their answers with facts. It’s during debates that the affective dimension takes over, with students having difficulty taking a step back from their own values and emotions. They always punctuate their discourse with knowledge, but the active dimension is barely present. Indeed, in discussions and debates, students mobilize few skills. In more heated debates, such as the one on the French language, students are no longer able to take a step back from the national narrative they have learned.

History courses

Even if history courses are geared towards skills-based development, by applying the scientific approach used by historians, students can be more critical and make more informed choices about the type of citizens they want to be (Doussot, 2020). However, when the students took action during debates, very few of them actually implemented a process. Although they can state the benefits of history classes in terms of critical thinking and openness to multiple perspectives in our conversations with them, only a few of them used the sources made available, and when they did, it was to support their own statements. It was not to consider other perspectives. The students took positions based on their own preconceptions.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, there is a gap between what students say and what they actually do. They are used to providing answers that teachers want to hear. However, civic engagement has to be put into practice in order to be properly assessed.

Bibliography

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marie-Laurence Tremblay is a student researcher in history didactics. She recently completed a master’s degree in Education at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), where she focused on citizenship education through history. Passionate about teaching, she also works as a social studies and dance teacher at the Lac-Saint-Jean school service centre. She has received several scholarships for academic and professional excellence, and is on UQAC’s honour roll. In the fall of 2024, she began a doctorate to further her research in civic education and history at the Université de Sherbrooke.