Contemporary American Citizenship: A Genre Analysis and Phenomenological Investigation of Civic Education Centers

American democracy demands deliberative debates rather than dictatorship, which require engaged individuals equipped with civic communication skills. The establishing of united states created a need to educate democratic citizens. This study investigates what it means to be an active American citizen and how citizenship is conceptualized and rhetorically practiced in the United States. In surveying civic education centers housed at universities that teach various ideals of democratic citizenship, I focus a close analysis on university-based associations from three national organizations: Western Kentucky University\u27s Institute for Citizenship and Social Responsibility and ALIVE Center for Community Partnerships (American Democracy Project), Michigan State University\u27s Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (Campus Compact), and Colorado State University\u27s Center for Public Deliberation (National Issues Forum Institute). I argue that the rhetoric of these centers constitutes a genre of human communication that expresses democratic voices. I employ a discourse genre analysis to find that the civic education center genre is characterized as (1) a rhetorical response to America\u27s democratic problem of participation that (2) communicates the common purpose of teaching citizenship. I identify four shared themes that reveal the rhetorical view of the ideal citizen put forth by the centers. Next, I perform a phenomenological investigation in order to explore the space where the students\u27 experiences and centers\u27 discourses interconnect. Four common themes emerge from the student interviews: (1) giving back; (2) community engagement; (3) making a difference; and (4) gaining an awareness of others. In examining their lived experiences, I discover expressions of how citizenship feels. Finally, I rhetorically analyze my phenomenological results to illuminate the centers\u27 influences and their effectiveness. I find that the students appear to adopt the centers\u27 language, and the managers and staff view them as being successful. Studying civic education centers as a genre exposes an important aspect of the rhetorical foundation of the American democratic system. I conclude that this civic education center discursive genre: (1) reveals democracy as a communication process, (2) exposes the affective aspects of citizenship, and (3) expands the sphere of democracy. Overall, my research contributes to the field by bringing to light significant connections between communication and citizenship