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For Democracy’s Future: Five Essential Actions From The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement 1. Reclaim and reinvest in the fundamental civic and democratic mission of schools and of all sectors within higher education. 2. Enlarge the current national narrative that erases civic aims and civic literacy as educational priorities contributing to social, intellectual, and economic capital. 3. Advance a contemporary, comprehensive framework for civic learning—embracing US and global interdependence— that includes historic and modern understandings of democratic values, capacities to engage diverse perspectives and people, and commitment to collective civic problem solving. 4. Capitalize upon the interdependent responsibilities of K–12 and higher education to foster progressively higher levels of civic knowledge, skills, examined values, and action as expectations for every student. 5. Expand the number of robust, generative civic partnerships and alliances, locally, nationally, and globally to address common problems, empower people to act, strengthen communities and nations, and generate new frontiers of knowledge. See Chapter III for the entire set of recommendations in the National Call to Action. vi
the Catalysts for Producing A Crucible Moment and its national Call to Action W A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future was written at the invitation of the US Department of Education, which awarded a contract to the Global Perspective Institute, Inc. (GPI) and a subcontract to the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) to lead a national dialogue that would result in recommendations about strengthening students’ civic learning and democratic engagement as a core component of college study. GPI and AAC&U then formed a National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, whose members collectively have been involved in virtually all aspects of the civic renewal effort that is already underway in many parts of higher education. Our work was ably led by GPI President Larry A. Braskamp and AAC&U Senior Vice President Caryn McTighe Musil, who organized and guided the year-long national dialogue and analysis through which A Crucible Moment was framed. The charge given us as a National Task Force was to assess the current state of education for democracy in higher education and produce a report with a National Call to Action and specific steps through which multiple stakeholders can make college students’ civic learning and democratic engagement a pervasively embraced educational priority and a resource for democracy. We were invited, in effect, to complement our society’s strong commitment to increased college-going and completion with an equally strong and multi-front effort to ensure that postsecondary study contributes significantly to college students’ preparation as informed, engaged, and globally knowledgeable citizens. The US Department of Education was an involved partner in this entire effort, with key staff attending and attentive at national roundtables, and offering feedback on successive drafts of A Crucible Moment. Yet department leaders also made it clear that this should be a report from the higher education community to the nation, not a brief framed by the department. Guided by an intensive multi-month dialogue with advisers from all parts of higher education and civil society, we shaped the analysis and National Call to Action presented in these pages. Caryn McTighe Musil served as the scribe and lead author for the Task Force. A final report required under the contract was submitted to the Department of Education in October 2011 and posted on its website in December 2011. Following that submission, A Crucible Moment was revised and edited for publication and dissemination in 2012. A CRUCIBLE MOMENT: College Learning & Democracy’s Future vii
Page 1: a national call to action A CruCibl
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Figure 6. From Partial to Pervasive
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With the demographic shift, the cur
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course, or an upper-level nursing c
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As the Democracy Commitment and AAS
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V. A Foundation Partially laid: Pat
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Some institutions, like Franklin Pi
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DQP says that, at all degree levels
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students’ self-effcacy and politi
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learning, aimed at active participa
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Engberg and Fox (2011) links involv
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focused pedagogy for its Community
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perspectives becomes the norm; defi
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excellence to ideas, problems, and
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eferences W AACC (American Associat
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Colby, Anne, Thomas Ehrlich, Elizab
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University of Oslo; and the Europea
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NCES (National Center for Education
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Snyder, Thomas D., and Sally A. Dil
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Phase II: In-depth assessment and l
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COMPLETING THE MATRIx As a group, m
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Civic Investment Plan Template for
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APPEnDIx C: Civic learning and Demo
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Gail Jessen, Director, Thayne Cente
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Paul Petrequin, Residential Faculty
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Mary Kirchhoff, Director, Education
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active, involved citizens in their
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Association for Integrative Studies
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issues, civic involvement, and how
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facilitators to guide the process;
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The Democracy Imperative http://www
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to strengthen an international comm
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Modern Language Association of Amer
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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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