Higher Education and the Practice of Democratic Politics: a Political Education Reader
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 350 909 HE 025 886 AUTHOR Murchland, Bernard, Ed. TITLE Higher Education and the Practice of Democratic Politics: A Political Education Reader. Kettering Political Education Series. INSTITUTION Charles F. Kettering Foundation, Dayton, Ohio. REPORT NO ISBN-0-923993-01-0 PUB DATE 91 NOTE 259p. AVAILABLE FROMKettering Foundation, 200 Commons Road, Dayton, OH 45459-2799 ($14.95). PUB TYPE Books (010) -- Collected Works General (020) Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Citizen Participation; Citizenship; *Citizenship Education; Citizenship Responsibility; Civics; *College Role; Colleges; Curriculum; *Democracy; Democratic Values; Higher Education; Philosophy; Political Attitudes; Political Socialization; Role of Education ABSTRACT This book is a collection of essays on political education for democratic citizenship in higher education developed out of meetings over 5 years of a small group of faculty, administrators and students who gathered to discuss the way academia was educating young people for political responsibility. Following a foreword and an introduction byBernard Murchland, the 21 papers are: "Democracy in America: Bringing It All Back Home" (J. Peter Euben); "Strengthening Citizenship" (Robert B. Woyach); "The People Shall Rule" (Sara M. Evans and Harry C. Boyte); "The Nature and Nurture of Public Life" (Parker Palmer); "Civic Intelligence" (David Mathews); "The Public Realm" (Hannah Arendt); "The Primacy of Political Education" (Amy Gutmann); "Civic Education and the Liberal State" (William Galston); "A Renewal of Civic Philosophy" (William Sullivan); "On Participation" (Hanna Fenichel Pitkin and Sara M. Shumer); "Toward a Cultural Democracy" (Manuel Ramirez and Alfredo Castaneda): "Democracy, Deliberation, and the Experience of Women" (Jane Mansbridge); "The New Cultural Politics of Difference" (Cornel West); "The Civic Mission of the University" (Benjamin R. Barber); "The Liberal Arts and Civic Education" (Ralph Ketcham); "Embracing Diversity as a Central Campus Goal" (Daryl G. Smith); "Civic Education, Liberal Education, and Democracy" (J. Donald Moon); "Education, Autonomy, and Civic Virtue" (Richard Dagger); "Some Reflections on Civic Education and the Curriculum" (Elizabeth K. Minnich); "The Difficult Dialogue of Curriculum Transformation" (Johnnella E. Butler); and "Critical Pedagogy and the New Politics of Cultural Difference" (Henry A. Giroux). ****************).**************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** 1 1 I s ch I A I U $ DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educationsi Rosasich andImprovement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERICI AThis document has been reproducedas received from the person or organization originating it O Minor changes have been made toimprove reproduction Quality Points of view or opinions stated in this deco, ment do not necessarily represent official OE RI position or policy APA "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS AiIII MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY I Kettering Foundation TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" I ......._ ... AVAILABLE9 ". 9 Higher Education and the Practice of Democratic Politics: A Political Education Reader Edited and with an Introduction by Bernard Murchland published by the Kettering Foundation Copyright (e_fi 1991 by the Kettering Foundation. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-923993-01-0 This book is printed on recycled paper. Inquiries, book orders and catalogue requests should be addressed to Kettering Foundation. 200 Commons Road. Dayton. OH 45459 4 Acknowledgments The idea for this book was born out of those far-ranging, fertile seminar- discussions for which the Kettering Foundation has become justly famous. As is often the case, Foundation President David Mathews had a major role in framing the concept. I also want to acknowledge the contributions of Suzanne Morse, director of programs at the Kettering Foundation, as well as the talents of the publications staff, particularly Robert E. Daley, Betty Frecker, George Cavanaugh, Val Breidenbach, Judy McGeorge, and Chris- topher Baron. Maria Far land and Manfred Stanley made helpful suggestions. The research efforts of Cheryl Carr and Deborah Witte were indispensable. Michael Briand, research director at the Foundation, guided each step of the production process with persistence, skill, and unfailing good humor. Thanks is also owed to Cynthia Horton and Karen Reppen of A-R Editions. Above all, I want to thank the contributors. It is quite literally their book. Bernard Murchland ix Contents Foreword vii David Mathews Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Bernard March land Part 1: Restoring the Lost Dimension 11 Democracy in America: Bringing It All Back Home 14 J. Peter Euben Strengthening Citizenship 23 Robert B. Woyach The People Shall Rule 29 Sara M. Evans and Harry C. Bowe The Nature and Nurture of Public Life 38 Parker Palmer Civic Intelligence 48 David Mathews The Public Realm 56 Hannah Arendt Part 2: Back to Basics: Which Democracy? 65 The Primacy of Political Education 69 Amy Gutmann Civic Education and the Liberal State 83 William Galston A Renewal of Civic Philosophy 94 William Sullivan On Participation 106 Hanna Fenichel Pitkin and Sara Shumer 115 DemocracyCastatieda 122 TowardCulturalandAlfredo ofWomen ManuelRamirez and theExperience Deliberation, 136 Democracy. JaneMansbridge Difference Politicsof Cultural The New 157 CornetWest of theUniversity 160 Part 3:The Role University of the 170 CivicMission The R.Barber Benjamin Education Arts andCivic 188 The.Liberal Ketcham Goal Ralph CentralCampus Diversity asa 196 EmbracingSmith andDemocracy Daryl G. Education. Liberal 208 CivicEducation, Moon Virtue J.Donald andCivic Autonomy, 221 Curriculum Education.Dagger and the Richard Education onCivic 230 Reflections Some K.Minnich Transformation Elizabeth ofCurriculum Dialogue 245 TheDifficultButler E. Politicsof Johnnella and theNew CriticalPedagogy CulturalDifference Henry A.Giroux viContents Foreword Before you plunge into this collection of articles, a word r:n how this vol- ume came about might be useful. Over five years ago, a small, informal group of faculty, administrators, and students from a wide range of institu- tions began meeting to discuss a common concern with the way academia is educating young people for political responsibility, civic competence, and public leadership. The group met on a number of campuses and, occasion- ally, at the Kettering Foundation. They began to share articles that brought the problems of political education into sharper focus or offered richer insights into their nature. The members of the group came from different institutions and drew on a wide variety of experiences and intellectual tradi- tions. Their difficulty, however, was finding a vehicle for sharingan inquiry that combined so many disciplines and professions. That difficulty led to this book, which brings perspectives from many different fields to bearon one subject. Still, the group managed to create a common dialogue. In this vol- ume the group is sharing their conversations with a wider audience, welcom- ing to this exchange anyone who is concerned with preparing the nextgener- ation for public life. The articles in this volume were selected from the larger collection of materials that were exchanged in the group. They were the basis for discus- sions on what some called "civic" and others called "political" education. While the titles suggest an emphasis on education, the articles actually find the problem of political education to be more philosophic than pedagogical. Together, these essays make the claim that the current academic definition of politics is too narrowly moderntoo preoccupied withgovernments, elec- tions. and interest groupsto comprehend all that is in the political realm. The big losers in the narrow definition are citizens and the public. Citizens are reduced to political consumers or special interest advocates. The public disappears into political mythology. These articles treat the age-old political questions of howto make the many into one (without losing individual freedoms) and how to deal with values (without teaching values). They make a case for citizen participation. However, they also take us beyond these customaryways of framing the challenges of democratic politics. They invite us to reconsider the meaning of basic political terms. Is "participation" simply to be understoodas the right to vote, or is it more? Should "the political" be considered a realm of politi- vfi r cians and governments, separate from our everyday lives,or is politics a dimension of nearly everything we do? Should we think of the "public"as the antithesis of the "private" and be ever alert to protect theone from the other? Or are the public and private realms interdependent corollaries? Is politics exclusively competitive or does it have an equally important unifying function? The authors' perspectives on politics cause them to raise questions both about the role of the university and the nature of political education. Their questions go so far as to challenge the very definition of knowledge itself. David Mathews President, Kettering Foundation viiiForeword S Introduction by Bernard Murchland Mortimer Adler has said that in a democracy we have two important things in common: we are all citizens, and we are all philosophers. By this