Social Media for Civic Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

   PDF

2. Introduction: Reclaiming Civic Education

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 1-16Open Access

3. Is Twitter for the Birds? The Young and the Restless Don’t Think So

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 17-35Open Access

4. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: How Social Media Operates in the Civic Sphere

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 37-56Open Access

5. The Study: Teachers’ Use of Twitter for Civic Education

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 57-70Open Access

6. #CivicEd: Teachers’ Stories of Connection, Civics, and Social Media

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 71-92Open Access

7. (Digital) Citizenship: Dissenting from Indifference

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 93-103Open Access

8. Nurturing a Capacity That May Well Be Limitless: Supporting Student Worth as a Matter of Civic Urgency

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 105-116Open Access

9. With a Little Help from Friends: Teaching About, with, and Through Social Media

   • Amy L. Chapman

   Pages 117-126Open Access

10. The Margins Don’t Get Erased by Simply Insisting that the Powers That Be Erase Them: Social Media as a Disrupter

    • Amy L. Chapman

    Pages 127-139Open Access

11. Conclusions: My Liberation Is Bound Up with Yours

    • Amy L. Chapman

    Pages 141-153Open Access

12. Back Matter

    Pages 155-161

    PDF

This open access book provides the theoretical and pedagogical foundations for a promising new approach to civic education: using social media to teach civics. While many measures indicate that youth civic engagement has long been in decline, many of these measures fail to take into account all of the ways that youth can interact with civic life. One of these understudied ways is through social media, including platforms like Twitter, where young people have the opportunity to encounter the news, engage with people in power, and bring attention to the needs in their community. Throughout this volume, Chapman explores how and why teachers can use social media to teach civics, as well as how it might meet the needs of students in ways other approaches do not.

• civic education
• civic engagement
• social media
• civic participation
• social justice
• social media education
• youth democracy
• youth citizenship
• Open Access

• Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

  Amy L. Chapman

Amy L. Chapman is Director of the Collaborative for Spirituality in Education and a Fellow in the Clinical and Counseling Psychology Department at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. Her research interests lie at the intersection of social media, social studies, and social justice, with a particular concern for vulnerable and marginalized students.