Systemic and Ecological Challenges and Opportunities

• In Event: How Can the Science of Human Learning and Development Inform Preparing Students to Engage in Civic Reasoning?

Abstract

The challenge of preparing our young people to engage in civic reasoning currently and historically has been siloed into simplistic solutions: reform the teaching of civics, social studies and history; integrate SEL programs into schools; survey content knowledge about government. However, this concluding paper in the symposium takes the breadth and complexity of this problem space into account to identify the systemic and ecological levers required to shift systems of support (Ball & Ladson-Billings, 2020; Darling-Hammond, 2020). These levers require coordination across policies to inform teacher learning and credentialing, standards of accountability, school financing at federal, state and district levels (Gomez, Biaf & Imig, 2020; Penuel, 2020). The paper further examines how what we know about human learning and development can inform how stakeholders seek to influence policy makers – local, state, federal. The paper includes exemplars of sites and policies that can serve as models (Saunders et al, 2021; Bradley & Hernandez, 2019).

Author

• Linda Darling-Hammond, Learning Policy Institute