Banks, James A.Adekile, Adebowale2021-10-292021-10-292021Adekile_washington_0250E_23362.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/48011Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2021Background/Context: Recent scholarship shows the utility of experiential civics strategies while at the same time reporting the challenge in making these strategies ubiquitous in classrooms across the country. Currently, the more ubiquitous practice is a reliance on a textbook which is limited in its ability to promote civic participation and civic action as shown by content analysis studies. However, textbooks, when used alone, are not effective instructional vehicles and should not be treated as such. Rather, a comprehensive view of their utility should consider them as part of a curricular package that includes teachers’ guides, lesson plans, activity plan packages, and other supplemental instructional material. These curricular packages are likely to contain experiential learning strategies that promote civic action and civic participation as indicated in two research studies of We the People (2017), a non-traditional civics textbook curriculum package developed by the Center for Civic Education. The purpose of the study: By conducting a content-analysis of textbooks and associated supplemental curriculum materials of the most widely used civics textbooks in U.S. schools, this study describes the potential of textbook curriculum materials to deliver meaningful experiential civics learning. The research questions are:1. What is the nature of experiential civic strategies in textbook (and supplemental) curriculum materials? 2. How does the distribution of experiential civic strategies in textbook (and supplemental) curriculum materials differ among civic topics? 3. How do the experiential civic strategies/curricula in textbook (and supplemental) materials compare to best practices and recommendations in the civic engagement literature? 4. What is the potential role of textbook curriculum materials for making experiential civic strategies mainstream in civics classrooms? Setting/Participants: The sample for this study is drawn from the most widely used American government and civics textbooks in the United States. The teacher-edition versions and supplemental materials for each of the four textbooks in the sample are often quite robust. Therefore, curricula material not germane to the study because of their inherent inability to utilize experiential education—such as test banks, chapter overviews, reading guides—are excluded from the data analyses. Research design: I conducted a quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The quantitative portion of the study included descriptive statistics, exploratory analysis, and clustering. The qualitative portion of the study utilized a combination of data-driven and concept-driven coding frames to build a grounded theory of the soundness of textbook-related experiential civic education and its adherence to best practices. The quantitative and qualitative analyses were used in concert to answer the research questions. Findings/Results: I found that teacher-edition versions of mainstream American government textbooks and their corresponding supplemental materials adequately provide experiential civics in most civic topics. Even though there was room for improvement, for the most part, these experiential civics also adhered to the best practices in their respective fields (political classroom, simulations, and action civics). These results indicate that textbooks-based resources can be used to educate students in civic participation and civic action. Conclusions/Recommendations: The current narrative in the research literature that American government textbooks cannot suitably give students a path towards civic participation and civic action is incomplete. This study indicates that by using the teacher-edition counterpart and supplemental resources, textbooks can be viable tools of experiential civics education. Schools should begin using these underutilized resources because textbooks are institutional tools that can facilitate the mainstreaming of experiential civics. The significance of the study: This study provides insights into the topics that are targeted for experiential learning and how they are being addressed in textbook curricula as well as topics that are being omitted from experiential treatment. The study describes the extent to which textbook curriculum materials adhere to best practices, and hence, the extent to which they help teachers to deliver experiential civics effectively. To that end, given experiential civic strategies' ability to imbue students with civic action and participation, this study ascertains the value of textbook material as a viable option for teachers who want to give their students meaningful experiences with civic action and participation.application/pdfen-USnoneaction civicscivic educationcivic engagementexperiential educationpolitical classroomsimulationCurriculum developmentSecondary educationSocial sciences educationEducation - SeattleThesis