Public Comments on Regulations.gov: How to Empower Students and Build Communities

Public policy refers to the set of actions that a government takes to enact laws and regulations. Public policies affect many people who, by definition, can shape policy as members of the public. In matters of educational policy, higher education students are key stakeholders who are often talked about during policy deliberations, but they are rarely involved in conveying their own interests. The absence of students in the policy making process may be due to factors such as lack of time, lack of technical understanding, and lack of understanding of how proposed policies affect their day-to-day lives. Feminist pedagogy is an alternative instruction model that can be used to empower students to engage in public policy and build communities as a result. Two principles of feminist pedagogy are empowerment of the self and building community, and these principles can be applied to encourage students to engage in public policy making. Feminist pedagogy that is focused on empowering students and building communities can increase the level of civic engagement beyond the classroom and into public policy discourse. By learning how to submit public comments on Regulations.gov, students can increase their engagement in the federal rulemaking process.