Civic Engagement Seminar

Module 1

service-learning
and mentoring

Module 2

democracy

Module 3

political philosophies

Module 4

government

Module 5

community

Module 6

diversity

Module 7

lifelong
citizenship

"We must become the change we want to see."

—Mahatma Gandhi

Introduction

This seminar is intended to foster your development as a citizen* of the United States of America. As a citizen, you have a responsibility to your fellow Americans and country. This responsibility encompasses civic values, concepts, and skills that require exploration, collaboration, critique, inquiry, and action. It is our hope that this seminar will help you understand the integral role that democracy, citizenship, and politics play in your personal, professional, and civic life.

* Please note that we use the term citizen throughout this seminar, yet its meaning in this context represents the idea of all the people of the United States of America, from a natural born citizen to a temporary alien visiting the United States, who wish to learn more about participating in our democracy.

This seminar will provide you with a repertoire of strategies for gaining more insight into the complex issues that create-and sometimes destroy-American democracy. Each of the seven modules will stress different factors and factions of American citizenship as well as introduce the importance of mentoring and service-learning. Research and experience have shown that learning is a process of discovering new ways to look at our world and our place in it. When this learning is an act of inquiry-when it starts with dissonance and questions, rather than prefabricated answers-learning becomes an effective tool that can be applied to everyday life.

Instructions

This seminar is self-paced and divided into seven sequential modules. The following is a conceptual map for the modules:

Each module will contain some or all of the following elements:

1. Pre-flective Activity
2. Reading (s)
3. Reflective Activity

Pre-flective Activity
The pre-flective activity is an individual exercise that you will complete at the beginning of each module. The exercises and activities are designed to get you thinking about the particular concept being addressed.

Reading (s)
One or more readings are required for each module. In some cases, the readings are historical documents that give context to the concept being explored. In other cases, the readings will come from topic-related web sites. Some readings are designed to explore the complexity of citizenship, democracy and community engagement by offering a number of different views on a particular issue. Each of the readings has been selected to provide an historical context, or a range of contemporary views, about the concept being addressed.

We recognize that most Americans are incredibly busy, so we've selected brief, yet powerful, readings that we hope will generate healthy discussions and allow you the opportunity to explore varying points of view.

Reflective Activity
Like the pre-flective activity, these will be individual activities. These activities are designed to help you "wrap up" the module by contemplating the readings and relating them back to your life as an American citizen.

Journals
You will need to keep a journal. The journal could be a notebook or a computerized word processing document in which you log your entries for the pre-flective and reflective activities. You may also wish to use your journal to take notes for each module.

Mississippi Higher Education Consortium - Lighthouse Partnership
This online Civic Engagement Seminar is being used as part of the Mississippi Higher Education Consortium Lighthouse Partnership program funded through a Learn and Serve America Grant administered by the Mississippi Center for Community and Civic Engagement. If your service-learning class is participating in this program, you will be acting as a civic tutor to students in an after-school program. In addition to improving your own civic participation and knowledge, you will be helping youngsters discover what it means to be an active citizen.

Before you begin the seminar, you will be taking a survey administered by your instructor. This survey is not graded, but must be completed BEFORE you begin the first module. The pre-survey is meant to provide a baseline for your knowledge of citizenship, civic engagement, and related ideas. Once you have completed all seven modules and completed your service-learning class, you will take the post-survey (also administered by your instructor). Please take this assessment seriously because the data will be used to measure the effectiveness of your service-learning experience and that of the seminar.

Although this seminar is self-paced, you instructor will most likely assign a completion date.

Final Notes
You will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to gain access to some of the documents (if your computer doesn't already have this software). This is FREE software - if you need it, just click the image below and follow the instructions.

Finally, some of the links throughout this seminar will take you away from the Civic Engagement Seminar web site. Be sure to use your "BACK" button on your web browser to get back to the seminar.

Acknowledgments and Disclaimer:

The Mississippi Center for Community and Civic Engagement acknowledges two guides that heavily influenced and were drawn upon in creating this seminar: By the People and The AmeriCorps Guide to Effective Citizenship. The first document was edited by Harry S. Boyte at the Center for Democracy and Citizenship, the second was produced for the Corporation for National and Community Service by the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Both are excellent resources. The following staff at the Center for Community and Civic Engagement contributed to the development of this seminar: Kim Brown, Leslie Butler, LeAnne Casiano, Vickie Nudelman, and JJ Trotta. Former staff members Thomas Schnaubelt, Barbi Broadus, Shannon Haley, Joyce Inman, and Tanya Pickering also contributed.

The Mississippi Center for Community and Civic Engagement, its partners, and its employees, do not in any way advocate or promote the political thoughts, ideas, and concepts reviewed in the Citizenship and Civic Engagement Seminar. This seminar is meant to provide participants with an opportunity to learn about and understand the roles that politics, democracy, and citizenship play in the lives of Americans.