The Dialogue of Democracy
THE SOCIAL STUDIES n a recent journal entry, Paul, a student teacher in my university social studies seminar, reported on his success in conducting a discussion with his eighth graders on a bill proposed in the Virginia legislature to fine people wearing pants so low that their underwear showed. Justifiably so, Paul was delighted that his prepared questions had triggered a thoughtful discussion about a controversial issue for almost thirty minutes in his civics class. He was particularly proud that his students had connected the issue to questions of civil liberties. Yet, for Paul, the discussion was not part of his core curriculum but an appendage to his lesson on a Friday after his students has finished their multiple-choice test. Paul’s story is not an unusual one. Even though social studies teachers may value it, the discussion of controversial issues is rare in most social studies classrooms. Nystrand, Gamoran, and Carbonaro (1998) reported that 90 percent of the instruction they observed in more than one hundred middle and high school classes involved no discussion at all. What discussion did occur was short in length, not containing the characteristics of a sustained deliberation on an important issue. What teachers cite as discussion is in fact often recitation (Larson 1999). Conducting engaging and thoughtful discussion in any classroom requires a well-prepared, highly skilled teacher and students knowledgeable not only about the content germane to the issue but also about the rules and guidelines for participating in civil discourse. It is not an easy undertaking. Educators have long advocated and continue to advocate that discussion among students in school is vital to the democratic ideal. Dewey (1916) contended that democracy was more than a form of government but a “mode of associated living, of conjoined communicated experience” that required interaction between social groups in the public setting found in schools. Drawing from Dewey, Parker asserts, “interaction in schools can help students enter the social consciousness of puberty and develop the habits of thinking and caring necessary for public life” (2005, 348). He defines this interaction as public talk and deliberation in schools about common problems. For Dewey and Parker, preparing students to discuss public issues lies at the core of democracy.