Election 2008: Civic Engagement and Political Science Experiential Learning at Consortium Universities

Abstract:     
In the hyper political environment of Washington, DC, the Washington Higher Education Secretariat (WHES) is a consortium of 50 post secondary higher education organizations. As the representative body of higher education in the Washington, DC, the WHES is comprised of organizations that are consortiums of colleges and universities. National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education is one such consortium that represents 103 Historically Black Colleges and Universities that serve primarily communities of color. With the historic election of President Barack Obama, the 1st African American elected as President of the United States of America, the questions arise was there a connection between the increase African American youth voter turnout and the students at targeted HBCUs. This research paper identifies the multiplicity of ways that a sample population of these students participated in civic engagement in the ramp up to and during the 2008 Presidential elections. It also asks and seeks to answer the question: in what ways, if any, did the students experience connectivity between in-class teaching and learning and their political experiences? From this data set, the researcher seeks to extrapolate and report out functional, effective and/or best practices for bridging experiential learning and in classroom teaching and learning, from the students’ perspective. This work should contribute to the literature on experiential learning.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

working papers series