Session 06 Going further with civics ed Stances

Session 06 Going further with civics ed: Stances, resources Dr. Hammond Middle & Sec Social Studies Spring, 2020

Checking in • Turning in fieldwork update?

Civics ed: What we go through last week… • “Civics is special” • Two sample civics ed materials

Civics is special, #1 “The primary purpose of social studies is to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world. ” (NCSS)

Civics is special, #2

What were our sample civics ed lessons from last week? How do they apply to our ‘Three Stances’ framework?

Traditional (? ) Disciplinary Progressive / Community –oriented /

Let’s try another activity • “Bill of Rights Bingo!” …Traditional? Disciplinary? Civic-oriented?

Civics education should focus on behaving like a good citizen: Loyalty, obedience, and pro-social habits (or Traditionalist character education, violence prevention, etc. ) Disciplinarian Civics education is an introduction to political science: Know the formal and informal structures of government, know its history and actions, consider the role of political parties, etc. Students can rehearse these behaviors by engaging in mock elections, visiting government offices, etc. Students can act as miniature political scientists by polling, analyzing political speech, etc. Two guiding principles are 1. Mindfulness (recognizing that every decision has a civic component) 2. Commitment to social justice Two tactics to enact these principles are • PRACTICE self-government • QUESTION the existing status quo Community – Oriented

Traditional (? ) Disciplinary Progressive / Community –oriented / How are we doing on stances? Anything Civic. Oriented?

What’s so special about civics? #4 There is a value-proposition at its heart Idiotic in its origin is not what it means to us today…. It is an ancient Greek term…which means private, separate, self-centered-selfish. This conception of idiocy achieves its force when contrasted with polites (political) or public. …'If a man's conduct and discourse ceased to be politic it became idiotic--self-centered, unregardful of his neighbour's need, …and without consequence therefore in his neighbour's eyes' (Parker, 2003, pp. 2 -3)

What’s so special about civics? #5 It gets to ALL THREE of Bloom’s Taxonomies

Civics & values Democratic Behaviors Democratic Dispositions • • • Deliberating Voting Dispositions Values Knowledge Community Service and Action Civil Responsible Lawful Courageous Fair Honest (Both from Parker, 2005) (Are there equivalent historical behaviors? Historical dispostions? )

Taxonomy of Civic Ed (adapted from Westheimer & Kahne, 2004) Knowledgeable Citizen Descrip. Knows structure of government (personnel, processes) Knows issues Sample Action Reading newspaper articles about local food drive Core Social problems are not Assumps. my responsbility Personally Responsible Citizen Participatory Citizen Justice-oriented Citizen Acts responsibly in local community Works and pays taxes Obeys laws Recycles Gives blood Volunteers Active member of community organizations Organizes community efforts Knows how govt agencies work Knows strategies for accomplishing collective tasks Critically assesses social, political, and economic structures Seeks out and addresses areas of injustice Knows about democratic social movements and how to effect systemic change Donates to local food drive Helps to organize a food drive Explores why people are hungry and acts to solve root causes To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must actively participate and take leadership To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must question, debate, and change established systems

Taxonomy of Civic Ed (adapted from Westheimer & Kahne, 2004) Knowledgeable Citizen Descrip. Knows structure of government (personnel, processes) Knows issues Sample Action Reading newspaper articles about local food drive Core Social problems are not Assumps. my responsbility Personally Responsible Citizen Participatory Citizen Justice-oriented Citizen Acts responsibly in local community Works and pays taxes Obeys laws Recycles Gives blood Volunteers Active member of community organizations Organizes community efforts Knows how govt agencies work Knows strategies for accomplishing collective tasks Critically assesses social, political, and economic structures Seeks out and addresses areas of injustice Knows about democratic social movements and how to effect systemic change Donates to local food drive Helps to organize a food drive Explores why people are hungry and acts to solve root causes To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must actively participate and take leadership To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must question, debate, and change established systems

Taxonomy of Civic Ed (adapted from Westheimer & Kahne, 2004) Knowledgeable Citizen Descrip. Knows structure of government (personnel, processes) Knows issues Sample Action Reading newspaper articles about local food drive Core Social problems are not Assumps. my responsbility Personally Responsible Citizen Participatory Citizen Justice-oriented Citizen Acts responsibly in local community Works and pays taxes Obeys laws Recycles Gives blood Volunteers Active member of community organizations Organizes community efforts Knows how govt agencies work Knows strategies for accomplishing collective tasks Critically assesses social, political, and economic structures Seeks out and addresses areas of injustice Knows about democratic social movements and how to effect systemic change Donates to local food drive Helps to organize a food drive Explores why people are hungry and acts to solve root causes To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must actively participate and take leadership To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must question, debate, and change established systems

Taxonomy of Civic Ed (adapted from Westheimer & Kahne, 2004) Knowledgeable Citizen Descrip. Knows structure of government (personnel, processes) Knows issues Sample Action Reading newspaper articles about local food drive Core Social problems are not Assumps. my responsibility Personally Responsible Citizen Participatory Citizen Justice-oriented Citizen Acts responsibly in local community Works and pays taxes Obeys laws Recycles Gives blood Volunteers Active member of community organizations Organizes community efforts Knows how govt agencies work Knows strategies for accomplishing collective tasks Critically assesses social, political, and economic structures Seeks out and addresses areas of injustice Knows about democratic social movements and how to effect systemic change Donates to local food drive Helps to organize a food drive Explores why people are hungry and acts to solve root causes To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must actively participate and take leadership To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must question, debate, and change established systems

Taxonomy of Civic Ed (adapted from Westheimer & Kahne, 2004) Knowledgeable Citizen Descrip. Knows structure of government (personnel, processes) Knows issues Sample Action Reading newspaper articles about local food drive Core Social problems are not Assumps. my responsibility Personally Responsible Citizen Acts responsibly in local community Works and pays taxes Obeys laws Recycles Gives blood Volunteers Participatory Citizen Active member of community organizations Organizes community efforts Knows how govt agencies work Knows strategies for accomplishing collective tasks Justice-oriented Citizen Critically assesses social, political, and economic structures Seeks out and addresses areas of injustice Knows about democratic social movements and how to effect systemic change Where do the PDE standards lead? Donates to local food drive Helps to organize a food drive Explores why people are hungry and acts to solve root causes To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must actively participate and take leadership To solve social problems and improve society, citizens must question, debate, and change established systems

So how can we get civics ed to (? ) Disciplinary be, well, Traditional Civics-Oriented? Progressive / Community –oriented / Hint: It’s all about VALUES!!!

Civics-Oriented civics ed • Exploring social justice…through a familiar topic: Rawls’ “Veil of Ignorance” prompt…using school district data?

Civics-Oriented civics ed • Exploring social justice…through a familiar topic: Rawls’ “Veil of Ignorance” prompt…using school district data? • More exploration of social justice, this time on an international scale: Gap. Minder. org, particularly their ‘Dollar Street’ project

Civics-Oriented civics ed • Exploring social justice…through a familiar topic: Rawls’ “Veil of Ignorance” prompt…using school district data? • More exploration of social justice, this time on an international scale: Gap. Minder. org, particularly their ‘Dollar Street’ project • Less social justice-driven: School board simulation

Crown jewel of civic ed: Project Citizen!

Clearly, civics is special… …why? Answer: It’s got electrolytes!

And time to check on our civics ed methods toolbox • • Image markup (diagrams, photos) Mock elections, mock polling Bill of Rights bingo! Examining school data Mock school board simulation Project Citizen (more to come – the optional readings offer two new approaches)

And a reminder about microteaching • When is it? • What is it? • Why is it? • Whaddya gonna do? ? ?

Time permitting: Computational thinking & social studies… specifically civics Two very disciplinary things • Women in US House of Representatives • [ And if you liked that: You can do the same thing with LGBTQ members in the House…. ] • Minority power in the Senate (Main idea: Data is part of social studies; let’s learn how to teach with it! Our comp thinking approach aims to be a heuristic for data-driven lessons, serving same function as a primary source heuristic in a sourcework lesson)

For next session (Wed, 4 Mar) • Reading • • • Civics standards: PDE, C 3 – read and mark up! Westheimer & Kahne, 2004 Westheimer, 2009 Optional: Heilman, 2010; Passe, 2010 Watch some Project Citizen videos!! • Assignments • Complete and turn in Course Plan #2 • Start thinking about microteaching! When you want to do it, what you want to teach