Promoting Democracy: Fostering Skills for Better Civil Discourse
I wrote this piece following an act of political violence that both shook higher education and contributed to the growing call to prepare our students for productive conversations across disagreement. I want to share the piece at the start of this collection for a couple of reasons: first, it motivates dialogue & deliberation as skills for a functioning democracy. Second, it underscores a key prerequisite: that we “lay a foundation of instructor care and classroom community before we ask students to take on this challenging, sometimes vulnerable work.”
Last October 31st, five days before the 2024 election, I took my kids trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Among the eight-foot skeletons and pumpkins in Detroit Lions gear, many houses sported yard signs supporting candidates for the U.S. presidency. My children knew who I’d vote for that Tuesday, so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when these guileless six-year-olds booed—actually booed—a yard sign for the other candidate on their way to ask the sign-owner for treats.
It was there, in the shadow of a contentious election with a crew of cute, filterless superheroes, I thought of John Dewey’s reminder that “democracy needs to be born anew every generation.” Education, he argued, is how we cultivate it. At the University of Michigan, the role of “developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future” is at the forefront of our mission. It also guides CRLT and the Edward Ginsberg Center in our Promoting Democracy Teaching Series collaboration.