High School Classroom Activism
High School Classroom Activism Case Study
In his article, “Now More Than Ever: Why Youth Organizing Work Belongs in Schools and What that Means in Theory and Practice,” Seán Arthurs (2018) posits that “the primary reason youth organizing work, the most effective form of action civics, belongs in schools is because that is where the youth are” (p. 50). While a critical aspect of education is its role in preparing students to become active members of society, opportunities for students to address issues in society before they reach adulthood are sometimes limited. Through action civics, as Arthurs (2018) explains, students learn to become participatory citizens by doing; action civics is “an experiential, youth-centered approach to civic education—to create a world that invites young people to take collective action inside and outside the classroom-transforming their schools, neighborhoods and cities” (p. 48). A great example of action civics in effect is Lakewood Public High School’s youth organizing program on which Arthurs bases his argument in favor of implementing youth organizing work in all schools.
Lakewood Public High School's Conflict Resolution and Community Justice Course
As part of Lakewood Public High School’s Conflict Resolution and Community Justice course for students in their junior year, Arthurs helped launch a youth organizing program alongside a recent law graduate and the class’s cooperating teacher. They developed the program with the aim of “[introducing students] to youth organizing as a vehicle for addressing relevant community issues and [helping them] identify a community problem, research and draft concrete policy proposals on issues affecting City youth, and then present these proposals to elected officials by the end of the semester” (Arthurs, 2018, p. 52).
The activities that students completed in class were informed by the six steps of organizing for change developed by the MIKVA (Mikva Challenge, 2021) non-profit organization:
1. Examine the Community
2. Identify an Issue
3. Conduct Research
4. Analyze Power
5. Develop a Strategy
6. Take Action
During each class, students were tasked with writing journal entries in response to a daily prompt that would ask them to take a position on an issue presented to them (Arthurs, 2018, p. 53). This allowed them to think critically about the causes and potential solutions of the issues, which would equip them to later apply the same methods to an issue directly affecting their community. In addition to the journal entries, students engaged in other activities during each class such as large-group debates, scaffolded research, and various creative small-group tasks. Arthurs (2018) and his collaborators developed and assigned the tasks to students with the following three intentions: maximizing opportunities for student voice and expression, developing students’ critical thinking skills, and fostering a sense of community within the class and student working groups (p. 53-54).
This pilot program within Lakewood’s Conflict Resolution and Community Justice course proved to be a success. Arthurs noted that by the end of the course, several students had asked him if they could continue their organizing work in the following semester. Additionally, the results of tests administered to students at the beginning and end of the course demonstrate that there was a positive shift in students’ content knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions. For instance, Arthurs (2018) explains, “As a result of our program, students were much more likely to know what advocacy is (196% improvement as compared to 40% improvement in control groups), more able to identify examples of how a person can bring change to her community (25% vs. 13%), and markedly more likely to know the right Councilperson to contact for a local problem (15/24 students vs 1/40 students)” (p. 56).
By establishing a space within the classroom for activism, Arthurs and his collaborators amplified students’ pre-existing interests in social change and advocacy as learners on a pre-track. The students’ work in the course allowed them to complete the semester having gained and effectively applied the skills necessary to enact change in their communities as both youth activists and future legal professionals.