An inclusive approach to civic education and engagement: the case of school participatory budgeting

The unequal distribution of civic education opportunities and meaningful civic engagement is well-documented. Schools in under-resourced communities are less likely to offer high-quality civic learning opportunities than schools located in more affluent communities. Moreover, unequal access to civic learning opportunities is noticeable along lines of race, class, and ability. Nonwhite students, students from low-income families, and students with disabilities are afforded fewer opportunities to develop the knowledge, attitudes, skills and practices necessary for full participation in democratic life, from leadership and public speaking to deliberative competencies and political efficacy. In sum, these students are less likely to experience civic-oriented government classes, service-learning programs, democratic simulations, exposure to and discussion of current events, and classroom environments open to dialogue and conversations. Through the ‘Matthew effect’, these inequalities widen over time. This well-documented civic opportunity gap creates uneven political agency and power and can be observed throughout different levels of civic participation, electoral engagement, influence on policy, political representation and capacity for self-governance among adult populations. In short, students who engage in civic activities in school are more likely to participate as adults, and there is correlation between socioeconomic status, ability and race, on the one hand, and access to civic education opportunities and levels of lifelong political participation, on the other. In this presentation, we discuss an emergent, innovative approach to civic learning: school participatory budgeting (SPB). SPB is a civic pedagogical practice that simultaneously nurtures civic learning, student engagement, and school democracy. The SPB process is typically organized in five steps: 1) students propose ideas to improve the school community; 2) students transform these ideas into viable proposals by conducting research and considering impacts, costs, and feasibility; 3) students deliberate on all viable proposals discussing pros and cons; 4) full student body votes on proposals to select winning projects; and 5) winning projects are funded and implemented, with the cycle repeated the following year. The SPB process focuses on creating a space for students to advocate through collective voice, increase civic and leadership skills, and build relationships. Several studies have shown that SPB empowers students to lead as community problem-solvers and acquire skills and attitudes needed for lifelong active civic engagement. Additional research has shown SPB to open pathways to equitable civic learning opportunities and practices within schools. Recent models of SPB have explicitly embraced an emphasis on inclusive civic learning and participatory practices, including a student steering committee representative of the student community demographics, accessible opportunities for equitable participation, and school community-wide engagement. SPB is an offspring of participatory budgeting (PB), a democratic process in which communities make decisions on how to spend a portion of a public budget. PB started in 1989 in Brazil and is now being implemented in over 11,000 cities on all continents. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of participatory democracy and a YPAR (youth participatory action research) approach, we describe our use of mixed methods in data collection and analysis and examine issues related to the design, implementation, and evaluation of SPB processes.