Date of Award

August 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Teaching, Leadership & Professional Practice

First Advisor

Julie Robinson

Abstract

Democracy requires maintenance from an active, informed citizenry, yet civic literacy in the United States has been rapidly declining while its democratic structures face systematic subversion. To reverse this, educational researchers have recommended increasing time for K–12 civics education. While devoting more time to middle school civics education could help rebuild a civically literate citizenry, public middle schools face the unique challenge of teaching a student population that is experiencing rapid physical and psychological development, alongside a well-documented dip in academic motivation and engagement. Tailoring civics education to be academically motivating to the current student demographic—Generation Alpha—requires an understanding of their civic and educational perspectives that has yet to be explored.To this end, I designed a convergent parallel mixed methods study to explore how Generation Alpha middle school students in a single Midwestern public school district reported their civic and educational perspectives, expectancies, and values. Synthesizing Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development with Eccles and Wigfield’s Situated Expectancy-Value Theory, I created a conceptual framework to understand the psychological drivers of middle school students’ academic motivation and engagement, then used it as a blueprint for collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data (N = 146) was gathered via a digital survey and statistically analyzed. Qualitative data (N = 14) was gathered from focus groups and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis approach. The data was then integrated using an integration through merging approach and reported using a narrative by weaving approach. First, my integrated analysis found that these Generation Alpha middle school students presented a high valuation of education and civics that is conditional to the relevance of its content and interactivity of the teaching methods. Second, they stressed the teacher’s central role in shaping their academic perceptions. Third, they shared a collective and personal sense of civic pride and ownership, rejecting passive, age-restrictive narratives. Finally, these students viewed civic literacy as a vital tool for empowerment and protection from those who would take their liberties away. Ultimately, I use the students’ words to create a picture of a group of kids who see the value of civics education but desire for it—and all of their education—to give them an active role in learning about topics that have present or future utility.

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