Educating for Democracy Impact Outcomes

Educating for Democracy

Students in the Educating for Democracy Lab partnered with faculty Daniel Schugurensky, a professor in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Social Transformation, and Tara Bartlett, a clinical assistant professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College for Teaching and Learning Innovation. The student–faculty team explored how education can strengthen democracy by cultivating empathy, civic virtues, and critical awareness in K–12 learners. Their work resulted in The Empathy Handbook, a research-based resource for civic learning, and a student-produced civic virtues video highlighting responsibility, kindness, and ethical awareness—providing educators with practical tools for building more compassionate, engaged classrooms.

Community Conversations

The faculty for the course orchestrated Community Conversations sessions in the Lab. The conversation sessions connected Lab students with 25 local experts, community leaders, and civic practitioners working in fields directly tied to education and democracy as they developed their research questions and concepts for outcome projects. Hosting small-group roundtables in the Lab, students had opportunities to ask questions, learn from work happening in real time, and to gain nuanced perspective that helped move their own thinking forward. Many of these community partners later returned for the students’ final presentations, seeing how those early conversations informed the work.

Student Outcomes

The Empathy Handbook

A student team in the Educating for Democracy Lab created The Empathy Handbook to help teachers strengthen social awareness and civic learning in K to 12 classrooms. Drawing on developmental research, the group explored how empathy forms across childhood and why emotional understanding, fairness, collaboration, and responsible decision making support healthier classrooms and democratic engagement. Using these insights, the students designed a set of age appropriate activities that guide young learners through recognizing emotions, reflecting on fairness, working through social challenges, designing inclusive communities, and practicing respectful dialogue. The handbook offers teachers simple, classroom ready tools that encourage students to understand one another, navigate disagreement, and build more supportive learning environments. Learn more click here.

Exploring Civic Virtues Through Student-Led Conversations

A student group in the Educating for Democracy Lab created a twelve minute video to talk about civic virtues and why they matter for young people today. In their conversations, they reflected on values like kindness, responsibility, stability, intellectual humility, courage, and resilience, and how these qualities are still present in everyday life even if people do not always notice them. The students wondered why lessons about kindness and respect feel less common in classrooms now, especially since many of them remembered learning these ideas when they were younger. They talked with teachers and younger students and heard how children often copy the behavior they see around them, which makes intentional guidance important. The video highlighted simple but meaningful reminders about treating others well and understanding how actions affect the people around us. Teachers recognized the value of these ideas even if they did not use the term civic virtues, relying instead on their day to day experiences with students. Through this project, the group showed how teaching kindness, responsibility, and awareness can help children grow into more thoughtful and supportive community members. Learn more here.

Culminating Event

Before the semester concluded, the Empathy Handbook team presented their work to aspiring teachers in two Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College classes, putting the resource directly in front of future educators. This gave students an opportunity to showcase the handbook, share their research process behind its development, and discuss how empathy-centered practices can help create more connected, supportive, and engaged learning environments.

The following semester, the team was accepted into the Humanities Lab’s Beyond the Lab program, where they continued to develop and expand their work.

My participation in the Lab helped me clarify the direction of my career. Through this work, I discovered a strong passion for supporting others by examining systemic patterns in education and policy and using research to help drive meaningful change in these fields. The Lab gave me both clarity and confidence in the path I am building.
-- Brittany Rolfe, Educating for Democracy, Humanities Lab

Over the course of the semester, my understanding of democracy, education, and civic virtues shifted from being largely abstract and idealized to being more process-oriented and grounded in practice. Early on, I thought of democracy mainly as a system of governance and education as a means of transmitting knowledge. Through the lab I began to understand democracy as something enacted through everyday practices, listening, deliberating, questioning assumptions, and collaborating across differences. Education, in this sense, became not just about answers, but about cultivating habits of mind that sustain democratic life, and they are very much connected
-- Alyna Banuelos, Educating for Democracy, Humanities Lab

My participation in the Lab has shaped my academic path by providing me with the Beyond the Lab opportunity this semester. Through a new project, we are continuing to investigate and address the questions that arose in the Lab.
-- Shae Lien, Educating for Democracy, Humanities Lab

Media Coverage

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Collaborative Partners

- Alberto Olivas, Professor of Practice, School of Public Affairs
- Christina Ngo, Assistant Vice President, Social Embeddedness
- Monica Trejo, Director, Community Engagement
- Armando Montero, Senior Planning Analyst
- Shelly Gordan-Grey, Co-Founder and Board Chair, Rosa America
- Lisa Olsen, Co-Founder and Board President
- Alex Peck, Program Director, Pathways (Review Link)
- Martin Quezada, Senate Member (Review Link)
- Christina Bustos, Graduate Research Assistant (Review Link)
- Monica Boyd, Assistant Director, Humanities Lab
- Maureen Kobierowski, Communications Manager, Humanities Lab
- Daniel Schugurensky, Professor, School of Public Affairs
- Liz Evans, Program Director for Civic Education and Outreach
- Kevin Brown, Graduate Research Assistant
- Mikah Dyer, Peer Leader
- Brent Whiting
- Carl Hermanns

Note: The views presented or expressed on this page are those of the speaker or author only and do not necessarily represent the views of Arizona State University.