Civic Education

• In Event: Beyond Basic Skills: Fostering Student Well-Being Through Moral Instruction, Civic Education, Purpose Learning, and Indigenous Epistemologies

Abstract

Civic education is based in a social ideal, seeing students as members of a whole group rather than simply as isolated individuals. Westheimer and Kahne (2004) argue that all education tacitly presupposes a vision of a good society and that schools should deliberately prepare students to participate in a more ideal society. Advocates for civic education typically envision a fully functioning democratic society that provides representation of and participation by all citizens, embraces divergent points of view, fosters thoughtful deliberation and facilitates the peaceful resolution of differences. Some versions of civic education focus on subject matter knowledge, claiming that students should learn the history of how our political system developed and how the government functions. Participation in a democratic society clearly requires some knowledge of this type. More complex versions also include the practice of democratic activities. Gutmann (e.g., Gutmann & Thompson, 2004) offers an account centered around “democratic deliberation.” She argues that democracy crucially involves a particular kind of ongoing, reasoned argument—one in which participants must provide “reasons that should be [accessible to and] accepted by free and equal persons” (Gutmann & Thompson, 2004, p. 3). Hess and McAvoy (2015) argue for “political classrooms,” in which students engage in conversation about how they should live together. In order to create and preserve democracy, a society must routinely go beyond ideals and knowledge to engage in deliberative practice and political conversation when making decisions.

Civic education leads students to acknowledge difficult collective challenges, critically assess diverse perspectives on those challenges and engage with each other through reasoned deliberation. In addition to deliberation, civic education often adds an emphasis on justice—on confronting, deliberating about and acting to overcome injustices—as a central part of democratic citizenship and a goal of civic education (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). Students should practice these key democratic activities in school, in order to prepare themselves to participate in and strengthen our democratic society and to engage with others so as to make society more just.

Author

• Diana E. Hess, University of Wisconsin - Madison