Cynthia GordonHarvard Graduate School of EducationEd.D. Expected May 2013University of California, BerkeleyAmerican Cultures Engaged Scholarship Program

CRITICAL DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP:

WHAT COMPETENCIES DO STUDENTS NEED TO

ENGAGE FOR JUSTICE IN A DIVERSE AND

INEQUITALBE DEMOCRACY?

“ENVISION A … SOCIETY THAT ADVANCES SOCIAL PROGRESS … AND

THAT SUPPORTS THE WELFARE OF ALL. … TO ENACT THIS VISION,

EDUCATORS MUST EQUIP STUDENTS WITH THE VALUES, SKILLS, AND

KNOWLEDGE TO BECOME COMPLEX THINKERS AND ETHICAL DECI SION-MAKERS IN A SOCIETY CURRENTLY

PLAGUED WITH CONFLICT AND INEQUALITY”

(HURTADO, 2009, P. 1).

PurposeConceptual frameworkProposed competenciesGroup activityShare-out & Wrap-Up

INTERACTIVE PRESENTATION OUTLINE

US Higher education institutions aim to graduate students who are committed to civic-engagement for the public good (AACU, 2008; Furco & Goss, 2001; Musil, 2011).

What kind of citizenship (meaning civically-engaged people and not documentation of affi liation with a nation) prepares students to engage for justice in a diverse and inequitable democracy?

PURPOSE

What assumptions am I making and what theories provide background for answering this question?

…Engaging for justice in a diverse and inequitable democracy…

DemocracyJustice

Inequitable US contextCritical Theory

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Political theorists multiple forms of democracy: participatory, pluralistic, deliberative, economic, representative,

liberal, etc … Lessons from critical theory:

Giroux: “Democracy cannot function without educated citizens capable of being autonomous, making knowledgeable judgments, and bringing what they learn to bear on understanding and shaping civic culture.”

Freire: “…creating the conditions for people to govern rather than merely be governed.”

I will use the following defi nition: (Colby, Beaumont, Ehrl ich, & Corngold) : “…democracy is fundamentally a practice of shared responsibility

for a common future. It is the always unfinished task of making social choices and working toward public goals that shape our lives and the lives of others.” Consider questions of a greater or common good  Democracy cannot be healthy without wide spread participation Democracy cannot be healthy when run by expert elites alone

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: DEMOCRACY

Moral, political, philosophical theorists multiple forms of justice:

Distributive Justice (Rawls, Kohlberg, 1989, others…) Fairness, impartiality Resources (wealth, income, social position, etc…) fairly

distributedCapabilities Approach (Sen, Nussbaum)

Human Capability: “the freedoms … to choose the lives that they have reason to value” (Sen, 1992, p. 81)

Functionings: healthy, being safe, being happy, having self-respect, etc…

Capabilities: freedom to achieve these functionings “…the real opportunities (freedoms) that one has to achieve those functionings” (Walker, 2010)

Capabilities: set of 10 (Nussbaum) vs. left to public reasoning (Sen)

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:JUSTICE

Process Justice (Young, 1990) Principles of justice should be applied not only to the

distribution of goods and resources in a society, but also to evaluate the fairness and impacts of decision-making, division of labor, and culture (Young, 1990).

“…where social group differences exist and some groups are privileged while others are oppressed, social justice requires explicitly acknowledging and attending to those group differences.” (Young, 1990, p. 3)

Need inclusive and “collective problem-solving by all those significantly involved in or affected by a decision, and under conditions of dialogue which allow diverse perspectives and opinions to be voiced” (Young, 1990 cited in Walker, 2010).

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:JUSTICE & CRITICAL THEORY

“Critical theory rejects as illusory the effort to construct a universal normative system insulated from a particular society. … [it] must begin from historically specific circumstances … Without social theory, normative reflection is abstract, empty, and unable to guide criticism with a practical interest in emancipation” (Young, p. 5).

US socio-political context: a diverse, but inequitable democracy

Inequities across social group demographics Focus race/ethnicity

Distributive justice Wealth (net mean worth and financial assets) (Bobo, Kluegel, &

Smith, 1996; Oliver & Shapiro, 2006) More reliable predictor of economic stability

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:CONTEXT MATTERS

US socio-political context: a diverse, but inequitable democracy

Capabilities approach to justice Health (Bloom & Cohen, 2011) Education (Diamond, 2008; Ferguson & Mehta, 2004;

Gandara & Maxwell- Jolly, 2000; Kozol, 2005; Orfield & Lee, 2005a)

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:CONTEXT MATTERS

US socio-political context: a diverse, but inequitable democracy

Process approach to justiceDecision making112 th congress

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:CONTEXT MATTERS

Percent of US Population

Percent of Congress

African American 13.1% 8.1 %

Latino/Hispanic 16.7% 5.7%

Asian Pacific Islander 5.2%

3%

American Indian 1.2% 0.2%

White 63.4% 83%

Postsecondary student learning outcomes for civic-engagement can include knowledge, skills, dispositions, attitudes, commitments, motivations, and actions that prepare students for engagement in a diverse democracy (Brammer et al., 2012; Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, & Gurin, 2002; Stokamer, 2011). A recent literature review conducted by the Center for an Engaged

Democracy (Brammer et al., 2012), researchers found more than 50 (!) areas of civic knowledge, skills, practice, and inclinations currently being measured by various civic postsecondary programs and national organizations.

Colleges and universities faced with challenge: determining which of these many learning outcomes are most appropriate given their context and missions.

Choosing learning outcomes vary depending on context: Focus: establishing learning outcomes well-suited to prepare

students to engage for justice in a diverse and unequal democracy .

ENGAGING FOR JUSTICE IN A DIVERSE AND UNEQUAL

DEMOCRACY

Democracy: shared responsibility working toward public goals for the common good cannot function without wide spread participation conditions for people to govern rather than be governed

Participation A  functioning democracy relies on citizens participating 

(Dewey, 1916). Participation can and should be broadly constructed (Haste,

2009; Haste & Hogan, 2006; Mira, 2010) Involvement or actions in collective community-based efforts;

in local, state, and national issues; and for the general betterment of one’s communities (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004).

ENGAGING IN A DEMOCRACY

Openness to multiple perspectives Tendency of an individual to think from the perspective of

another individual (Gurin, Nagda, & Zuniga, 2011)Controversy with Civility (Komives & Wagner, 2009)

In a diverse group inevitably differing viewpoints exist To work towards positive social change, people need to

engage civilly with conflict to develop new and creative solutions to social problems

DIVERSITY

Justice-oriented (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004) Analyzing the structural causes of inequality and

collectively acting on what is discovered “If participatory citizens are organizing the food drive

and personally responsible citizens are donating food, justice oriented citizens are asking why people are hungry and acting on what they discover” (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004).

Dialogue (Isaacs, 1999) "...aims to engage us...in a collective present-tense truth

telling, where no one person's position or thought dominates, but where larger questions and new frontiers are laid bare for exploration.” voicing, listening, respecting and suspending

JUSTICE

Understanding the root causes of inequality Active thinking: a tendency and motivation for individuals

to think deeply and analyze the causes for individual actions/behaviors (Gurin et al., 2011). Active thinking is (arguably) domain specific—the

complexity of causal attribution for an event/behavior is dependent on variables such as interest, experience, and knowledge (Fletcher, Danilovics, Fernandez, Peterson, & Reeder, 1986)

To positively impact racial justice, need active thinking about the causes and impacts of racial/ethnic inequality

Structural thinking about racial inequality Analysis of causes of racial inequality from a structural level For example…

Racial inequality in test scores

ADDRESSING INEQUALITY

To realize the ideal of a democratic nation in which race and ethnicity cannot be used to predict life outcomes, we need citizens actively fighting for racial justice (Warren, 2010). Engage in a democracy

Through participation That is diverse

Through openness to multiple perspectives and controversy with civility

And work towards justice With a justice-orientation and the skills to dialogue

And righting inequality with active and structural thinking

Critical Democratic CitizenshipNow, what do you think?

SUMMARY

What knowledge, competencies, skills, or dispositions are necessary for citizens to engage for justice in a diverse and unequal democracy?

YOUR TURN