An urban elementary school in the city of Phoenix showed little evidence of using active learning even though active learning is a best practice to create engaged citizens. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether participating in a 3-week service-learning project improved civic engagement among at-risk elementary students. The theoretical foundation for this study was the constructivist learning theory, which states that students learn and create meaning by being active participants in their own learning. The research questions asked if completing a 3-week service-learning project showed a statistically significant difference in civic engagement for at-risk tutorial students at the school and whether there was a statistically significant grade level interaction effect. The Civic Responsibility Survey for K-12 Students Engaged in Service was used to gather quantitative data for this quasi-experimental design. The sample consisted of 162 students and was limited to the number of students enrolled in first through fourth grades in the 2016-2017 school year. Descriptive statistics and an analysis of covariance was conducted to determine the effect of participation in a service-learning project on reported civic engagement outcomes. There was no statistically significant difference in civic engagement after students participated in a service-learning project compared to students who did not participate. There was, however, a statistically significant difference in civic engagement scores between Grade 3 and Grade 1 and Grade 3 and Grade 4. A 3-day professional development was created for teachers as a result of this study. This may influence positive social change by creating active learning experiences for students at the school, which may lead to greater civic engagement, improved teacher-student relationships, and higher academic achievement.

Chinese higher education has achieved a remarkable expansion in recent years but few studies have examined the civic perceptions and civic participation of contemporary university students. This study aims to fill the gap in the existing literature by accomplishing four main goals: first, to investigate how students view citizenship, civic issues, and civil society; second, to examine how they participate in civic activities, both on and off campus; third, to understand how their civic attitudes and behaviours are being influenced by society, university and family, also by such factors as formal citizenship education curricula, informal educational experiences and the mass media; and fourth, to analyze the impact of higher education expansion on civil society in China. This study adopted a mixed methods approach, and combined findings from a large-scale national student survey across 12 universities and 34 face to face interviews conducted in 3 selected institutions among the 12 that were surveyed. The conceptual framework drew upon social capital theory and both ecological and cognitive psychological theories to generate two analytic frameworks for analyzing the quantitative and qualitative data. The major findings were: (1) university students demonstrated strong patriotism, and a serious commitment to social justice and civic participation, which was partly the result of the distinctive form of citizenship education they received in the Chinese context; (2) half of the survey participants were found to be inactive participants in civic activities, which showed a disconnect between their civic attitudes and civic behaviours; (3) higher socio-economic status (SES) was associated with more active civic participation; (4) the mass media, especially the Internet was found to have a profound impact on students’ civic perceptions; (5) interview participants in the three qualitative case institutions revealed distinctive patterns of civic engagement, which confirmed the importance of university environment, policy, history and culture on student civic participation and citizenship development. This study has made a significant contribution to the existing literature on citizenship issues in contemporary Chinese universities. It has also added to current knowledge on trends of civil society development and the democratization process in China, from the perspective of university students.

Chinese higher education has achieved a remarkable expansion in recent years but few studies have examined the civic perceptions and civic participation of contemporary university students. This study aims to fill the gap in the existing literature by accomplishing four main goals: first, to investigate how students view citizenship, civic issues, and civil society; second, to examine how they participate in civic activities, both on and off campus; third, to understand how their civic attitudes and behaviours are being influenced by society, university and family, also by such factors as formal citizenship education curricula, informal educational experiences and the mass media; and fourth, to analyze the impact of higher education expansion on civil society in China. This study adopted a mixed methods approach, and combined findings from a large-scale national student survey across 12 universities and 34 face to face interviews conducted in 3 selected institutions among the 12 that were surveyed. The conceptual framework drew upon social capital theory and both ecological and cognitive psychological theories to generate two analytic frameworks for analyzing the quantitative and qualitative data. The major findings were: (1) university students demonstrated strong patriotism, and a serious commitment to social justice and civic participation, which was partly the result of the distinctive form of citizenship education they received in the Chinese context; (2) half of the survey participants were found to be inactive participants in civic activities, which showed a disconnect between their civic attitudes and civic behaviours; (3) higher socio-economic status (SES) was associated with more active civic participation; (4) the mass media, especially the Internet was found to have a profound impact on students’ civic perceptions; (5) interview participants in the three qualitative case institutions revealed distinctive patterns of civic engagement, which confirmed the importance of university environment, policy, history and culture on student civic participation and citizenship development. This study has made a significant contribution to the existing literature on citizenship issues in contemporary Chinese universities. It has also added to current knowledge on trends of civil society development and the democratization process in China, from the perspective of university students.

There is an increasing interest in the life outcomes of youth that are exposed to community violence. Previous research has found that community violence has a direct effect on youth development. It has also shown that there are economic costs for communities that have high levels of community violence. Thus far, the literature on youth in these areas has focused on protective factors such as school connectedness, family connectedness, religion and positive life outcomes. There is little research on the affects of mentoring on life outcomes for individuals that were exposed to community violence during adolescence. This study explores mentoring as a mediating variable that promotes positive life outcomes by analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health studies. A nested multiple regression model was used to evaluate the data. The results show that individuals with mentors are more likely to be civically engaged during young adulthood.

Abstract Nowadays civic participation is a significant activity in the commonwealth. According to civic participation, it can be realized the development of the democracy in a country. Although Kaohsiung city is the second biggest status of special municipality directly administered by the central government, Taiwanese Central Government has been disconsidering the growth of South Taiwan. As a result, it cause that Kaohsiung city has become the center of the industry and Taipei city has become the center of the policy and economics. Due to this reason, people in the south Taiwan are not concern with the public affairs which need to be considered. Almond is the first precursor to research civic society. Almond refers that people highly participate with political culture can be called Civic Culture. Inglehart is the second researcher to research in this subject. Inglehart discovers technical upgrade, economic development, the standard of education improvement, information technology and mass communication spread could effect the social value. People may focus on post-materialism which are the standard of living, and self-fulfilling instead of the materialism value that are included the creature comfort and personal security. Mass communication not only offers the useful information to the mass but also effects the mass behavior, in particular newspaper. Newspaper spread presents the news and multi-information to everyone and it also can fulfill each one¡¦s inner life as well. Besides this, it is also a very leaven to people because of its content such as the edit and so on. This research is divided two sections. The first section refers to the integration of the public affairs management (PAM). It discusses the condition of the aspect of socioeconomic in Kaohsiung city. The second section V.C.S dimensional in-depth interview¡Aanalyze the power of the local newspaper, the limit of the local newspaper and the public value of the local newspaper in Kaohsiung. According to the development of the socioeconomic, it can be discussed weather Kaohsiung city is qualified for public society or not. And also , in the process of time whether the media exerts generate a discussion and provoke issues or not. According to the research, it discovers that the current and past employment market and social organization do not change a lot. But the phenomenon of generation effect ¡Awith disposition and potentiality to post modernized civil society. Due to several elements such as economic depression, open media market and new competitors appearance, local medium in Koahsiung are forced to adjust the management strategy and constitution in order to breakthrough difficulty. However, in order to achieve the goal and promote the public value it often become dilemma because of searching market support and lifting organizational capacity on the current limited resources and condition. As a result, it can define that the function of the forth right to medium is consistently challenged. In the sum, local newspaper and medium can make the public value become valuable. It also can say that mass medium is like a light that can let each one see the value of public society clearly and easily. However, the life cycle of the news events are very short. Therefore, the elements of economic development, guidable assistance instead of critique and control and the third section may achieve the goal of the public society quickly.

The purpose of the study is to investigate 8th grade Turkish students&rsquo / perceptions towards civic concepts and issues like good citizenship, government responsibilities and women&rsquo / s political and social rights and to determine the factors affecting their intentions to participate in electoral, political and civic activities. In order to achieve this aim, a nation-wide survey was conducted with a sample of 2497 students from 60 schools in 21 provinces. The questionnaire developed by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) on civic education was adapted and used as the data collection instrument. The data obtained from the sample were analyzed through both descriptive (mean, frequencies and percentages) and inferential statistics (ANOVA, Hierarchical Multiple Regression). The results revealed that students value both conventional and social movement citizenship activities to be a good citizen. However, although they plan to participate in electoral and civic activities, more than half of them do not plan to participate in political activities such as joining a party, being a candidate for a local office. Moreover, it was found that the variances in students&rsquo / intentions to participate in electoral, political and civic activities were explained by students&rsquo / background characteristics, their media consumption habits, their discussion practices and discussion environment in classrooms, curricular and extracurricular experiences and finally by their perceptions of good citizenship and participation in school. Findings were discussed around relevant literature both in Turkey and abroad.

An experiment showed that audiences react with more empathy to graphic war photographs accompanying news reports than non-graphic war photographs. Four war stories from four different countries, featuring either a graphic or non-graphic photograph representing a scene from each report, were used to test respondents’ reactions. Empathy measured higher after audience exposure to graphic war photographs, while recall, central processing, emotion, media attitudes, and civic participation all did not show significant differences from graphic to non-graphic. As a result of this study, editors and news organizations can be assured that audiences may not react with a significant amount of emotion, but will still care significantly more about an issue after being presented with graphic news photographs of war with war reports, as opposed to non-graphic photographs of war. / text

The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the strategies used by young people in Mexico City to exercise civic participation in the form of human rights activism. Mexican society is currently markedby an increased amount of human rights violations, together with high levels of corruption, violence and severe flaws within the democratic system. To claim and stand up for human rights in this context is not onlydifficult but also dangerous, which is a pattern that recurs in many context throughout the globe. The young activists who were interviewed share the experience of having attended the same human rights education, where human rights are taught through critical pedagogy. They manifest a perspective where human rights have to be enacted in all spheres of society, including interpersonal relationships. Human rights ideals also seem to represent something similar to an ideology that, when understood correctly, entails a transformative potential. The experience of undertaking human rights education formed new networks and bonds in civil society, as well as personal reflections on their own position in their surrounding. Although recognizing the importance of relating to the parliamentary structure and public institutions, the activists seem sceptical towards achieving human rights progress through that arena due to the large political and financial corruption. Instead, the result of this study highlights other strategies for exercising civic participation and defending human rights in Mexico, such as the creation and participation in autonomous, democratic structures within in the civil society and social movements, as well as actions executed within informal relationships and spheres.

This master thesis is dealing with topic of citizen's involvement and civic participation in context of professionalized civil society organizations 's activities. The work is based on theoretical concepts of political and civic participation. Subsequently, civic participation and citizen's involvement is seen in the sense of civic activities carried out within or through civil society organizations and they include various forms in which citizens participate in public life, usually without financial reward. The paper also presents the concepts of professionalization that frame the subsequent reflection on the nature and potential of civic participation and citizen's involvement into activities of professionalized civil society organizations. The main part is a qualitative research whose aim is to describe and understand, from perspective of professionalized organization's representatives, how and why there is public participation within or through activities of the organization and what are the preferred forms and barriers of involvement and civic participation. Analysis of data obtained through in- depth interviews with representatives of professionalized civil society organizations, are discussed in the conclusion in relation to the research questions and theoretical basis Key words Civic...

Civil participation is on the rise. In the district of Prague 10, it is also gaining more and more importance - at least in the field of public spaces and their restoration or transformation. In this part of Prague, thanks to civil participation, many different groups of key stakeholders such as civil servants, active citizens, and politicians meet. The main part of the thesis, thus is comprised by qualitative research based on in-depth interviews with these stakeholders. The author tries to find answers to her questions as regards the perception of civil participation by the stakeholdres themselves, as regards the role individual groups are attributed and what is the role of (lack of) trust in the process of participation. As the research shows, in this particular district, there is a wide array of obstacles the process faces. At the same time, it bears a great potential and promises of a much brighter future. In the final part of the thesis, suggestions as to further research are presented and the results are put within the context of the current research and academic writing. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)