Teachers as Civic Myth Busters

Fostering thoughtful civic engagement has long been identified as an important goal for public education systems across the democratic world including Canada. That said, levels of civic engagement among young people have been a persistent concern in academic, public policy, and professional literature for some time (e.g. Sears & Hyslop-Margison, 2007; Max Bell Foundation). Youth engagement is often described as being in crisis with rates of voter participation, as one example, showing dramatic declines. As the scenarios that follow show, all is not lost. Effective teachers are engaging the young citizens in their classes in civic issues in ways that challenge persistent myths about civic education and link formal politics with involvement in grassroots action and civil society groups of various kinds. We can learn a lot from these educators.   

Scenario 1 

In 2005 and 2006, political science students at Leo Hayes High School in Fredericton collaborated with their Member of Parliament, Andy Scott, in developing a private members’ motion to the House of Commons. It called for the Federal Government to take the lead on creating a national autism strategy to insure people with autism spectrum disorder and their families received the supports they need through provincial health plans. The process took time and hit some roadblocks such as Scott moving from the government to opposition, resistance to the motion from some MPs who saw the issues as a matter of provincial jurisdiction, and the school year ending with the students moving on. Despite these difficulties, the students persisted, with graduating students returning to help the new class take the reins of the campaign, and those new students developing an e-mail lobbying campaign targeting MPs. In December 2006 the House approved the motion, something very rare for private members’ initiatives, by a vote of 231 – 45 (Daily Gleaner, 2006).   

Scenario 2 

In 2008, a class of grade six students at York School in Toronto were disappointed in what they saw as city council’s timid response to the environmental problems caused by plastic bag waste. The city proposed introducing “10-cent discounts for each plastic bag a customer refuses,” which the students saw as wholly inadequate. In the words of one student, it was a good start, “but banning them will make the greatest impact and that’s what we need.” The students considered the rationale provided by the council as well as fierce counter arguments from business organizations that opposed any changes to policy and presented their concerns to a meeting of council (Gray, 2008).   

Scenario 3 

In 2017, the City of Halifax was embroiled in an ongoing controversy about a statue of colonial governor Edward Cornwallis occupying a prominent location in a downtown park. For years Mi’kmaq people and their allies had called for removing the statue because of Cornwallis’ record of oppression of Indigenous people in the colony of Nova Scotia. Others felt that removal of the statue was akin to denying an important part of the history of the province. The city finally struck a special advisory committee to advise on the statue and commemoration of Indigenous history ore broadly. A group of grade 6-8 students from the Annapolis Valley got right to work researching the issue and coming up with a detailed proposal for the committee. One Indigenous leader describe their work as “fantastic” saying it was just the kind of collaboration and dialogue needed (Corfu, 2018).    

These three scenarios demonstrate the potential that exists for schools to foster informed and effective civic engagement among young people. Unfortunately, these experiences are not as common as they should be.    

In 2023, the Canadian civic education charity CIVIX, which provides civic education programs, resources and training for K-12 educators, released the results of a national survey of educators that found that “civic education faces serious systemic problems across the country” (CIVIX, 2024). The report contends that reform is necessary but is hindered by a number of factors including lack of curricular priority for subject areas related to civics, few opportunities for pre- and in-service teacher development in the field, and a lack of quality resources. It is also hindered by several persistent myths about what makes for effective civic education. Drawing on the opening examples we will explore those myths and highlight the practical ways the teachers involved moved their students into more substantial civic engagement.  

Myth: Citizenship is about being a nice person and fitting in. Writing in an EdCan publication twenty years ago, Ken Osborne argued that one of the issues plaguing civics education is that it is depoliticized. It has become about nice people doing good things rather than serious engagement with sometimes difficult issues. We have, he argued, “equated being a good citizen with being a good person” (Osborn, 2005). We believe in civility, but being civil does not mean rolling over in the face of opposition. Expressing civility is perfectly compatible with working persistently and vigorously for the things one believes in. In the push to eliminate plastic bags in Toronto, the pupils of York School came up against scathing rebuttals from representatives of the plastics industry and others who claimed their “naïve” proposals would cost large amounts of money and threaten jobs. Their teacher did not shield them from the criticism or suggest they back down. She engaged them with it, encouraged them to consider the arguments presented, and helped them craft responses, thereby fostering their participation in the often-contested domain of civic space.  

Myth: Active citizenship is best developed through simulations. Two of us recently attended a national “summit” on improving education and participated in a subgroup focused on civic education. One of the suggested policy recommendations was to make model parliaments and model UNs mandatory. Over the years many students have derived both learning and engagement through simulations, but we have two cautions to raise. First, as the selection criteria for the model parliament program at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario makes clear, these programs have often been reserved for those the school authorities judge are the best students measured in terms of academic achievement, community involvement, and a clean disciplinary record (Legislative Assembly of Ontario). In other words, they are focused on taking the “best citizens” and making them better while leaving other students, who might very well be interested and indeed quite capable of participating, out. Student Vote, a simulation at the centre of the work of CIVIX, seeks to involve all students across several levels of the public school system, and that inclusiveness is critical. 

Second, as all the examples at the beginning of this article make clear, in addition to simulations, there are plenty of opportunities at the local, provincial, national, and international levels to engage students as participants in actual civic dilemmas.  One of the trite phrases we hate is that “young people are the citizens of tomorrow.” None of the teachers described above believe that; rather they believe and teach like their students are the citizens of today.   

Myth: Citizenship begins and ends with formal politics. School civics programs often focus almost exclusively on the realm of formal politics: voting, how legislative bodies operate, and participating in party politics. The problem is most people will never join a political party or run for office. On the other hand, as a recent report from the OECD makes clear, “citizen voice is expressed in increasingly diverse forms, challenging traditional democratic processes to adapt” (OECD, 2025). That is not to say the world of formal politics isn’t important, but it is often taught separately from the issues that matter to students and their communities and this need not be the case. The students at the York School began with an issue that concerned them and, while engaging in a grass roots campaign to address it, learned a lot about other civil society groups with an interest in that issue, the level of government most responsible for dealing with it, and how city council works to develop policies and bylaws.   

Myth: Civics is best left for high school, just as students are coming of age to vote. Concern about civic decline often arises because of reports of decreasing voting rates, especially among young people. The sense of crisis around voting often leads to proposing and implementing high school courses in civics. This is simply common sense; the argument goes, teach them when they are 16 and 17 and they’ll be already to vote at 18. We see two problems here. First, there is a plethora of research evidence from around the world indicating that young people’s civic frameworks, including people’s intentions to engage in things like voting, formal politics, and other aspects of civic life, are well formed by the time they are young adolescents. Programs developed and run by CIVIX, including Student Vote, recognize the importance of fostering civic knowledge and dispositions early and often by providing materials to engage students from grade four through secondary school.  Second, research clearly indicates that even “primary-grade students are interested to learn a much greater range of social studies content than many educators give them credit for” (Brophy & Alleman, 2005, p. 433). High school is simply too late to begin. The young middle school students in the Annapolis Valley were very interested in the deliberations about the statue of General Cornwallis and their teacher had confidence that with her guidance they could make a substantial contribution to the deliberations of the commission assigned to make recommendations, and they did.   

The teachers described in the scenarios above were not limited by civic myths that characterized their students as too young, ignorant, naïve, and incapable of engaging in civic life. They used the teaching approaches described below to foster engaged, informed, and effective civic action that made a difference in both student learning and the communities in which the students are citizens.   

While increasing the priority civics is accorded in schools, reforming curricula, and providing resources are all important, these examples demonstrate that the foundation for success in civics, as in other areas, is effective teaching.   

Reflection Questions 

• Which of the civic education myths described in the article do you see reflected (explicitly or implicitly) in your own teaching context? How might you begin to disrupt or challenge these myths in your practice? 
• The authors argue that citizenship education should start well before high school and should include all students, not just “the best.” How might you design civic learning opportunities that engage younger students and include those who are often overlooked or excluded? 
• The article highlights the power of engaging students in authentic civic issues rather than relying solely on simulations. What real-world civic issues could your students investigate or take action on in your local context? How would you support them in navigating controversy and opposition? 
• The authors emphasize preparing students for the “intense give and take” of democratic life. What strategies could you use to help students respond constructively to disagreement, criticism, or setbacks while maintaining their civic engagement? 

References 

Brophy, J. & Alleman, J. (2006). Children’s thinking about cultural universals. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 

CIVIX. (2024, January 22) New report from CIVIX finds citizenship education faces severe systemic barriers across the country. https://civix.ca/civics-on-the-sidelines/. 

Corfu, N. (2018) Kids propose solution to Cornwallis Statue woes. CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/edward-cornwallis-statue-halifax-park-students-solution-1.4483005. 

Ottawa backs Leo Hayes students’ autism motion. (2006, December 6). Daily Gleaner. Fredericton, N.B., Canada. 

Gray, J. (2008, November 12) Students call for ban on plastic bags. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont., Canada 

Legislative Assembly of Ontario. (n.d.) Eligibility and selection criteria https://www.ola.org/en/visit-learn/programs/high-school-model-parliament/eligibility-selection-criteria. 

Max Bell Foundation (2025). Youth civic engagement in Canada: A study in three parts. Max Bell Foundation. https://www.maxbell.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Youth-Civic-Engagement-in-Canada-A-Study-in-Three-Parts-ENGLISH.pdf. 

OECD. (2025, January 22). Trends Shaping Education 2025. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/trends-shaping-education-2025_ee6587fd-en.html. 

Osborne, K. (2005) Political and citizenship education: Teaching for civic engagement,” Education Canada 45(1): 13–16. 

Sears, A. & Hyslop-Margison, E. (2007). Crisis as a vehicle for educational reform: The case of citizenship education.” Journal of Educational Thought 41(1): 43–62. 

Meet the Expert(s)

Dr. Alan Sears

Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Education, University of New Brunswick

Alan Sears has been a social studies teacher for more than 45 years and has taught all levels from grade two through graduate school. His teaching and scholarly work focus on civic, history, and diversity education and the intersections between and among those.

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Dr. Carla L. Peck

Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta

Dr. Carla Peck is Professor of Social Studies Education at the University of Alberta and Director of Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future, a national SSHRC-funded Partnership Grant focused on K-12 history education in Canada.

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Dr. Kenneth Boyd

Director of Education, CIVIX

Kenneth Boyd is the Director of Education at CIVIX, where he researches and designs educational programming on digital media literacy, constructive discussion, and democracy. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto.

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Dr. Dimitrios Pavlounis

Director of Research, CIVIX

Dr. Dimitrios Pavlounis is Director of Research at CIVIX, where he helps oversee program design and resource development and leads the organization's research initiatives, including program evaluation.

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