TE Research Talk: Jane C. Lo

“The Role of Civic Debt in Civic Education”

In this talk, Lo argues that the civic empowerment gap, and gaps like it, are a manifestation of a larger civic debt that is partially rooted in the racial grammar of civic education. In other words, she challenges the ways in which civic education has mostly been rooted in the normalcy of whiteness by naming a civic debt that schools and society owe most profoundly to students of color in low-income neighborhoods. This imbalance of civic understanding and power can stymie students’ abilities to successfully challenge racist practices, structures and systems.

Lo will share her most recent research project, which suggests that one way to address this debt is to help students engage with racial dialogue in schools through the use of Normative Case Studies (NCS). This four-year Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) project hopes to answer: How, if at all, can NCS support teachers’ and students’ engagement with productive dialogue about race and racism in contemporary civic life? The goal of the project is to help design, implement and support productive racial dialogue in civic education.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jane C. Lo is currently assistant professor of social science education in the School of Teacher Education at Florida State University. She is also a fellow with the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship. Her research focuses on civic education broadly. Specifically, she is interested in the political engagement of youth, social studies curriculum development and the development of youth civic identity. Her methodological expertise includes mixed-methods designs and design-based implementation research. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in social studies methods. Her most recent work can be found in Theory & Research in Social Education and Democracy & Education. Prior to becoming a teacher educator, she taught government, economics and Chinese in Austin, Texas.