Abstract 

Despite being the focus of a large and well-established literature, the concept of civic engagement struggles to find a clear and unambiguous definition (Amnå, 2012). Some authors have tried to identify universal elements which, although declined locally, define indispensable aspects of civic engagement, namely a social contract between governments and citizens or the role of collective identity in citizenship and civic action (Kassimir, Flanagan: 2010). Banyan, accepting the complexity and vagueness of this concept, refers to “a wide range of practices and attitudes of involvement in social and political life that converge to increase the health of a democratic society” (Banyan, 2013).

In the field of educational sciences, civic engagement is linked to the broader topic of citizenship education (Geboers, Geijsel, Admiraal, & ten Dam, 2013) and is embraced as a positive and desirable outcome whose value is generally taken for granted (Amnå, 2012).

The role of schools in the development of future citizens is widely recognized (Geboers et al., 2013) but, like any educational intervention that is never neutral, citizenship education has a political dimension that requires problematizing its own goals, its implicit models, and the coherence with proposed interventions (Westheimer and Kahne, 2004).

This paper presents the outcomes of an ongoing multi-case research aimed at understanding the role of school-community relationships in promoting civic engagement. What kind of citizen informs citizenship education practices in today’s school? What meanings are conferred to civic engagement? The way in which these concepts are declined in educational approaches responds to contemporary challenges and the need to rethink the boundaries of citizenship?

The multi-case study involves 2 primary and middle schools, 2 high schools, 2 vocational training centers and 1 Centers for Adult Education (CPIA). 65 semi-structured interviews have been conducted with principals, teachers, and community actors. The interview guides have been constructed following a common frame on the partnerships oriented to promoting civic engagement, and adapting the questions and main topics to the different interviewees. The interviews have been coded and analyzed using N-Vivo.

The research aims to understand and make explicit the different meanings of civic engagement, particularly the implicit ones, that shape educational practices promoted by schools in collaboration with community and make explicit the idea of citizen and citizenship embedded in these practices, in order to provide both to practitioners and policy-makers useful insights to plan effective and self-aware interventions.

Amnå E. How is civic engagement developed over time? Emerging answers from a multidisciplinary field. J Adolesc. 2012 Jun;35(3):611-27

Banyan, M. E. (2013). Civic engagement. In Encyclopædia Britannica.

Geboers, E., Geijsel, F., Admiraal, W., & ten Dam, G. (2013). Review of the effects of citizenship education. Educational Research Review, 9, 158-173.

Kassimir R., Flanagan, C. (2010). Youth Civic Engagement in the Developing World:
Challenges and Opportunities. In Sherrod, L., Torney-Purta, J., & Flanagan, C. Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth. Wiley, 91-114.

Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004). What Kind of Citizen? The Politics of Educating for Democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237–269.