Teacher Education for Civic Engagement in a Backsliding Democracy

• In Event: Supporting Democratic Civic Education: Varied and Needed Roles for Teacher Educators

Abstract

Purpose and Perspective
Social studies teacher educators utilize a variety of pedagogical approaches to prepare future teachers to cultivate students’ civic engagement. Generally however, social studies teacher educators work–implicitly or explicitly–toward cultivating a vision of enlightened political engagement. According to Parker (2003), enlightened political engagement refers to actions or participation in activities that are informed by knowledge and commitments such as knowledge of ideals of democratic living, the ability to discern just from unjust laws and actions, and the ability to deliberate public policy. In this paper, we first situate how the ethos of enlightened political engagement guides common pedagogical strategies used in social studies teacher education and we raise questions about the nature of the commitment to enlightened political engagement in a backsliding democracy (Levitsky & Ziblatt 2018).

Methods
To explore the commitment to enlighted political engagement in social studies teacher education, we conducted a review of research studies in peer-review journals published within the last 15 years. We sorted the articles into three categories based on a recent review of common pedagogical models utilized in social studies teacher education conducted by Conklin et al. (2022): teaching critical and racial literacy; teaching deliberation and discussion skills; and engaging in action research or community service-learning projects. We then engaged in a deductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2012) of the pedagogical practices of social studies teacher educators in each category, searching for instantiations of preparing teachers for enlightened political engagement (Parker, 2002).

Warrants for Arguments
We identified several practices that advance enlightened political engagement such as assignments and activities that: challenge candidates’ preconceived notions of democracy and citizenship (Conklin & Hughes, 2016); elucidate how diverse perspectives are muted or effaced from social studies curriculum, textbooks, and/or instructional materials (Martinez, 2010); and model conceptual and practical tools that lead to commitments about democratic life. After establishing the permanence of enlightened political engagement in social studies teacher education, we raise questions about the nature of this commitment in a backsliding democracy. In 2021, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance added the United States to its list of backsliding democracies, nations that are seeing a gradual decline in the quality of their democracy. Similarly, political scientists have charted the steady erosion of democratic norms, such as shared beliefs in the peaceful transition of power or free and fair elections (Levitsky & Ziblatt 2018; Haggard & Kaufman, 2021). Because enlightened political engagement is dependent on liberal rationalism, and the authoritarian and ethnopopulist features of a backsliding democracy are illiberal and irrational, social studies teacher education must reflect on how it prepares teachers to foster students’ civic engagement in a backsliding democracy.

Conclusion and Significance
We conclude our paper by sharing three questions for reflection and avenues for future research: (1) How have teacher candidates been affected by growing political polarization? (2) How should social studies teacher education respond to the intensification of social injustice and institutional racism in a backsliding democracy?; and (3) What pedagogical practices, if any, prepare teachers to address illiberalism, polarization, and insularity?

Authors

• Alexander Cuenca, Indiana University
  Presenting Author

• Brett L. M. Levy, University at Albany - SUNY
  Non-Presenting Author