Dualism within Progressive Pedagogies: The Dynamic Nature
of Democratic Education
by
Dr. Kweku M. Smith
Education, therefore, is a process of living and not a process
for future living. John Dewey
Abstract
Psychology, epistemology, ethics, philosophical pragmatism, dualism, criticism, and conscious progressive pedagogy are some of the inspirations that encourage and define the social role of public education and its significance as preparation for citizenship in a progressive democratic society. This paper stresses democracy’s associated life, classroom practice and communal aspects, maintaining that conscious, directed education which is necessary to establish these participatory conditions and to cultivate democratic character in students. Growth, commitment, capacity, connection, experience, and classroom activities are the critical factors. I explore and characterize the connection between student learning and the variety of social and communicative activities that foster thriving democratic communities. Students who have experienced democracy in their school lives are transformed to become better citizens in society.
Dynamic Nature of Building Democratic Education
Building democratic education requires more than frequent elections and two or more political parties. Ultimately, government is about power. Democracy is about the equal distribution of power. To that extent, elections as the primary definition of democracy disconnect parents in poor communities from real power and hide the manner in which many communities, abandoned and impoverished by the new economy, are losing their power. While the voting public has become increasingly cynical about elections, parents in these communities care very much about their children. As you will read in this paper, teachers can promote democracy by engaging students and parents as equals in real-world dialogue. Teachers and parents should be encouraged to foster friendship, work together on, and learn from each other about, schools, students’ achievement, reflections, and educational reform. Citizens, as we know, create community by working together to solve real problems such as hunger, unemployment, and homelessness. Students in schools should be introduced to the building democracy by working together to solve problems in their own lives.
A fundamental purpose of schools is to prepare our future citizens to be stakeholders in society. Arnstine (1995) was correct in saying that young people should become active participants in building a democratic community. For example, public schools are the primary institutions designed to produce a public, civic community. Schools distribute knowledge. And in many ways and by unfortunate means, unequal schools distribute knowledge unequally. When schools distribute knowledge unequally, they contribute to the decline of democratic opportunity and the continuing oppression of marginalized citizens.
Transformative goals of a public education can be summarized as the education a “good citizen”. The purpose of social studies is “to provide children and youth with knowledge, values, critical thinking skills, and experiences they require to become active participants in our society (Maker and Mehlinger, 1992, p.831).” Educating a good citizen and cultivating active participation are the goals of democratic education. In these transformative thoughts, we can say that democratic citizenship education is at the core of a public education. However, teaching about democracy or citizenship often fails to arouse students’ interest and may be perceived as unimportant. For example, democratic values are usually studied in the formal curriculum of social studies. Our commitment to developing democracy derives from ideological proposals espoused by Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey, and many others. We believe that democracy is good.
Some students may think of democratic education as an abstract area that is something far from their personal lives. This attitude reflects a situation in which a democratic education remains more a theory than a reality.
In this paper, I will attempt to explore and investigate the nature of democratic education and try to explain why teachers do not approach democratic education with ease and why students often are not interested in it. I will also suggest meritorious solutions for these unique problems in the dynamic nature of democratic education. Accessing a wide range of complexities, I will also introduce procedures that can be used in a classroom to promote the active participation of children and to cultivate a democratic way of thinking as a model for associated living.
Pedagogies and Nature of Democratic Education
In the first part of this article, I will attempt to explore seven natures of democratic education which teachers may have difficulty implementing: Teaching about commitment, teaching about capacity, teaching about connection, teaching about politics, teaching democracy by active participation, teaching democratic values and behaviors, and teaching controversial issues. I will demonstrate the problems in practicing democratic education by critically exploring the nature of democratic education and also its importance for social justice.
Teaching About Commitments, Capacity, and Connections
Pedagogical and curricular strategies for supporting the development of democratic citizens are numerous and range from leadership courses, to courses in history, to such experiences as participation in a Model United Nations (Billig, 2000). I looked for common features of the successful programs I studied. Three broad priorities emerged: promoting democratic commitments, capacities, and connections to other similar goals. In the case of commitments, students asked why they should be committed to actively engaging issues in their communities and beyond. Teachers must demonstrate to student that society needs improving and provide positive experiences seeking solutions within the community. In all probability, students will be encouraged to commit to conscious civil engagements within their communities for social justice.
As for capacity, students asked: how can we engage issues? Teachers must engage students in real–world projects, teach civil skills and provide knowledge through workshops and simulations for purposeful and meaningful engagement of students as citizens in their communities. Students will thus be encouraged to maintain the skills, knowledge, and networks they need to act positively for social changes within their communities and beyond.
Regarding connections, students asked who was going to engage in these issues with them. Teachers must provide a supportive community of peers and connections to role models. It is likely that students will reflect and admire people who have made a difference in the past and feel connected to those who want to make a difference now, and they will want to work with them in good spirit (Kahn, J., 2003).
Teaching About Politics and Process
Democratic education includes associated life itself. It includes teaching about politics and the process which is difficult for many students to understand. Knowledge of the working of political institutions and processes is a part of democratic civic education (Butts, 1980). However, teaching the art of democratic politics is extraordinarily difficult and complex; it demands more of learners than others subjects require. In short, democratic education cannot be easy because it deals with politic and social justice (Gagnon, 1996).
Democratic education in elementary school, however, needs to be consciously focused on the understanding of complex and dynamic principles of democracy and promotion of political attitudes rather than on teaching knowledge of political systems. The approach to politics that instructors should teach elementary school students is neither the complex construction of the political system nor the complicated and incomprehensible politics which function outside of children’s own lives. Political knowledge should be translated into the children’s own language at their own level. For an example, the concept of a government can be explained as that of parents in a family. The Center for Civic Education (1994) states that:
Understanding what government does may be initiated in early
grades by having students look at the governance of the family
and school as analogous to the governance of the larger
community and the nation. In the family, for example, parents
make rules governing the behavior of their children. They also
are responsible for enforcing these rules and for settling disputes
when conflicts arise about them (p.15).
Another critical approach to teaching politics is providing students with activities that make them experience the principles of democracy. A social education staff (2005) suggested that teachers “avoid teaching rote facts about dry procedures (p.414).” For example, instead of teaching the knowledge itself, teachers can use simulation activities for getting students actively involved in the study of civic issues. Simulation activities can provides students with exciting and creative experiences by putting them in the roles of those who conduct important civic activities, such as members of the legislature, diplomats, judges, juries and political candidates. In addition, “teachers can create appropriate activities related to civic conversation, deliberation on public issues, civic journalism, democratic decision making and problem solving, and participation in community affairs” (Parker, 1994, p.11). Teachers should when possible connect students’ lives to politics and show how politics affect the students’ lives and their communities. Teachers should help students understand that “there is a strongly personal initial bond between the child and the representatives of structures of authority (Apple, 1996, p.193). As children grow up and their experience becomes broad and diverse, they can discover relationships between the functions of Congress or political activities such as voting and their own lives. Teachers should serve as guides to the discovery of these critical connections.
Participatory Democracy and Teaching Democracy
Teaching democracy as a political system is often thought of from the traditional point of view. Teachers often think democratic citizenship education is mainly about teaching and learning the ‘office of citizen’—one who votes, develops interest in matters of public concern, and has a deep understanding of what happens in democratic government, from its three branches to its protection of individual rights (Parker, 1994). This is close to teaching politics, which I mentioned above.
In essence, however, democratic education should include students’ democratic actions and participations. Carpenter (1996) argues, “we praise democracy and we teach about it but we do not make enough allowances for students to participate in it (p.46).” Teaching democratic knowledge is only a part of a democratic education. We cannot realize the goal of democratic education only by teaching textbook knowledge in our diverse classrooms. Students need to practice, participate, and experience democratic principles to understand how they function in a society and to internalize them as principles which are working in their own lives. For example, if students in diverse classrooms learn that respecting various opinions in a society is an important principle of democracy, they should be able to put that principle into practice in their own lives. If these connections are made in a student’s learning process, his/her learning of democracy will be active and inspired.
Standard or traditional democratic education fails to arouse students’ interest and is often perceived as unimportant. That is because democratic education remains more theory than reality. Even though most of the topics in democratic education are issues that occur in the students’ daily lives and affect them directly and/or indirectly, they don’t recognize this fact. It is not easy to provide students with meaningful activities that will allow them to directly experience democracy. The teacher needs creativity and passion. It is crucial for elementary school children to be provided learning opportunities based on lived experiences and participation because the core of democratic education in elementary school is the cultivation of a democratic mind and attitude. For students, democratic education through practice could attain its ultimate goal as well as create passion and interest. Noddings (as cited in Yeager & Silva, 2002) states children can learn that democracy concerns fairness and social justices, and develop a sense of social responsibility by participating in age-appropriate activities.
Involving students in school governance is one way to promote their experiences in democracy. Students who have participated in school governance will have a more active sense of participation in democratic actions such as voting (Social Studies staff, 2005). Students can experience the democratic principles and acquire the sense of democratic ways of thinking by participatory activities. Minority/ majority students can also experience democratic principles by conducting their own projects on issues of democracy. Students can use participatory skills, which bridge theory and practice, in doing their project (Carpenter, 1996, p. 49). Carpenter (1996) explains in detail the process of projects in which his students participated in government class:
Students can choose the topics by their own interests. In doing
the project in groups, they are animated and involved. They
leave the classroom to conduct interviews or go to the library
to get more information. They even go to neighboring schools on
time to do a comparative analysis. Sometimes they experience
that an administrator whom they were trying to interview
stonewalled them. However, an active teaching approach that
promotes students’ involvement can provide students with
authentic knowledge about democracy and citizenship (p.48).
Teaching Values and Behaviors in Democracy
There is a thread of connection between what I mentioned above and what I will discuss in this section. In the paragraphs above I said that students need to experience and practice democracy in order to understand the authentic meaning of democratic knowledge and internalize its principles. Here I will discuss students’ need to experience democratic values through participation and activities to change their ways of thinking and behaving.
A teacher who practices democratic education would be confronted with a fundamental difficulty. Black (2005) states, “Citizenship and democratic practice is inexorably intertwined with ethics, morals, and education for character” (p.35). Such complexity is a conscious and unique feature of democratic education, particularly when democratic education is compared with many other areas in public education that deal mainly with factual and neutral knowledge within our social construction. One of the major purposes of democratic education is for students not only to develop cognitive ability, but also to cultivate their democratic ways of thinking critically and taking action to change their lives. Therefore, the aims of democratic citizenship education are by their nature sharply different in style and in the dynamic modes of teaching they require. Students need to practice and experience a democratic ways of life to realize the goal of democratic educations—that is, being a good citizen. Democratic education should emphasize the all the ways people can behave in the role of citizen, not only by being a legislator or voting and campaigning for or against a legislator (Boyte, 1994). Ultimately, democratic education aims to transform the ways a student conducts his/her life when it is based on democratic values (Gagnon, 1996).
What then are democratic values? One can get insights about democratic values by considering the character of a good citizen. With a new understanding of democratic citizenship, democracy can become more viable. One can understand democracy in depth by thinking “beyond the current American experience of citizens as simply voters and taxpayers” (Guarasci, Cornwell, and Associates, 1997, p.18. A democratic citizen should be one whose thoughts and behaviors are based on democratic values. She or he is the one concerned about the matters of his or her community, society, country, and the world beyond and then actively participates in the area of his or her own concern; one who fulfills his or her responsibility beyond performing civic duties actively, and tries to practice justice; one who listens carefully and respects diverse opinions; and who can make a reasonable decision following a discussion. In addition, equality, liberty, tolerance of difference, respect for human rights, protection for weaker groups, and the rule of law are the democratic values that one should pursue (Ahmad and Szpara, 2005: Lockyer, 2003).
Dewey was correct when he said, “education is of, by, and experience” (1938, p.29). Students learn through their experiences and many factors interact in different sequences in the process of their learning. An education whose goal is to change students’ way of thinking and behavior into a more desirable path cannot be achieved by giving them some lectures. In this sense, if a teacher has the goal of transforming students from self-interested to democratic citizens, he or she should create a democratic environment through classroom management. For example, when there is a matter to decide related to the class, a teacher can model the democratic process by discussing the problem with the class rather than making the decision him/herself. The teacher can show an example of equality and fairness by treating all the students without bias or unfairness. Instead of explaining the principles and values of democracy, it is important to show the students these democratic values.
Teaching Controversial Issues
Thoughtful visions of good education are necessarily rooted in the vision of a good society (Goodman, J. 1992, xix). To build a democratic society we should not only practice democratic values but also work to resolve social problems and conflicts. Therefore, controversial topics inevitably become a part of democratic education. Dealing with conflicts is difficult. However, it is possible for teachers to involve the students’ own interests by discussing the topics of their conflicts in classes, since some of the students are experiencing these conflicts. For example, there might be conflicts between students from middle class families and working class families. Teachers can help students understand what causes such conflicts between students and resolve them by changing their points of view. In addition, the discussion of students’ controversial topics in a democratic education class can show them that democratic processes are strongly connected to their own lives. Since a society has consistent conflicts, democratic resolution of conflict is an important part of democratic education. According to Apple (1975), “social conflicts have positive and even essential functions (p.176).” He states that: