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Voter Advocacy Efforts of Public Social Studies Teachers in Pennsylvania

Elizabeth Reynolds

EDUC682: Qualitative Modes of Inquiry

Dr. Krystal Strong

December 18, 2020

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“There's no specific school policy that says that we need to be doing voter registration and there's

no state laws. The only thing the state law says is that the Secretary of Commonwealth is supposed

to provide voter registration forms to every high school and I've never seen them actually do that.

The only forms ever run into a school usually are brought in by teachers anywhere I've ever been

so the ef orts have been entirely, you know, based on teachers or students doing that work. So over

a number of years, I sort of saw a need from my own self...I would try to get everyone [registered]

and some teachers don't do it at all.” – high school social studies teacher in Pennsylvania

Teachers like this one are working across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to register

and engage new 18-year-olds to vote. This year, these teachers are doing so in an unprecedented

political climate. Pennsylvania has repeatedly made headlines in 2020 for voting-related legal

challenges, predictions about election outcomes, visits from candidates, and ultimately, putting

Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College vote threshold to become president-elect. This media

attention took place in a once-in-a-generation pandemic that caused immeasurable pain to

families and disrupted the operations of community institutions. In this qualitative research, I

seek to understand how public school social studies teachers in Pennsylvania advocate for their

students to vote and how the political and health mayhem in 2020 has affected their efforts.

Background and Research Questions

Social psychologists and education theorists have long established that people learn

academic knowledge, moral values, social norms, and identity expectations through sociocultural

connections (Mead, 1934; Kohlberg & Hersh, 1977; Vygotsky, 1978; Gilligan, 1982). Political

scientists study political socialization, or “the process by which people learn and develop

opinions about government and politics” (Welch et al. 2012, p. 96). Scholars repeatedly conclude

that schools are one source of political socialization. From young ages, U.S. schools perform

patriotic rituals and civic norms that invoke positive feelings about the U.S., such as reciting the

Pledge of Allegiance or holding a student government election (Welch et al, 2012). Teenagers

start to develop their own stances on issues and high schools often teach students about the

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institutions in government and public policy issues. High school civics courses, particularly in

the senior year, can have a meaningful impact on a student’s knowledge of and participation in

government (Niemi & Junn, 1998).

Foundational figures in American education, like Horace Mann and John Dewey, viewed

schooling as preparation for democratic participation (Crittenden & Levine, 2018). Scholars–

and the greater population– continue to write and debate about what makes a “good citizen” and

the role of schools in fostering civic life (i.e. Ravitch, 2001; Westheimer & Kahne, 2004;

Levinson, 2012; Gramlich, 2019). Schools often reinforce political stability by teaching students

to accept political authority and participate through socially acceptable forms of civic

engagement (Welch et al., 2012). Indeed, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)’s

College, Career, and Civic Life “C3” Framework reads:

“Civics is not limited to the study of politics and society; it also encompasses

participation in classrooms and schools, neighborhoods, groups, and organizations. Not

all participation in beneficial...In civics, students learn to contribute appropriately to

public processes and discussions of real issues” (p. 31).

This passage mirrors how political scientists understand political socialization in schools:

schools socialize students to participate in public life in “appropriate” ways, such as voting or

volunteering. These political socialization norms inform the experiences of my interlocutors.

Young people (often defined as ages 18-29) notoriously do not vote compared to other

age cohorts (File, 2014). The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and

Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University researches the youngest voters, those age 18-21.

While being politically engaged (i.e. more than 75% of 18-21-year-olds reported that they were

paying attention to the 2020 election), this age group is even less likely to vote than their slightly

older peers (Kiesa et al., 2020; CIRCLE, 2018). CIRCLE found that high schools are not

universally teaching students about voter registration or voting options, such as voting by mail.

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