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.

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

“TEACHER” AS A COMMONPLACE, III

 

The last posting of this blog introduced the question:  how receptive would the teacher corps be toward implementing an approach to civics that relies on the construct, liberated federalism?  This blog has dedicated itself to such an approach and has described and explained it extensively.  So, this posting will not give an extensive description of that construct, but simply state that its emphasis is on the fact that this nation’s polity was/is based, constitutionally, on a federalist model.[1] 

That model envisions its citizens as partners in a compact-al agreement in which each is equal and enjoys a liberty that recognizes a set of duties and obligations.  A form of this view, as a political disposition, prevailed in the US up to the years following World War II; this blog calls that version of federalism, parochial/traditional federalism. 

Since those years, another view has been prominent; that being the natural rights one, and it sheds federalism’s concerns for community and adopts a healthy level of individualism.  At its base, the natural rights view holds as central that each person has the right to do what that person wants to do short of depriving others of the same right.  This, as this blog has attempted to argue, has led to a polity which is shortsighted and prone to neglect serious social conditions that have proven to be highly detrimental to the nation’s welfare.

This posting addresses which factors affect the teacher corps’ receptiveness to the recommended curricular change of adopting the liberated federalism view.  There are formidable barriers.  In the main is the strength in which natural rights ideas, ideals, and assumptions are held.  Given that the natural rights view is prominent, what is being called for is transformative.  So, what one should seek is to identify and address those factors that can be utilized to overcome the barriers.

Again, this blog, in its description and explanation of parochial federalism, identified the factors that could be useful in this effort.  Those factors are equally valid in trying to implement the liberated federalism perspective, if not more so.  One such factor is the average age of teachers.[2]  Do they tend to be of an age where change is resisted – an older age level – or are they young where change is more apt to be at least considered if not adopted?

Here, the numbers are somewhat neutral.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the following has been reported for the US:  average age of teachers is 42.4, median age is 41.4, less than 30 is only 15% of the teacher corps, 30-49 is 56.9%, 50-54 is 11.6%, 55 or more is 16.5%.[3]  These numbers can be compared to physicians (53.2 average age)[4] and lawyers (46 average age).[5] 

Given the extra years of matriculation that these other fields demand, the teacher corps seems to be in line with what one would expect, but in terms of accepting transformational change, age can prove to be an obstacle.  Readers who are in their mid-40s or older can ask of themselves:  how apt are they to accept fundamental changes about how they make a living? 

This age level is probably not so conducive to transformative change.  Add to this general view, one can consider what Richard Ingersoll, et al. found:  The U.S. teaching force is: larger; older; less experienced; more female; more diverse, by race/ethnicity; consistent in academic ability; unstable.”[6]  Beyond the gender factor and diversity, this general set of attributes is a source of concern and even their consistency can be counterproductive given the transformative change sought for in this account.

          In relative terms, this state of affairs does indicate that a significant portion of the teacher corps can still remember a time that was more communal even if such recollection refers to references their parents would share.  In addition, they have been exposed to levels of self-centeredness that characterize natural rights thought and should be of high concern for social studies teachers, especially civics teachers.  And they are also apt to have a healthy regard for individual rights, as the natural rights view portrays them.

          The liberated federalism construct could be advanced as one that is genuinely concerned with both elements, individual rights and communal interests or demands, as it addresses their stated concern, “development of character.”[7]  For this reason, the liberated federalism perspective’s moral dimension could be appealing to social studies teachers.

          Teachers should also be concerned with students being able to think critically and constructively about society, although, as pointed out in the last posting, actual observations of this sort of classroom activities taking place are lacking.  Perhaps a set of materials that is conducive to teacher concerns but set up to engage students in higher level of thinking by design, might encourage these teachers to conduct lessons that are more reflective.[8]

          The next posting will provide readers with more concrete suggested classroom materials – another factor – that teachers could implement to further the above aims that seem to be needed.



[1] More descriptively, a federalist model is one in which a nation’s polity results from its people directly or through representatives coming together, on an equal basis, to develop and agree upon a covenant or compact.  Such an agreement is held as sacred – either on a sectarian or secular basis – that establishes the aims for the polity, the structure of a government, other provisions, consequences for noncompliance, soliciting God (in the case of a covenant) to witness the agreement, and the signatures of those coming to the agreement.  If the agreement is arrived at by representatives, a ratifying process follows the submission of the agreement.  The US Constitution is a compact.

[2] Joseph M. Casciani, “Redirecting Resistance,” Aging Well, 1, 4 (Fall 2008), accessed October 15, 2023, URL:  https://www.todaysgeriatricmedicine.com/archive/101308p20.shtml#:~:text=Why%20are%20some%20older%20adults,way%20to%20manage%20unpleasant%20news.

[3] “National Teacher and Principle Survey,” National Center for Education Statistics (2017-2018), accessed October 14, 2023, URL:  https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/tables/ntps1718_fltable02_t1s.asp.

[4] Patsy Newitt, “Physicians’ Average Age by Specialty,” Becker’s ASC Review (March 11, 2022), accessed October 14, 2023, URL:  https://www.beckersasc.com/asc-news/physicians-average-age-by-specialty.html#:~:text=The%20average%20age%20of%20a,Cardiac%20surgery%3A%2058.

[5] “Lawyer Demographics and Statistics in the US,” Zippia (n.d.), accessed October 14, 2023, URL:  https://www.zippia.com/lawyer-jobs/demographics/.

[6] Richard Ingersoll, Elizabeth Merrill, Daniel Stucky, Gregory Collins, and Brandon Harrison, “The Demographic Transformation of the Teaching Force in the United States,” Education Science (2021), accessed October 16, 2023, URL:  https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1297323.pdf.

[7] Margaret Stimmann Branson, “The Role of Civic Education,” Center of Civic Education (September 1998), accessed October 17, 2023), URL:  https://civiced.org/papers/articles_role.html#:~:text=The%20third%20essential%20component%20of,and%20improvement%20of%20constitutional%20democracy.

[8] For a sample of such instructional ideas, see this blogger’s book, Robert Gutierrez, Toward a Federated Nation:  Implementing National Civics Standards (Tallahassee, FL:  Gravitas/Civics Books, 2020).  Available through Amazon and other booksellers.

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