The effects of digital civic engagement training on the political knowledge and internal political efficacy of social work students

Abstract

It is an ethical obligation for social workers to be civically engaged because the issues central to the profession, like poverty, are public issues. One widely used method to examine civic engagement is the civic voluntarism model developed by Verba et al. (1995). Furthermore, an emerging arena for civic involvement is the digital environment and its potential use as a training ground. This study was a pilot study to determine if a brief training in digital civic engagement for social work students could lead to an increase in the internal political efficacy and political knowledge of social work students. While this study could not determine statical significance because of a small sample, it did find that the top reason for nonengagement was a lack of time and that disabilities and illness might be unexplored hindrances to civic involvement. Future research might consider repeating the study with a sampling plan that follows the academic calendar and with strong incentives.