How is the digital world shaping young people’s civic identities? As students engage in online classrooms and build virtual connections, the digital world is shaping how they analyze issues, develop empathy, build coalitions, and understand their civic role. Join us in a discussion of how this virtual world can harm or heal, and what we can do to promote dialogue, depth, and discernment.

A growing body of research shows that critical consciousness builds young people’s sense of agency, while offering other important social and emotional benefits. Learn about promising practices that educators and youth-serving professionals can use to support young people in analyzing inequities and taking meaningful civic action.

Youth-Led Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and other youth empowerment approaches create ripe opportunities for young people to identify issues in their schools and communities and contribute to solutions that promote their healthy development and well-being. Explore how participatory approaches can promote and amplify young people’s SEL skills, civic engagement, and overall well-being in K-12 educational settings and beyond.

Two leading researchers from complementary fields, SEL and civics, come together in conversation to reflect on potential synergies. What do we know about the relationship between SEL and civic learning? What do we want to know? And what opportunities lie ahead? We’ll probe into current disconnects and explore what the next generation of research and reform efforts can bring to accelerate collaborative efforts.

How do young people become the authors of their own lives? When they understand the contexts in which they are living and believe that they can do something about the issues they care about, young people can take meaningful action. Explore five strategies research has surfaced for how to best position youth to positively impact their own lives and communities.

How can we transform teaching and learning through partnering with the stakeholders closest to the experiences being measured? Join this discussion on how to use data to elevate strengths and bring in the voices of those who have been most marginalized in schools. Explore practical tools and strategies for designing, gathering, and making sense of data—informed by the experiences, wisdom, and aspirations of youth, families, and communities.

As society sits between trauma and transformation, how can we construct new pathways to equity and justice? Explore the roles that culture, agency, relationships, meaning, and aspirations play in creating conditions that support young people and the adults in their lives to truly flourish.

Meet four youth leaders who offer personal reflections and practical advice based on their own journeys to agency and action. What are the forces that helped spark their ability and desire to recognize and address situations they care deeply about in a purposeful way? How did social-emotional skills help them bridge differences and take action?

From early childhood to high school, teachers create opportunities for students to examine what’s happening around them and take action to make a difference. Hear how two educators are integrating SEL skills and civic mindsets in identity-affirming classrooms that support meaning-making, relationship-building, and problem-solving toward collaboratively building a better tomorrow.