In this blog, an
effort has been to encourage curricular change in the subject area of
civics. In the main, the blog has argued
that that change center not so much on instructional processes – its sequence –
but on its content – its scope. But in
addition, it has also recognized the “establishment’s” response to the
deficiencies in civics. That would be
the NCAA’s publication, Preparing
Students for College, Career, and Civic Life.[1] That publication does commit to an
instructional process.
And
that would be to promote an inquiry approach.
So, to align with this effort on the part of the NCSS, this blog has
described and explained an instructional process it calls historical dialogue-to-action
(HD-to-A). To this point, the blog seeks
to make a connection: dialogue (in the
form of discussion, argument, or debate) leads to collaborative or communal
action.
And,
in addition, whether the instructional process a teacher opts to use is inquiry
or didactic, mostly depending on lectures, the blog would argue that a civics
course of study should, at least, encourage students to know about and perhaps
engage in action one can classify as political engagement. Instruction should promote the principle that
good citizenship and that includes citizens acting toward what is perceived to
be the common good.
But
one needs to be careful. Dialogue does
not necessarily lead to action and,
if it does, it does not necessarily lead to the action one would judge
beneficial or logically derived from such talk.
In other words, talking usually serves as a precondition, but other
factors play a role in getting people to act in ways that advance what a group
– federated or not – wants to accomplish.
And action, irrespective of its aim,
functions to institute a new or maintain an old condition, be it a social,
political, and/or economic one. Change
theory serves up a relevant insight.
Those, that study this area of behavior, readily confirm that change or
social action can be very complex.[2] In terms of change, those who are dedicated
to facilitating change need to be conscious of that complexity and understand
that there is no sure recipe for success.
What
a dialogue allows a person to do is voice concerns over obstacles standing in
the way of implementing a plan.
Students, within the context of a dialogue, can review their own
feelings, those of their fellow students, and those of the community or other
significant people who would be involved in such an effort. These are essential elements of a responsible
change strategy.
With
that context, this posting shares some ideas of what kinds of actions students
can initiate and work to accomplish.
Based on the work of various researchers, the argument for students
being actively involved in developing and implementing political-action plans
have been made by respected change experts.[3]
Those
scholars have provided examples that have been subject of research addressing
political issues such as poverty and racial relations. Educators have also found value in the
instructional benefits action – change efforts – have had on the learning
process. This is in the tradition laid
down earlier by John Dewey.
To
summarize Dewey’s concern, most of what schools usually do – exposition and
“book learning” – isolates students from real life and that lacks in the
potential to instill “the spirit of service.”[4] At this point, the reader should appreciate
the centrality of this concern to federation theory. The literature of educational studies, such
as those that focus on action-learning, usually calls this type of learning
experiential learning or experiential education.
Educational
researchers offer empirical evidence to suggest that experiential education
succeeds in many of the aims that federation theory highlights.[5] That is, by students going out and dealing
with the people affected by social and governmental policy and practice, they
more readily engage emotionally and develop a sense of self in relation to the
concerns they are investigating and upon which they are acting.
Experiential
education should not replace classroom instruction, but it can have a place in
a civics course. And in doing so, a
teacher needs to be observant of what students are learning in the field. For example, they can ask: are students, through such experiences, only
heightening existing student biases or having them question those biases? This is a legitimate concern.
Pamela
J. Conover and Donald D. Searing offer an insightful description of this
concern: “while most students identify themselves as
citizens, their grasp of what it means to act as citizens is rudimentary and
dominated by a focus on rights, thus creating a privately oriented, passive
understanding.”[6] To usher students out of this self-serving
and unengaged social view, nothing is more effective than political
participation.
But it needs to be
focused on relevant, local concerns and accompany it with legitimate
questioning that centers student attention to the relevant facts. Teachers should aim to get students to think
of governmental and political realities around them by looking at what
immediately affects them and those who live near-by. Not from a selfish point of view but guided
by federalist values.
More specifically, some
activities, such as voting and giving money to political campaigns or to
favored advocacy groups, do not do enough; students need to engage in political
action aimed at enhancing social capital and civic humanism. And that, in turn, calls on direct
communication and other interactions with those who experience the issue in
question.
William Damon, the
Stanford educator, further concludes that nothing is more effective in terms of
moral education than programs “that engage students directly in action, with
subsequent opportunities for reflection.”[7] And, in a relatively open society, students
have a multitude of opportunities to exploit such learning experiences.
These actions can
include: showing up for and taking part
in political meetings; scheduling and putting on political meetings which can
be platforms to express political opinions or demands; organizing and carrying
out fund drives; canvasing an area to gather signatures in support or against
bills or other initiatives; seeking to attain membership on political boards;
joining or starting a political club; and/or performing political theatrics.
In the next posting, this
blog will pick up on these ideas and re-list the HD-to-A action model it
introduced in the previous posting.
[1] National
Council for the Social Studies, Preparing
Students for College, Career, and Civic Life (Washington, D. C.: NCSS, 2013), accessed April 16, 2018, https://www.socialstudies.org/c3.
[2] For example,
see Kenneth D. Benne, “The Current State of Planned
Changing in Persons, Groups, Communities, and Societies” in Planning of Change, eds. Warren G.
Bennis, Kenneth D. Benne, and Robert Chin (New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985),
68-82. This is but one article in
this classic collection of articles regarding change theory. AND a recent work
provides case data on successful national efforts – e.g., anti-smoking
movement. See Leslie R. Crutchfield, How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While
Others Don’t (Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018).
[3] “Civic Education,” Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2013/2007, accessed on October 1, 2017, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/civic-education/ .
[4] Ibid.
[5] For example,
Janet Eyler, “The Power of Experiential Education,” Association of American
Colleges and Universities, n. d., accessed December 11, 2018, https://www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/power-experiential-education
.
[6] Pamela J.
Conover and Donald D. Searing, “A Political Socialization Perspective,” in Rediscovering the Democratic Purposes of
Education, eds. Lorraine M. McDonnell, P. Michael Timpane, and Roger
Benjamin (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2000), 91-124, 108.
[7] “Civic Education,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. This source offers a useful summary
description of various action options that educators can apply to a civics
course. Interested reader can find this
source at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/civic-education/ .
