| Teaching Civic Engagement Globally is the result of collaborative work spanning scholars from multiple disciplines, fields, and careers. Political scientists, educators, and students have joined to produce important, timely research. |
Using Drawings to Understand Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Civic Engagement Across Countries — Ireland and Egypt
by Sharon Feeney and John Hogan, Technological University Dublin
Freehand drawing is a visual representation technique sometimes employed to bypass cognitive verbal processing routes as part of a critical pedagogy. This allows students to produce clear, more critical, and inclusive images of their understanding of a topic regardless of their vocabulary. This chapter presents an interpretation of freehand drawings produced by final year degree students in response to the question: “What is Civic Engagement?” The students were pursuing the same degree, with some studying in an Irish and others in an Egyptian university. Having to explain civic engagement pictorially forced the students to distill the essence of civic engagement’s meaning to them and provided insights into how they perceived civic engagement and their roles in their societies. We offer this example as a model for other educators seeking alternative methods for teaching civic engagement and for creating a learning environment where students can develop their own capacity for critical self-reflection.
About Teaching Civic Engagement Globally
Educators around the globe are facing challenges in teaching politics in an era in which populist values are on the rise, authoritarian governance is legitimized, and core democratic tenets are regularly undermined. To combat anti-democratic outcomes and citizens’ apathy, Teaching Civic Engagement Globally provides a wide range of pedagogical tools to help the current generation learn to effectively navigate debates and lead changes in local, national, and global politics. Contributors discuss key theoretical discussions and challenges regarding global civic engagement education, highlight successful evidence-based pedagogical approaches, and review effective ways to reach across disciplines and the global education community.