Abstract
Sometimes it feels like you cannot go more than a day without being reminded of how divided our country and world are (if you can even make it that long). From the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and it's disproportionate impact on communities of color, to continued efforts to dismantle voting rights for minority communities, and the ongoing demand for racial and economic justice and equity, it's clear we are living through unprecedented times. With these challenges occurring in every community across the country, we turn to various institutions to propose solutions. One institution we rely heavily on to solve the issues of today (and tomorrow) is education, democratic civic education in particular.
Camicia and Knowles (2021) address these issues of power inequities in their book, Education for Democracy: A Renewed Approach to Civic Inquiries for Social Justice. The authors argue that we have grown to associate democratic education with neutral deliberation toward a common good. But the reality is that education and democracy is never neutral, and there will never be an agreed upon common good, for the current perception of the common good favors those in/with power. As Camicia and Knowles assert, this deliberative approach to democratic education falls short because it ignores power relations that prevent social and economic justice and equity.
Working from this understanding, placing power at the center of it's framework, Education for Democracy's goal is to propose a critical democratic model of education that “moves beyond idealized notions of citizenship and centers aspects of society that prevent political, social, and economic equity” (Camicia & Knowles, p. 10). Camicia and Knowles (2021) aim to do this by highlighting frameworks and methods that “facilitate civic inquiries for social justice and education for democracy” (p. 11). As the authors repeatedly assert, democracy is radical and about challenging hierarchies. So, through providing our students with opportunities to engage with and challenge current power structures, we truly partake in education for democracy.
Education for Democracy spends considerable time unpacking the wider historical context of democratic education. The first three chapters of the book go through the history of democracy and democratic education, the problem with binary thinking in democratic education, and the non-neutral positionality of education. These chapters also ask the reader to confront how current power structure in our society and education privilege certain perspectives and experiences over others. Each of these lead to the introduction of a critical democratic education framework that connects knowledge and power. Chapters four and five unpack this framework and examine the need for critical media literacy in all democratic education. Chapter six concludes the book with additional encouragement to include diverse perspectives as counter-narratives to the dominant narratives central in most democratic education, pushing the field toward a more socially just and equitable positionality.
The critical framework proposed by Camicia and Knowles implements Young's (2002) attributes of inclusive democracy - greeting, narrative, and rhetoric - to further discuss their aims of critical education for democracy that dismantles power inequities. Greeting requires students to acknowledge that certain perspectives, experiences, and lives are privileged over others. Furthermore, students must “seek understanding of diverse ways of being and understanding,” to challenge this unjust power relationship (Camicia and Knowles, 2021, p. 81). Narrative in this framework focuses on counter-narrative. Counter-narratives come from the reality that certain perspectives are valued over others, which necessitates the inclusion of counter-narratives that challenge those perspectives, to promote critical education for democracy and social justice. Rhetoric is “the discourses that influence what perspectives are recognized and what perspectives are ignored or unrecognized” (p. 83). When students are taught about rhetoric, they are better able to recognize, complicate, and deconstruct dominant narratives. Each of these components support the process of critical democratic education by complicating the dynamics and perspectives presented during deliberation and discussion in social studies classrooms.
To place this framework in a classroom context, the authors outline three traditional models of deliberation: Structured Academic Controversies, Take-a-Stand, and Deliberation. These models function as starting points in civic education that aim to promote social justice and equity. Using the framework addressed above (Young, 2002), the authors strengthen these models of deliberation through highlighting the need to expand the “choices” students have in deliberation, rejecting binary options with the inclusion of counter-narratives that center marginalized, disregarded perspectives. Power dynamics become central conversations in these social studies deliberations. As the authors posit, confronting power hierarchies is the work of democratic education.
Using this book in the classroom
Looking at the book holistically, I appreciated the time spent contextualizing the discussion of democratic education. It is important to know where an argument is situated within the literature. With that said, I found the book lacking in in-depth discussion of approaches to civic inquiries, which the title suggests was the authors’ goal. Chapter 4 is the only chapter dedicated to methods of instruction, and these methods were broadly focused on deliberation and discussion. I left this book unclear as to what the authors meant by civic inquiries. Additional time spent defining civic inquiries, like the authors did with democratic education, would have been helpful in making the book more practitioner friendly.
Similarly, the proposed framework was occasionally hard to follow. As a classroom teacher, I would have had an easier time following if each of the three instructional methods were broken down using the Young (2002) framework. Using the same example for each portion of the framework could also have been advantageous and would help ease transferability of the model into social studies classrooms. With that said, the overall goal of the framework, complicating dominant narratives with inclusion of counter-narratives that emphasize, deconstruct, and challenge current power dynamics toward a more equitable place, must be present in critical democratic education in the K-12 social studies classroom. To truly reflect our multifaceted society and democracy, counter-narratives must be a central component of civic education; as a practitioner, I appreciate the authors for including counter-narratives in their discussion.
Another strength of this book is the inclusion of critical media literacy. As the authors assert, critical media literacy must be meaningfully incorporated in critical education for democracy. Since digital media is central to our lives, we must give students opportunities to understand and unpack these sources of information. Not to do so furthers the power gaps between communities.
Where the history of democratic education and the practitioner collide
As a whole, Education for Democracy provides a detailed overview of the history, perspectives, and approaches to democratic education. Classroom teachers who want to better understand why the current system sustains unquitable power dynamics would benefit from reading this book. But, importantly, the authors go further than simply critiquing the current system. Camicia and Knowles (2021) propose a new framework that rejects binary discussions that aim to reach an agreed-upon common good, and instead emphasize the inclusion of silenced voices and experiences to make the system more socially just and equitable. Teachers, teacher educators, and curriculum developers would all benefit from reading this book because of the focus on understanding inequitable power relations and how to challenge them in K-12 social studies classrooms, and society at large. Using a lens of power, Education for Democracy introduces a new critical democratic education framework, complicating students’ understanding of the democratic process. As the authors assert, “democracy emerged in common discourse as a method of countering elite dominance. Therefore, democracy is inherently a radical idea that advocates for a more equitable and just society” (Camicia and Knowles, 2021, p. 7). While our content and methods are critical, Education for Democracy centers on praxis, helping the reader remember and consider why we teach social studies from a position of critical civic education.
Footnotes
I have no conflict of interest to disclose.