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62 expertise. In this paradigm, students learn cooperative and creative problem solving within learning environments in which faculty, students, and individuals from the community work and deliberate together… Civic engagement in the democratic-centered paradigm is intentionally political in that students learn about democracy by acting democratically (2011, 21). How this translates into actual programs, courses, and activities is demonstrated by a number of concrete examples reported in Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement (2007) by Anne Colby, Elizabeth Beaumont, Thomas Ehrlich, and Josh Corngold. Like many who believe that not only self-effcacy but also political effcacy are important, Colby et al. recommend that higher education invest in the political development of the nation’s fourteen million college students. “It is important for pluralist democracy…that as many people as possible possess a set of capacities that are intrinsically valuable and also support responsible citizenship by helping them thoughtfully evaluate political choices and effectively contribute to political outcomes”(6). The programs described in Educating for Democracy range from one semester courses to full multicourse programs to courses linked to livinglearning residential programs. Rick Battistoni, for instance, uses democratic pedagogies that promote “learning democracy by doing democracy” in his course Ancients and Moderns: Democratic Theory and Practice at Providence College (Colby et al. 2007, 299). Students create models of a perfectly democratic and perfectly undemocratic classroom and keep a “democratic theory journal”; they can also opt for a Democracy in Action project where they work in groups to organize themselves democratically and implement a democratic action plan (299). Alma Blount describes the Service Opportunities in Leadership program at Duke University, which is composed of a two-semester interdisciplinary program: first, a course on service leadership and social change, then a summer internship where students work “on social and political change projects for organizations across the country and abroad” (Colby et al. 2007, 300). On their return, students participate in a policy research seminar culminating with a “Social Issue Investigation Portfolio” that includes an essay on a problem from their summer placement, an interview with a practitioner, and a policy recommendation paper (300). At the University of Maryland, College Park, Sue Briggs describes CIVICUS, a program that involves a two-year interdisciplinary living-learning program with five courses and activities within residence halls. The program collaborates across several colleges, residential life, and the library with foci on citizenship, leadership, community service, and community building in a diverse society. Students become CIVICUS associates and live, study, and plan service activities together; take five courses, including Leadership in a Multicultural Society; and complete a capstone course that involves an internship or a “discovery”/research project (Colby et al. 2007, 300–301). Northern Arizona University (NAU), while not one of the fourteen institutions participating in the Political Engagement Project at the heart of Educating for Democracy, employs the same problem solving, action
focused pedagogy for its Community Re-engagement for Arizona Families, Transitions, and Sustainability (CRAFTS) program. CRAFTS “aims to nurture public scholarship through collaborative research and action with diverse community partners in the NAU region and beyond” (Coles and Scarnati 2011, 35). Creating problem-oriented programs like NAU’s would counteract a study finding that just over one-third of faculty strongly agreed that their campus actively promoted awareness of US or global social, political, and economic issues (Dey et al. 2009). CRAFTS spans a range of courses, but its most intense focus is on first-year seminars organized topically on issues such as water, immigration, indigenous environmental justice, and global human rights. What distinguishes CRAFTS are its Action Research Teams (ARTs). These research teams typically engage a community partner, combine knowledge from the classroom with knowledge from local communities, and include a mentoring component; some are even linked to residential learning communities. Third-year student Nina Porter did her first ARTs project in a first-year seminar, and was transformed by it; she is now in her third year of involvement in a community-based ART. As she explains, the problem-based project “has taught me not only about the community’s power, but also about my own agency as a political actor…and…by connecting with others I can effect real, immediate change. I have found that democracy means continually acting as a community, for the community, rather than simply casting a vote at election time” (Porter 2011, 16). In her case, ARTs also influenced her choice of major and stirred ambitions to attend graduate school. Civic problem solving pedagogies are highly varied and still emerging, as the given examples illustrate. One of their many faces is typically found in US diversity courses and programs, while another is found in global courses and programs and experiential study abroad programs. As this chapter demonstrates, US diversity and global issues, contexts, and problems are already a leitmotif in existing civic pedagogies and should inform the next generation of civic work. Both global and diversity work often focus on big questions, perspective taking, and learning across differences, which is why the interface with civic problem solving pedagogies is relatively seamless. Civic problem solving pedagogies overall are closely aligned with a widespread effort across all parts of higher education to involve students more extensively in “real-world” learning, where problem solving can be practiced regularly through such experiences as internships, practicums, study abroad, and community-based research and projects. As noted earlier, employers are in favor of a greater emphasis by higher education on helping students develop problem solving and applied learning skills (Peter D. Hart Research Associates 2008; Hart Research Associates 2010). These civic pedagogies, then, are part of a larger and long-term trend toward better integration of academic and applied learning, and toward giving college students many opportunities to expand and demonstrate capacities they will need both in civic contexts and at work. “[The problem-based project] has taught me not only about the community’s power, but also about my own agency as a political actor.…I have found that democracy means continually acting as a community, for the community, rather than simply casting a vote at election time” (Porter 2011). A CRUCIBLE MOMENT: College Learning & Democracy’s Future 63
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a national call to action A CruCibl
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This project has been funded at lea
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Foreword W “A socially cohesive a
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the Catalysts for Producing A Cruci
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National Task Force on Civic Learni
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Finally, we want to express our dee
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i. Why education for Democratic Cit
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Toward a More Comprehensive Definit
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when compared with older generation
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Notably, despite all the energy dev
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Higher Education: More than Workfor
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National Women’s Studies Associat
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citizens. Public Agenda pursues thi
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About AAC&U The Association of Amer
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