History 485 Democracy Notes
Mimi Stern
This Week in Higher Ed
Missouri:
Looking Towards the Future! Democracy and Justice in Higher Education
Facilitators: Helen and Lillian
Terms/Definitions
To what extent should civic skills and social responsibility be a purpose for higher education?
What is the relationship between the push for multiculturalism/diversity and the educational goals of the university?
DO YOU SEE THE OPERATIONS OF DEMOCRACY IN THIS CLASS OR IN OTHER CLASSES?
IF YOU WERE THE OMNIPOTENT ENTITY THAT IS HIGHER ED, HOW WOULD YOU ESTABLISH A DEMOCRATIC CLASSROOM? PURPOSE, GOALS, ADMISSION
Mimi Stern
This Week in Higher Ed
Missouri:
- questions of race and diversity on campus
- role of the football team → money, finances, the green line
- $1 million to BY if they didn’t play
- plus any sales, etc
- it was the coach and the rest of the team was the point of progression to Tim Wolfe’s stepping down
- the extent to which football teams will begin to set a labor union model: acting like a labor union where it hurts (the college) the most
- timing, critical moments
- free speech and journalism (“weaponizing” safe spaces, Atlantic), “we need some muscle”
- trust, confidence, and higher education (ties into Yale and Christakises), culture of academic life
- where does the power rest? trustees?
- at an alumni event, the invited speaker called a black woman “the savage”, the President made a comment about free speech (“can’t prevent what speakers are going to say”)
- students are looking to make a vote of no confidence
- faculty started a petition, expressing displeasure with the President
Looking Towards the Future! Democracy and Justice in Higher Education
Facilitators: Helen and Lillian
Terms/Definitions
- democracy: rule of/by the people
- system of governance that implies equal representation and participation
- majority rules, everyone truly equal, opportunity to participate
- in many places, democracy is radical. In the United States, its idealized version is seen as a given good.
- equality before the law for citizens, not equality
- majority rule, minority rights
- system of governance that implies equal representation and participation
- public good: nonrival and nonexcludable vs. the good of the public: meeting society’s needs, producing better people
- benefiting society as opposed to benefiting the individual
- contributions and benefits
- Yes!
- analogy of a parent: all parents are imperfect, but they do their best to raise their children to be good (parents?) (people?).
- transparency is key towards moving towards democracy. Need brutal honesty about issues on the table in order to have a clear discussion about them.
- But: what is a democratic institution?
- Deep Springs College
- We’re getting a limited pool of opinions. The best education draws on a wider distribution of opinions. (Dewey - instead of having society reproduce itself through education, strive to have education create something better).
- McPhereson: bringing in ideal vs. nonideal democracy: in this reality, create a modified system that brings us closer to that ideal.
- education for democracy: higher ed can train for democracy and model democracy
- what would a democratic institution even look like?
- need long-term investment to combat turnover
- learning the ways things are dysfunctional is education for democracy
To what extent should civic skills and social responsibility be a purpose for higher education?
- civic skills: knowing how the government works, how to make an impact. This should not be a responsibility of higher ed, but of K-12 education.
- social responsibility: should this also be K-12? It seems that it’s the responsibility of higher education, but how can we teach some social responsibility in a reasonable way in true public education
- depends on discipline, field:: being an engaged member of that field vs. being socially responsible with the outcomes of your work
- We don’t want civic engagement should be taught the way faculty want it to be taught because each person comes to SR/civic engagement in their own way:
- the WHY of these learning outcomes is vital
- learning outcomes: how can you document that? what are civic skills (understanding the Constitution, the way the political system works, learning how to debate/discuss). what about K-12? That’s where most of the civic socialization happens. And that’s where it should be.
- seems like we’re getting schooled in social responsibility here, but not as much socialization into civic skills
- research outcomes: social responsibility is very important! it should happen!
- social responsibility is very nebulous
- two ways to deny social responsibility:
- Social responsibilities don’t belong in scientific research.
- Basic science (made without a goal in mind, becomes a public good - like electricity) vs. targeted research. The idea that we can do things without understanding how they will impact society.
- We bring social responsibility to the science, math, etc.
What is the relationship between the push for multiculturalism/diversity and the educational goals of the university?
- McPhereson, marginal inclusion doesn’t make an institution more diverse, it still pushes black students to the margin
- evades acknowledging role in perpetuating racial injustices, history
- black students are not here for the betterment of the education of white students
- faculty diversity and faculty push for “diversity” curriculum
- burdens placed on underrepresented faculty and staff - article link to be sent around
- interactional diversity & program needs vs institutional needs
DO YOU SEE THE OPERATIONS OF DEMOCRACY IN THIS CLASS OR IN OTHER CLASSES?
- This is a modified environment: given diversity of peers, changes power dynamics and changes conversations
- Dewey: the acknowledgement of the experiences that students bring to the classroom, represented through response papers
- classroom is “blessed” with the student-side, or, experienced perspective from a career in higher ed
- Are the stakes higher in this class? It’s very open!
- Is it more democratic? We’re taking a lot of different viewpoints as if we’re all meeting on the same level to talk about a topic.
- We’re all experiencing this as higher education, so our opinions are more equal in this class than in others.
IF YOU WERE THE OMNIPOTENT ENTITY THAT IS HIGHER ED, HOW WOULD YOU ESTABLISH A DEMOCRATIC CLASSROOM? PURPOSE, GOALS, ADMISSION
- What could the future be? What is the subject that we’re considering? What is our role in defining what’s important?
- Higher education is too big
- If we decide what should be taught, we’re then getting rid of democracy
- Is a more democratic classroom necessarily a better classroom?
- Thinking as one ages, experiences as fuel for an imagination: ideal, naive? Or building off of tangible experiences that alumni, fac, staff have. How can we have an overlap between imagination and the maturity of adulthood?
- Teacher-student partnerships → looking at learning as a process that is shaped by different perspectives, and by valuing different perspectives.
- Intergenerational dialogue, service learning, and classrooms that incorporate community elements.
- Town-gown, taxing and non-profit institutions, education and the physical space and operations of the college as a member of its community
- We live under a model where elite universities are like the remote electricity power stations: rather than every community having its own generator, we have these big “star” ones, that provide public good but also problems.
- Town-gown, taxing and non-profit institutions, education and the physical space and operations of the college as a member of its community
- Models for justice: if education is a lifelong event, the model for justice that you want as a learning outcome must be practiced.
- The hope: Steve models a phenomenal model of education with facilitators and notetakers and writing and sharing and interfacing with ideas and readings.