Facing History Receives New Grant Funded by the Spencer Foundation to Conduct a Three-Year Study

Facing History and Ourselves and the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education have received a new grant from the Spencer Foundation. This three-year project (2010-2013), titled “Developing Citizens in Divided Societies (DECIDES): Secondary Schools in the US-SA-NI,” explores how adolescent students (ages 14-16) in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and the United States develop as citizens. We will be working with long-time Facing History partners in Northern Ireland and South Africa. The study takes place in secondary schools focused on students who are participating in Facing History and Ourselves courses.

The study asks the following questions:

How do varied legacies of conflict and division impede or enhance how adolescents develop as citizens? How do these legacies affect their understanding of what citizenship means and entails (locally, nationally and globally), their thinking about civic action, and the actions they take or plan to take?

We are interested in understanding commonalities across sites as well as how particular contexts shape and inform young people’s dialogues across groups, their thinking about civic action, and their actual civic engagement. Our goal is to understand the role that schools can play in supporting students' thinking about civic engagement and their development as ethical, responsible, and active citizens in divided societies.