Civic Education: Interrogating Power-Averse Learning in the New Cold War Academy

• In Event: Marx SIG Session 2

Abstract

Within U.S. higher education, civics education (CE) has been positioned as learning that is free of political motive– ideologically neutral and constituent to a proper liberal arts education. Reciprocally, higher education has rendered political education (PE) outside the scope of “pure” scholarly interest, as politically-motivated and belonging to the private sphere. Noting historical shifts occurring during the Cold War in the fields of social studies and political science, our paper examines their respective deployments of CE and rejects “neutral” understandings of CE. We advocate for PE, arguing that CE circumscribes how learners come to understand the scope of possibilities for engagement with our political system, ultimately distorting and obscuring the nature of power and politics in the existing system.

Authors

• Kevin L. Clay, Rutgers University

• Mie Inouye, Bard College

• Sudip Bhattacharya, Rutgers University