A Crucial Element of Democracy

This is a blog by Robert Gutierrez ...
While often taken for granted, civics education plays a crucial role in a democracy like ours. This Blog is dedicated to enticing its readers into taking an active role in the formulation of the civics curriculum found in their local schools. In order to do this, the Blog is offering a newer way to look at civics education, a newer construct - liberated federalism or federation theory. Daniel Elazar defines federalism as "the mode of political organization that unites separate polities within an overarching political system by distributing power among general and constituent governments in a manner designed to protect the existence and authority of both." It depends on its citizens acting in certain ways which Elazar calls federalism's processes. Federation theory, as applied to civics curriculum, has a set of aims. They are:
*Teach a view of government as a supra federated institution of society in which collective interests of the commonwealth are protected and advanced.
*Teach the philosophical basis of government's role as guardian of the grand partnership of citizens at both levels of individuals and associations of political and social intercourse.
*Convey the need of government to engender levels of support promoting a general sense of obligation and duty toward agreed upon goals and processes aimed at advancing the common betterment.
*Establish and justify a political morality which includes a process to assess whether that morality meets the needs of changing times while holding true to federalist values.
*Emphasize the integrity of the individual both in terms of liberty and equity in which each citizen is a member of a compacted arrangement and whose role is legally, politically, and socially congruent with the spirit of the Bill of Rights.
*Find a balance between a respect for national expertise and an encouragement of local, unsophisticated participation in policy decision-making and implementation.
Your input, as to the content of this Blog, is encouraged through this Blog directly or the Blog's email address: gravitascivics@gmail.com .
NOTE: This blog has led to the publication of a book. The title of that book is TOWARD A FEDERATED NATION: IMPLEMENTING NATIONAL CIVICS STANDARDS and it is available through Amazon in both ebook and paperback versions.

Friday, October 13, 2023

“TEACHER” AS A COMMONPLACE, II

 

If one is considering the introduction of a different way to teach something, be it in terms of content or how the content is taught, an initial question one should consider is:  how willing is the affected teacher corps to cooperate with that change?  That is:  if those teachers are introduced to a new perspective or construct in the teaching of government and civics, will they “play” along with what is introduced?

          Obviously, there would have to be a certain level of instruction – in the form of in-service training – which would introduce the construct and give teachers, in a non-threatening setting, a chance to work on the proposed changes by developing or adapting appropriate lessons.  Generally, teachers should be given the opportunity to deal with the construct’s assumptions and elements. 

A key element of the proposed construct, the liberated federalism model, would be its reliance on higher level thinking instruction – beyond recall and superficial application.  This shift by itself can cause a significant challenge and yet there is more. With its call for a significant change of perspective in its content from a strong individual view to a communal one, this can be quite transformative.

There has been a long line of writers addressing this concern.  For example, of recent efforts, Rahama Zayid Al-Yahyaie, et al. point out the elements of this challenge[1] and Joseph J. Onosko, back in 1991, gives his readers a good overview of it.[2]  Onosko outlines a list of barriers that could make the adoption of the proposed model difficult.

The barriers are: 

 

·       A prevailing view among teachers that teaching is basically narrowly defined by the practitioners as transmission of knowledge.

·       A perceived duty among teachers of most secondary courses is to cover the course content broadly and superficially (what this blogger sees as covering a course’s textbook).

·       A generally accepted estimation that students can meet only low expectations.

·       A belief that large numbers of students in a classroom make reflective teaching exceedingly difficult.

·       There is a prevailing lack of teacher planning time.

·       And a prevailing culture of teacher isolation that precludes collaborative efforts among teachers and which makes successful higher order thinking instruction initiatives have a limited effect on other teachers.

         

These negative characteristics can be crucial in attempting to institute the kind of fundamental change called for in this account.  These are the same barriers, though, that would meet any attempt to reform curricular offerings in which the materials call for reflective thinking. 

Such interaction is essential to learning, according to Zayid Al-Yahyaie, et al.  But this does not lessen the burden, nor the obstacles, of trying to convince teachers that what is offered is viable and in their best interests and that of their students, their community, and their nation.



[1] Rahma Zayid Al-Yahyaie, Mohd Mokhtar Muhamad, and Hussain Ali Alkharusi, “Barriers to Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills to EFL School Learners:  A Systematic Review,” International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 11, 2 (2022), 784-801.

[2] Joseph J. Onosko, “Barriers to the Promotion of Higher Order Thinking Social Studies,” Theory and Research in Social Education, 19 (1991), 341-366.

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