Promoting Political Engagement in the Classroom and Beyond: A Quasi-Experimental Study

This article reports a quasi-experimental study that assessed whether purposeful political engagement efforts in the general education classroom, coupled with co-curricular programming, enhances student interest in politics and political efficacy. The subjects of the study were students in political science general education courses at a comprehensive Midwestern university during the 2016 election. The treatment group received weekly campaign “check-ins” and students were required to attend out-of-class political engagement programs hosted by the campus American Democracy Project. The study’s findings indicate that students are responsive to these educational experiences, but that increases in student political engagement are best achieved by faculty integrating political engagement into their pedagogy.