Public Affairs 2120: Public Service and Civic Engagement

General Education GOAL 1: Successful students will analyze an important topic or idea at a more advanced and in-depth level than the foundations.

• Engage in critical and logical thinking about the topic or idea of the theme.
• Engage in an advanced, in-depth, scholarly exploration of the topic or idea of the theme.

To meet this goal, students will engage deeply in readings, discussions, and activities on the concepts of citizenship, civic engagement, and public service. The final course cases bring class concepts together for students to analyze. The three scaffolded research paper assignments require students to think critically about civic engagement in a public issue of their choosing while developing a sound plan for using civic engagement to solve a public problem.

General Education GOAL 2: Successful students will integrate approaches to the theme by making connections to out-of-classroom experiences with academic knowledge or across disciplines and/or to work they have done in previous classes and that they anticipate doing in future.

• Identify, describe, and synthesize approaches or experiences as they apply to the theme
• Demonstrate a developing sense of self as a learner through reflection, self-assessment, and creative work, building on prior experiences to respond to new and challenging contexts.

To meet this goal, in homework 1 and homework 4, students apply class concepts to and reflect on their experiences as world citizens and their previous civic engagements and public service.

Citizenship Specific GOAL 1: Successful students will explore and analyze a range of perspectives on local, national, or global citizenship, and apply the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that constitute citizenship.

• Describe and analyze a range of perspectives on what constitutes citizenship and how it differs across political, cultural, national, global, and/or historical communities.
• Identify, reflect on, and apply the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for intercultural competence as a global citizen.

To meet this goal, several class sessions are dedicated to understanding the social construction of citizenship and debates over time. Students are provided a framework for evaluating equity and inclusion and apply the framework to three real world cases.

Citizenship Specific GOAL 2: Successful students will examine notions of justice amidst difference and analyze and critique how these interact with historically and socially constructed ideas of citizenship and membership within societies, both within the US and/or around the world.

• Examine, critique, and evaluate various expressions and implications of diversity, equity, inclusion, and explore a variety of lived experiences
• Analyze and critique the intersection of concepts of justice, difference, citizenship, and how these interact with cultural traditions, structures of power and/or advocacy for social change.

To meet this goal, students explore five real world cases, ranging from Black residents dealing with policing issues to undocumented workers wanting a say in local public health planning, using the equity and inclusion framework and materials on the theory and practice of citizen engagement. In each case there are complex sets of stakeholder groups that have access to different amounts and forms of power, each striving to impact a public process.

By the end of the semester, the instructor expects students to:

• Define public service and civic engagement and describe its role at the various levels of government in the United States.
• Understand the role of citizenship and ethical public service in the democratic process. 
• Recognize trends in civic engagement patterns.
• Identify and explain the impacts of changing engagement patterns.
• Describe social equity concerns in civic engagement.
• Describe different types of public participation objectives/scenarios and tactics.
• Apply public participation planning to solve issues of public concern.
• Demonstrate public participation skills.

This is a 3 credit-hour course. According to Ohio State bylaws on instruction (go.osu.edu/credit hours), students should expect around 3 hours per week of time spent on direct instruction in addition to 6 hours of homework (reading and assignment preparation).

Readings: All reading material is accessed through links on CarmenCanvas. In addition to assigned texts, students are to follow the news and bring topics of interest to class. 

Grading

• In-class quizzes: 24% (6 quizzes @ 4% each; drop 2)
• Assigned homework: 14% (3 homeworks @ 3% each; 1 homework @ 5%)
  • Homework 1, 3%
  • Homework 2, 5%
  • Homework 3, 3%
  • Homework 4, 3%
• Paper 1: 5%
• Paper 2: 5%
• Paper 3: 20%
• Midterm: 16%
• Final Exam: 16%

Midterm and Final Exams

The midterm and final exam questions will be an array of true and false, multiple choice, short answer, short essay, and long essay. Exams will be taken in class and are open book.

Class Structure

This class will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and examples. The topics of public participation and civic engagement are unique in our lives and having a range of perspectives and learning methods are necessary for greater understanding. In order to structure our class sessions around these activities effectively, we will have a general structure to our class periods. Each class will consist of a welcome, and an agenda for the class. When in-class quizzes occur, they will happen after the welcome. Homework assignments will be assigned and previewed at the end of class.

Current Events and Civic Engagement

A primary component of good civic engagement practice is understanding how to bring important skills to engagement around real-world issues. To that end, the instructor will select a real-world, current, local issue that the class will use to discuss various strategies and considerations for how community members might engage about the issue. This may include issues related to the challenges presented by the issues, who is most effected, the types of strategies that are currently being used to engage people around the issue, and what new ideas might present themselves as the class period goes on. Alongside periodic class discussions, at least 3 of your in-class quizzes will be dedicated to questions related to the current events topic.

It is critical that you keep up with the readings so that we can have meaningful discussions in class and you can perform well on your papers and midterm. There will be pop quizzes throughout the semester to promote consistent and careful reading. Quizzes will include the current day’s reading along with a question or two from the previous class readings and lecture. Quizzes are conducted at the start of class. You must be on time to take the quiz.  Eight quizzes will be given, allowing the lowest two quiz grades to be dropped. As such, since there are many existing safeguards in place to protect you through a difficult week or even two, the following fact cannot be emphasized enough:  no make-up quizzes will be given. 

Short homework assignments are assigned in this course.  Rubrics are located in CarmenCanvas.  Any late homework will be reduced by one full letter grade for each day the paper is late.  Day one begins the minute after the paper is due.

Homework #1 – What does Citizenship and Public Service Mean to Me? (worth 3% of your grade)

The purpose of this assignment is to reflect on the meaning and importance of citizenship and public service. Building on the reading and class content, consider what citizenship and public service mean to you at this point in your life. Questions to consider, but not all are required: What is your understanding of a “good” citizenship? How do you engage as a citizen and in public service? Must a good citizen engage in public service? Must elected leaders and public servants hear from citizens outside of elections? Provide a two-page, double-spaced response that uses 1’’ margins, Times New Roman, 12-point font.

Homework #2 – Engaging in the Public Process (worth 5% of your grade)

You are to attend a local (not state-level) community legislative hearing or other public meeting that includes formal testimony given by members of the community, outside of the Ohio State University. Examples include city council meetings, zoning board meetings, and school board meetings or any hearing or meeting that has a legally required public input component. You must ride a COTA bus to and from the meeting. (Note: If you are a commuter who does not live in Columbus, please contact me and discuss a modification to your assignment.)

You are to submit a three-page, double-spaced summary of your overall experience. Begin by describing your experience using COTA to get to and from the meeting. Then focus on the meeting and include instructions on how one signs up to give testimony, your observations of the physical set-up of the meeting, and observations on the process used in the meeting or hearing for public input (e.g., note who participated in the arguments and why this might be important, how decisions were made, and your personal reactions). Include ideas on how to improve the meeting. Finally, make sure you include the name of the meeting, place, date, the total time you rode the bus and attended the meeting, and proof that you rode the bus in your paper (e.g., a photo). The rubric will be available on CarmenCanvas by the time the assignment has been assigned.

Homework #3 – Free to Ride and the Inclusive Civic Engagement Principles (worth 3% of your grade)

After watching the documentary Free to Ride write a short paper applying The Principles for Equitable and Inclusive Civic Engagement (Holley, 2016) to the documentary. Consider the following questions:  What role do peoples’ backgrounds and histories play in this scenario? Who has access to power in this scenario? Why do they have access to power? How does access to power affect the outcome?  Were the principles for equitable and inclusive civic engagement present? How or how not?  What does it mean for all people to be included in a decision-making process? What would it look like if equity was the starting point for decision-making?  Provide a two-page, double-spaced response that uses 1’’ margins, Times New Roman, 12-point font.

Homework #4 – Reflection on Citizenship and Public Service (worth 3% of your grade)

At this point of the course, you have learned learn basic concepts around service, citizenship, and civic engagement and how these have changed over time. You have also learned to use an equity and inclusion framework to analyze civic engagement. You have also learned about, compared and contrasted, and critiqued different forms of individual and collective action. Finally, you have engaged with different theories explaining current trends in citizen engagement and their consequences. Using this knowledge, reflect on your first homework assignment, What does Citizenship and Public Service Mean to Me? What have you learned that has supported or challenged your arguments in your first homework? How have you changed as a world citizen and as a person who provides service? What questions still remain? Finally, as we head into the final section of the course (which focuses on practice), how will you bring your knowledge and experience to using civic engagement to solve a public problem? What do you plan to take from this class an applying it to your future engagement and service endeavors? Provide a two-page, double-spaced response that uses 1’’ margins, Times New Roman, 12-point font.

Three papers are assigned in this course. All three papers are focused on an issue of public concern in your LOCAL community that requires public participation to solve. You will be playing the role of a local public servant. This set of paper are research-supported and written in a professional tone. These papers build off one another. Paper 1 is the basis for Paper 2 and Papers 1 and 2 are incorporated into Paper 3. A detailed grading rubric is posted on CarmenCanvas for each of the papers. The expectations for these papers are found both in the instructions in this syllabus, in addition to the grading rubrics found on CarmenCanvas. Before starting on Paper 1, review the instructions for Paper 2 and 3 so you know where you are heading.

Paper 1 – The Problem Statement

You are to select an issue of concern in your local community that you believe public participation could be used to develop a solution. Your final paper is a plan for a public participation process that will address the issue of concern you select. The aim of Paper 1 is to lay the rationale for Paper 3. The text of this paper should be one-half to one page (no longer). Your references cited list DOES NOT count towards your page total.

Paper 2 – Stakeholder, Activity and Infrastructure Review

In this second paper, you are to conduct a Stakeholder, Activity and Infrastructure Review. The purpose of this paper is to explore how groups and leaders in your community are already grappling with the issue outlined in Paper 1. In addition, you will outline what infrastructure exists in your community that is already being used, or could be used, to address the problem. Refer back to the stakeholder analysis conducted in class and Nabatchi and Leighninger’s Chapter 6 (for the concept of infrastructure). Remember, “participation infrastructure” refers to Nabatchi and Leighninger’s definition: “the laws, processes, institutions, and associations that support regular opportunities, activities, and arenas that allow people to connect with each other, solve problems, make decisions, and be part of a community.” The six main building blocks for participation infrastructure are disseminating information, gathering input and data, discussing and connecting, enabling smaller‐scale decision making, enabling larger‐scale decision making, and encouraging public work and volunteerism. This paper is two pages, double-spaced. Your references cited list DOES NOT count towards your page total.  A rubric is available on CarmenCanvas.

Paper 3 – Planning a Public Participation Process

The purpose of this paper is to design a plan for a public participation process aimed at developing a solution to the problem you selected in Paper 1. You are writing from the perspective of a public servant seeking public participation to address the problem in Paper 1. You will use the concepts and theories from class in your plan. The purpose of the final paper is NOT to propose the actual solution to the problem, but rather, to put forward a plan of how a leader would engage the public in developing a solution.

You will begin your paper by including a more succinct version of Paper 1, the Problem Statement. You must incorporate my feedback on Paper 1. You will use your paper 2 and class material from Nabatchi and Leighninger’s Chapters 2, 6, and 8 to build on existing participation infrastructure to develop your public participation plan. Develop your plan by addressing the questions below.  Be as specific as possible to create a solid plan. To build a cohesive plan, make sure you consider how each piece works together. Refer to the rubric for information on grading.