- Oct 2021
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docdrop.org docdrop.org
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Considering the thousands of students that identified and articulatedcivic issues, this study shines a light on the various ways that youth write civ-ically within school contexts. Recognizing that civic topics range widely fordifferent socioeconomic communities, the boundaries of civic participationextend beyond presupposed gaps; nearly every student in this studyexpressed a topic for civic action—both visceral issues of violence and aspi-rational needs like college tuition.
An incredible project indeed! One thing I'd have loved to see was the participation of civil society players in general beyond the sample. Perhaps of interest to a different study? Would definitely be interesting. Especially if this projects/letters to the President were covered over the span of a few decades. Perhaps addressing the issues would become more fruitful. I hope congress gets engaged on a similar letters project in the near future!
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The following sections focus in on key issues where studentletter topic focus varied according to the aforementioned demographics.
The letters I read regarding money, cost of tuition and finances and more broadly “wealth redistribution” sort of overlapped with fewer areas. Is this because the issue of money is a stand alone issue? I understand that this is of interest for most youth but why wouldn't more themes intersect in this and many of the other letters?
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Homelessness & Housing
One of the letters I reflected on that truly hit home. I noticed a level of resignation, sadness, and a frustration with this issue in particular. Something of great interest today in the post-pandemic world and maybe one of the greatest issues of our generation. Are we becoming more and more desensitized to the issue now?
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Another reason students from less privileged backgrounds were morelikely to write about topics other than college could be that there are otherissues that they aremoreworried about, that they may experience on a day-to-day level in their communities, and that they are more motivated to call tothe attention of the future president—however important college may be tothem.
Such a striking but true summary of the issue!
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lowersocioeconomic status schools
From one of the letters. “The school funding is crap. We don’t receive what we really did for life. Are school districts expecting us to know how to do taxes? Where are we supposed to learn this, School Leaders, at home? What is the district doing to our future? We are the future of the world, and we don’t know the basics for everyday living. We need more life skill classes than educational…”
This resonated with me. The plight of this generation of students. Only time will tell
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Guns (constructed of issue tags such as ‘‘assault weapons,’’ ‘‘gun con-trol,’’ ‘‘gun issues,’’ ‘‘gun laws,’’ ‘‘second amendment,’’ ‘‘school shootings,’’and ‘‘shootings’’) was also a top topic, representing 9.65% of all letters
9.65%! I would have imagined this to be higher given the number of letters covering related issues
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The median number of topics per letter is 1, but the mean numberof topics was 1.82 with a standard deviation of 1.088; thus while over halfof letters’ original tags (5,802 letters) fell into only one topic, 22% of lettersfell into two topics, and 26% of letters fell under three or more topics (seeFigure 3 below).
Were any of the letters discarded or not considered? If so, why?
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docdrop.org docdrop.org
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graduate profile: a document that makes explicit the capabilities, competencies, knowledge, and attitudes that you and your community find essential for high school graduates of your local school(s).
Interesting concept. Looking forward to this assignment. A good opportunity to reflect on goals as a graduate student and take a pause to think about how to round and complete our academic and professional profiles.
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tudents will select letters to read, and annotate an article about findings using the free tool Hypothesis.
Seems like a cool way to learn how to annotate for those new to it and also a good intro to Hypothes.is as a tool
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theoretical frameworks
Interested in developing deeper understanding of theoretical framework in educational research, especially as they relate to Technology, Innovation & Pedagogy.
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