Student Collective Curriculum Development and the Civic Mission of Higher Education

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: New Perspectives in Citizenship and Civic Education

Abstract

This paper examines the use of Student Collective Curriculum Development as a democratic teaching practice in the context of higher education. Drawing upon data from a three-year action research project, this paper presents the benefits and potential challenges of employing deliberative pedagogy in college classrooms. Using the Essential Learning Outcomes of the higher education initiative Liberal Education & America’s Promise, the paper shows the alignment of the civic mission of higher education with deliberative teaching practices. This paper identifies challenges such as student anxiety about disagreement and the difficulty of attaining inclusion and equity in deliberation in diverse college classrooms. The authors examine and assess methods that the instructor and students used to address these challenges.

Authors

• Kiel Francis Harell, University of Minnesota - Morris

• Sara G. Lam, University of Minnesota - Morris