Easterday: Start Civic Education Early
Early exposure to civic education is essential to a functioning society, but it’s often taught too late in life or not at all, according to Matt Easterday, associate professor of learning sciences at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy.
“If we can’t do civic education early and right, we’re missing out on a lifetime of civic engagement,” Easterday said in an interview with Susan Corwith, director of the Center for Talent Development, which offers service learning through its Civic Education Project.
Easterday emphasized that civic education should not be reserved for retirement or limited to a select few. “Early civic education benefits everyone,” he said. "Part of the reason people take elections so hard is because they don't feel like they have any power over the process. Knowing how to navigate the system doesn’t just happen. People have to be taught how to be competent citizens.”
Civic Challenges
But teaching civics requires more than classroom lessons or a few hours of volunteer work, Easterday said. Students need to be involved in the core work of an organization.
Easterday’s early classes involved partnering with an outside organization. Students were tasked with creating something—a strategic plan or event—which they handed off at the end of the quarter. But this approach lacked emphasis on teaching organizational skills.
To address this gap, Easterday adopted participatory budgeting—a process where community members decide how public funds are spent. He led an Evanston-wide effort and later implemented a smaller version at Northwestern. “Participatory budgeting provides an infrastructure where students and community members can practice democratic processes, community development, and social action,” Easterday explained. “It’s a great way to create a democratic structure that teaches people how to be active citizens.”
Easterday’s research combines technology and civic education, including the development of AI-assisted learning tools and a system called Deliberation Works, which supports group discussions and organizational aspects of community engagement.
An active member of the Evanston community, he’s a Northwestern Searle Center for Teaching Excellence Fellow and co-leader of the Delta Lab. He’s also involved with Citizen University, a non-profit organization that works to build a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the country.
The most important mindset for working in the field is to have is “a belief in democracy, an understanding that democracy isn’t just voting, a commitment to citizenship,” Easterday said. “We want students to understand they part of the community, and they are responsible for it, and that with the right democratic structures, we can govern ourselves.”
Civic Engagement Certificate Program
Easterday, a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, teaches in Northwestern’s Civic Engagement Certificate Program, which immerses students in practical democratic processes. In the first-year, students design the campus participatory budgeting process. Here’s how it breaks down by quarter:
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: Students organize town halls, form steering committees, and draft rules for participatory budgeting. They also begin policy development work focused on implementation.
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: Students run idea collection events and facilitate policy development meetings. At the end of the quarter, the community votes on proposals to fund.
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: Students implement funded projects and host “Civic Saturday” events—discussions designed to inspire responsible citizenship.
Second-year students receive leadership coaching and mentor newcomers while honing advanced organizational skills. The program integrates a student-run club that sustains activities beyond the classroom.
More: Revolutionary Civics: How Should Evanston Spend $3 Million?