Exploring the Impact of Experiential Activities on Civic Engagement Among University Students

Background: One of the goals of education is to produce responsible learners by promoting intellectual honesty, social justice, active participation in democracy, and a deep understanding of oneself, others, histories, and cultures. Civic engagement, participation in the advocacy for the development of community through EPAS 2015 holistic competencies of knowledge, skills, and values, is one method to move students toward an active role in their own learning.  In addition, experiential education is used as an avenue to facilitate civic engagement and exposure to human rights issues. The intent of experiential education is for the learner/student to interact with social environments outside of the class; experience and reflection then become integral components of learning. Specific questions include: 1) Are students that participate in experiential activities (EA) more likely to report being civically engaged than students who do not participate? 2) How are experiential learning activities (such as study abroad and community service) related to students’ (a) exposure and (b) attitudes toward human rights issues?

Methods: This study used data from an 80-item cross-sectional survey. Juniors, seniors and graduate social science students were randomly selected to participate in the study by the Registrar at one Midwestern university. Overall, participants (n=224) were primarily women (66%), and white (72%). Black students comprised 8% of the sample and Hispanics 2%. International students made up 9% of the sample.

The scales used in the survey include the Civic Engagement Scale, an adapted version of the Human Rights Exposure in Social Work Scale (HRXSW), and the Human Rights Engagement Scale (HRE). The CES has two subscales, civic engagement attitudes and behavior. The HRXSW was developed to measure human rights exposure in social work and was adapted for use with social science students.

An independent t-test was employed to compare the effect of participation in experiential activities on students’ level of civic engagement, and multiple linear regression was used to examine the associations between participation in experiential activities, exposure to human rights, and human rights attitudes and civic engagement.

Results: T-test result showed that students who participated in an experiential activity scored significantly higher than those who did not participate in experiential activities (t(166)=2.519, p=.012). A significant relationship was found between experiential activity and human rights attitudes (p=.016).  Multiple regression results revealed the association between civic engagement and exposure to human rights or human rights attitude. In one model, higher civic engagement was related for women and students who were more exposed to human rights knowledge/ information. In the other model, students with higher level of civic engagement showed higher scores in human rights attitude.

Conclusion/Implications: The goal of higher education is to promote social justice and support civically responsible learners. As was found in the study, experiential activities could supplement higher education by exposing students to different opportunities and issues. Higher civic engagement, in turn, was related through EAs. As the goal of higher education is to promote social justice, and aims to support civically responsible learners, experiential education seems an appropriate fit to answer that calling.