University of California, Riverside, Office of Grants and Contracts

The University of California Riverside (UC Riverside) is a public research university and one of ten general campuses in the University of California system. Professor Joseph Kahne joined UC Riverside’s graduate School of Education faculty in 2016, and he brings deep expertise in civics learning in the digital age. This grant supports Professor Kahne to analyze data gathered from a massive survey of youth media practices to understand better the availability of media literacy learning opportunities for youth and how those opportunities influence young peoples’ civic and political engagement. The analysis will provide insight into the types of media literacy programming available to populations in various regions of the country and their impact on media literacy outcomes.

In 2016, the University of California, Riverside Graduate School of Education  became the host of the MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics  (YPP). Founded in 1969,  the Graduate School of Education (GSOE) at University of California, Riverside (UCR) prepares students to become classroom educators, researchers and educational leaders. The proposed grant will support a group of multi-disciplinary, nationally-recognized scholars to undertake a second phase of research to identify and examine potential benefits and risks of digital media’s influence on and support for young people’s participation in public life and collective action. The impetus for the Network was the recognition that youth are critical to the future of democracy and that technological changes are introducing new considerations for how to prepare youth to be informed, engaged, and effective actors in public life. Led by Professor Joseph Kahne, who holds the Ted and Jo Dutton Presidential Chair in Educational Policy and Politics in the Graduate School of Education, the Network in its first phase focused on conceptualizing the implications of the rise of new media for the practice of politics and for youth civic and political development. It considered whether and how youth are using digital tools and networks for political engagement, and what new practices and dynamics are being facilitated by widespread availability and use of new media. In its second phase, the Network continues and builds on the first phase and also identifies potential benefits and risks of participatory politics for increased youth engagement in public life. Members examine new pathways to, and the consequences of, quality, quantity, and response by institutions to participatory politics, and focus on gaining a better understanding of how educators, policymakers, designers, and youth themselves can work to strengthen their engagement with participatory politics.

To support the Critical Issues Program on the United States and Mexico (over three years).