The product of a Penn undergraduate seminar is now at the forefront of a global research project.
Last spring, students in the Political Science 291 course "Citizenship and Democratic Development" created a survey to assess the success of a Penn education in producing civically engaged students.
"Penn is playing a leading role in one of the most crucial problems facing higher education," said Ira Harkavy, associate vice president and director of the Center for Community Partnerships, which is sponsoring the project.
Unlike many others of its kind, this comprehensive survey will assess not only student political activity, but also personal values, cultural understanding and communication habits.
On Tuesday, Oct. 19, a refined version of the survey will be administered to a random sample of 1,000 undergraduates: 200 students from each of the sophomore, junior and senior classes, and 400 freshmen.
The survey sample weighs heavily in favor of freshmen because survey organizers intend to establish a longitudinal study -- tracking the democratic development of students throughout their entire course of study at Penn.
Survey organizers cite the fact that undergraduates created this survey as a significant strength. "If it was just the faculty sitting down to write a survey, it might not resonate as well with undergraduates," College and Wharton senior Tavis Morello said.
Organizers hope to synthesize survey results -- which will most likely be published by the end of the semester -- to develop proposals regarding ways the University can improve. The survey results will also be shared with universities throughout the United States and the world.
The project was inspired by the activities of the Council of Europe. Political Science professor Henry Teune is an observer of the United States for the Council of Europe and brought the focus of the international group into his PSCI 291 class.
The Council of Europe is interested in strengthening the ability of all European universities to produce democratic citizens. The project will employ the efforts of universities throughout the United States, South Africa, Korea and Australia.
According to Morello, at some schools in Eastern Europe, "The concept of having a student government or faculty senate is completely foreign to them."
Other universities may also implement courses similar to PSCI 291, all measuring the extent to which their respective universities affect democratic citizenship, according to Harkavy.
The universities to which the survey is exported will likely revise the survey so that it will be appropriate for their respective students.
In preparation for this expansion, students refined a pilot survey that had been given to a small sample of Penn undergraduates in the spring to include questions that could easily translate to other universities. They also used the works of several scholars, including University President Amy Gutmann, to develop a model of an ideal democratic citizen in order to gauge the responses they received.
The survey is just one aspect of the Penn American Democracy Project, which also includes other projects from collaborating faculty from the Annenberg School for Communication and the Graduate School of Education.
