A PLACE FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT: FOSTERING GREATER CIVIC AWARENESS AND ENGAGEMENT AMONG ADOLESCENTS THROUGH PLACE-BASED EDUCATION

The current state of American education is one that is often defined as being standardized, with students of varying needs, abilities, and backgrounds being consistently measured by a “one size fits all” approach. Students of various learning styles and incredibly diverse cultures are being assessed on content that is foreign, and often not relatable to them; thereby leading to a loss of engagement in the learning process and the inability to see themselves as contributing members of a democratic society. The overall purpose of this action research project is to help adolescents develop a greater understanding of civic matters and to become more engaged within their local community. This societal aim will be supported with the aid of place-based learning within the secondary level classroom; where teachers incorporate the local community into their curriculum to provide a more meaningful and relatable content to their students. Along with an analysis of what role education has in a democratic society and the challenges that plague our current education system, this work will present a professional development workshop series for secondary level teachers in developing methods of place based learning to combat the pedagogical uniformity found too often today. In addition, a method of evaluating the effectiveness of this proposed workshop will be presented in an effort to identify areas of growth and improvement