Introductions: Lonnie Sherrod

Lonnie Sherrod, Executive Director, Society for Research in Child Development, SRCD

Introductions: Rod Watts

What is the role of public education in youth civic engagment?

Rod Watts, Ph.D., Professor of Social Welfare and Psychology, Hunter College School of Social Work and The Graduate Center

 

Introductions: Beth Rubin

What is the role of public education in youth civic engagement?

Beth C. Rubin, Associate Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University

 

Introductions: Jennifer Astuto

What is the role of public education in youth civic engagement?

Jennifer Astuto, Assistant Director, Child & Family Policy Center, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Psychology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York University

 

Introductions: Peter Levine

What is the role of public education in youth civic engagement?

Peter Levine, Director of Research and Director of CIRCLE (Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement), Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Tufts University

 

Recap:

by Kristal Haynes, Ph.D. student in Developmental Psychology

Most would agree that our schools have a place in shaping and engaging youth in being active members of society.  The question is, how would such an education look in our current public school system?  During the panel held on Thursday, March 17th on the role of public education in civic engagement, this blurry vision of how schools would go about developing democratic ideals in children and youth was discussed, argued, dismissed, embraced and generally unpackaged.  Despite the different perspectives offered, the unifying thread that tied the perspectives together was that schools can and should be a place where students both learn about society and actively engage in transforming it.

Many of the panelists praised the benefits of having schools acknowledge the fact that they are not neutral institutions void of values or political positions.  They enact their values all of the time, in both implicit and explicit ways.  The learning opportunity lies in students being encouraged to analyze and constructively criticize this institution in which they spend countless hours of their formative years.  Dr. Jennifer Astuto highlighted the fact that learning democratic principles that both encourage engagement, cognitive and social development can begin in the earliest years of schooling.  Schools need to re-dedicate time for both structured and open play, where students learn to pretend, imagine and work together to build meaningful situations through which they can develop perspective-taking and problem-solving skills.  An audience member somewhat echoed this point and also lamented the decidedly un-democratic nature of our current school system, where students are lectured at and policed instead of being given equal opportunity to shape the rules and policies that are used to control and manage them and their peers.

Another discussion of interest centered on highlighting the importance of civic engagement and activism in all topic areas in education.  Dr. Roderick Watts discussed the very real possibility of infusing everything from math and science to history with opportunities for students to be given tools for critiquing the neighborhoods in which they live.  He gave the example of math students contrasting the number of pots holes lining the streets of their own neighborhood versus the adjacent neighborhood, which happened to have a higher concentration of wealth.  The students then graphed the number of pot holes in these two neighborhoods and had the chance to decide for themselves whether or not this was a matter of (in)justice or if there was another explanation for this phenomenon.  All of the panelists supported the notion that principles of civic engagement should span the entire school day and not be concentrated to one semester or one class period of study.

As the panel began to draw to a close, the audience murmured with a sense of excitement (and even anger) about the meaning of schooling in America.  Dr. Deborah Vietze (Professor of Psychology at the Graduate Center) noted that schools were supposed to be the great equalizer in American society – and clearly this leveling project has not achieved its goal.  If that is the case, then the need for students to be given tools to engage in society should be employed in full force.  However, it cannot simply end with students engaging in society, as noted by Dr. Anna Stetsenko (Professor of Psychology at the Graduate Center), but we must look at the ways in which youth work to transform society.  We have the opportunity to provide them with the skills to be able to critically analyze how that transformative process should occur.

What is the role of public education in youth civic engagement?

Societies undergoing major political-economic transformations, as seen during the 1980s and 1990s in emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa, have used public education, specifically civic education, to guide young people toward the specific ideologies associated with democracy.  The overall goal of civic education (also referred to as citizenship education or democracy education) is the promotion of civic engagement and support of democratic or participatory governance.  For example, with regard to the Soviet Union, the disintegration of communism left democracy as the major political ideology, however, the majority of individuals in those countries making up the former Soviet Union had little practical knowledge or experience of the workings of democracy.  Similar concerns have been echoed in other countries and states around the world that experienced democratization.  In countries like Croatia, for example, reforms include education on “democratic citizenship,” required not only for a transition from socialism to democracy but also for acceptance in the European Union.  In countries with longer histories of democracy, like the United States, defining citizenship is no less contentious, such as in current debates about immigration, the rights of sexual minority students or debates about prayer in schools.  Nevertheless, public education typically deals with the nature and role of civic education more neutrally, if at all.  Current educational requirements for youth volunteering are, for example, open for individual opportunity and choice, but may also raise the question of whether civic engagement can or should be mandated.  In addition, other issues related to civic engagement (e.g., the civic empowerment gap or youth activism) are not explored in depth, if at all.

Join us Thursday March 17 at 6:30 to hear more!

Upcoming Conversation

Join us March 17 at The Graduate Center for the next Conversation in Developmental Psychology!

Conclusions: Jason Hart

Jason Hart, Senior Lecturer – International Development, University of Bath, UK

Conclusions: Liz Sweet

Liz Sweet, Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies