CS II.2 - C.McTighe & K.Hovland

Caryn McTighe Musil and Kevin HovlandAssociation of American Colleges and Universities

International Association of Universities

November 29, 2012

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT, EDUCATION FOR

DEMOCRACY, AND GLOBAL COMPETENCES:

HIGHER EDUCATION’S CRITICAL MISSION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, WWW.AACU.ORG

A GLOBAL CIVICS?

[I]n order to navigate our global interdependence, we need processes where we all think through our own responsibilities toward other fellow humans and discuss our answers with our peers. A conversation about a global civics is indeed needed, and university campuses are ideal venues for these conversations to start. . . we should not wait any longer to start it.

Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari


A Nation of Spectators, 1998

“WE BELIEVE THAT ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY IS IMPORTANT BUT MUST NOT BE CONFUSED WITH CIVIC HEALTH.”


THREE GOALS FOR THIS SESSION

• Describe the US context for efforts to redefine questions of educational quality by linking to the civic purposes of college.

• Engage participants in conversation about similar efforts around the world and/or the barriers to such efforts.

• Share examples of how colleges and universities are designing curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities to match their commitments to democratic engagement.


THREADED DISCUSSIONS ON ENGAGEMENT, DEMOCRACY, AND GLOBAL LEARNING

• Association of American Colleges and Universities

• Tri-National Seminar in 90s with India, South Africa, and the US funded by the Ford Foundation

• International Consortium on Higher Education, Civic Responsibility, and Democracy with the Council of Europe

• International Association of Universities


A PROPITIOUS MOMENT TO SEIZE

Democracy can survive only as strong democracy, secured not by great leaders but by competent, responsible citizens . . . . And citizens are certainly not born, but made as a consequence of civic education and political engagement in a free polity.

--Benjamin Barber


U.S. TRENDS THAT HAVE TURNED CAMPUS LIFE INTO A PUBLIC COMMONS

• From monocultural space to multicultural space

• From access for the very few to access for the majority

• From talking about democracy to doing democracy

• From reaching out to the community to being part of the community, both local and global

• From thinking of global as external and distinct to recognizing the interwoven global elements of the curriculum, campus life, and scholarship


Civic

Diversity

Civic

Global

DiversityCAMPUS


CAMPUS

LOCAL COMMUNITY AND NATION

GLOBE


AAC&U’S LEAP--COLLEGE LEARNING FOR THE NEW GLOBAL CENTURY

• The Essential Learning Outcomes

• The LEAP Principles of Excellence


URGENT GLOBAL CHALLENGES REQUIRING INFORMED ACTION

• Poverty and structural violence• Civil wars and global terror• Environmental sustainability• Illiteracy and inadequate education• Gender inequities, human trafficking, violence

against women• Refugees, immigration, dislocation• Disease, health care, immunizations


GROUP DISCUSSION

• What issues or comments in this first part of our discussion resonated or differed dramatically from your institution or country?

• How are you defining the essential learning for a high-quality college degree?

• What strategies have you employed to make higher education a more valuable resource for critical discernment, perspective-taking, and collective problem solving through and across difference?


A CONSENSUS IN U.S. ABOUT AN ESSENTIAL LEARNING OUTCOME

• Personal and Social Responsibility (PSR)

-- Civic knowledge and engagement—local and global

-- Diversity knowledge and intercultural competence

-- Ethical reasoning and action

-- Foundations and skills for lifelong learning

Anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges


DO STUDENTS SAY COLLEGE CONTRIBUTES TO THEIR CIVIC GROWTH?


KEY FINDINGS FROM AAC&U PERSONAL AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INVENTORY (PSRI)

• Across all categories, students and campus professionals strongly agree that personal and social responsibility should be a major focus of a college education.

• Across all groups surveyed, they also strongly agree, however, that there is a clear gap between what should be and what actually is.


TROUBLING SIGNS IN U.S. DEMOCRACY

• Resurgent nativism and anti-immigrant attitudes and policies

• Dynamically shifting racial categories even in the midst of intensified racial segregation

• Inflammatory, vitriolic public discourse with little regard for accuracy or facts

• Dysfunctional Congress and many state legislatures

• Assault on public, collective responsibilities and campaign to affirm the individual as the carrier of democracy and business as its guardian


BACHELOR’S DEGREE ATTAINMENT BY RACE 25-29 YEAR OLDS

White, 34%Black, 18%Hispanic, 11%0%

20%

40%


BACHELOR’S DEGREE ATTAINMENT BY FAMILY INCOME BY AGE 24

Top Income Quartile, 75.0%

Third Quartile, 27.7%

Second Quartile, 13.2%Bottom

Quartile, 8.6%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%


KEY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

1. Foster a CIVIC ETHOS across all parts of the campus and educational culture.

2. Make CIVIC LITERACY a core expectation for all students.

3. Practice CIVIC INQUIRY across all fields of study.

4. Advance CIVIC ACTION through transformative partnerships, at home and abroad.


THE GOOD NEWS:

• The foundation has already been partially laid

• In the curriculum

• In new civic pedagogies

• In campus life

• In campus/community partnership and engagement in collective problem solving with others


THE BAD NEWS:

• It is• Random

• Largely uncharted

• Lacking signage

• Without sufficient progression over time

• Optional

• Available to only some students


THE EMERGING DESIGNS OF 21ST CENTURYLIBERAL EDUCATION

• Curricular civic pathways• Making civic and global literacy a core

expectation for all students in general education programs

• Integrating civic and global inquiry into a central field of study


OTHER DESIGNS TO BUILD UPON

• Powerful civic/global pedagogies

• Intergroup and deliberative dialogue

• Service Learning

• Collective problem solving


STUDENT LIFE AS ARENA FOR “DOING DEMOCRACY”

• Student organizations

• Residential life activities

• Student-led civic projects

• Student activism on and off campus


INNOVATIONS ON THE EDGES: NEW DEMOCRATIC SPACES

• Advancing Collaborative, Generative Civic Partnerships and Alliances Integrated as Dimension of Learning, Scholarship, and Sustainable Development• From charity to reciprocity to generative

partnership


Otis is training us to use the skills they have taught us to solve the world’s problems. We work together and learn from each other, because we can’t save the world on our own.

--Student

Otis College of Art and Design Student

Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Scholar and Director of Civic Learning and Democracy Initiatives

[email protected]

Kevin Hovland, Senior Director of Global Learning and Curricular Change

[email protected]

Association of American Colleges and Universities

www.aacu.org

To download or order A Crucible Moment, see:http://www.aacu.org/civic_learning/crucible/index.cfm

Also see AAC&U quarterly Diversity & Democracy:

http://www.diversityweb.org/DiversityDemocracy/index.cfm

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.aacu.org/

http://www.aacu.org/civic_learning/crucible/index.cfm





CS II.2 - C.McTighe & K.Hovland

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