Episode 105: Cultivating Active Citizens: Strategies for Teaching Civic Education in a Changing Landscape

This episode of the 3E Podcast discusses the importance of civic education for democracy and empowering students. Host Dr. Almitra Berry emphasizes strategies like critical thinking, media literacy and engagement with current events. However, she notes challenges from state restrictions on teaching topics related to diversity and democratic values. Dr. Berry encourages supporting civic education through teaching strategies and community involvement.

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:03

If you're a parent, teacher or school leader and you're sick and tired of the frustration, anger and unfair treatment of children at high risk in our public schools, then perhaps it's time for all of us to do something about it. In this podcast, Dr amitra Berry brings you tips, tools, strategies and tactics to build successful solutions while touching, moving and inspiring all of us to transform our schools so that every child thrives. Here's your host. Dr Berry,

Dr Almitra Berry: 0:42

welcome back, equity warriors. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of the 3e podcast. Quick shout out to new members on the Patreon channel. Thanks for subscribing there and joining the community. The rest of you. Make sure you smash that subscribe button. Share this podcast, because your subscriptions help grow the channel. Even if you don't listen to every episode, that's okay. Subscribe. You'll get the information when you're ready for it. Today, I want to talk about civics often misquoted. So let's get the fact here. At the end of the Constitutional Convention 1787 back when people like me had no power, there was a woman, a woman by the name of Elizabeth willing Powell, who asked Benjamin Franklin, well, Doctor, what have we got? A republic or a monarchy? Franklin responded without any hesitation. He said, a republic, if you can keep it. Now, I use that quote because it's often misquoted. He did not say we had a democracy. He said we had a republic. And without going into a deep dive on that, that's bonus content on our Patreon channel, democracy versus Republic. It'll be attached to this episode there for those of you who want that deep dive, we are living at a time right now where we are seeing scary things. I'll put it that way, as an adult who understands politics and the political process, civics and how this country is supposed to work as a democratic republic, it's important for our children to understand how a democratic republic is supposed to work. What are their rights? What are their responsibilities? One of my favorite things to teach when I was teaching American government was that unit, or, excuse me, well, American government, but also US history, my unit on rights and responsibilities, and it's something that's not covered often enough or well enough. So we're going to talk about some civics today. Kids, our children, you know, we jokingly say that they're going to be the ones that take care of us when we get old, not if we don't teach them how, how do they take care of us? What is the process they should be engaging in, because right now we're seeing tremendous rates of apathy among our young people. Here's the elephant that's in the room. We have two very old white men running for president, and while their visions of what this country should be are extremely different. The fact is, they are and you know, nothing against age. I'm no spring chicken, but they are old. They are old. I have tremendous respect for my elders and the wisdom that comes with a time in this country and on this earth and understanding things well. For those who have wisdom. There is someone running for president who has none, just evil, but there's no youth, and our children are not seeing themselves represented in their leaders. So they have to have an understanding of foundational knowledge, some tool skills in civics, if we expect them to continue a democratic republic. So it is important to teach civics all the time. But as it is, it is especially important to teach civics during turbulent times. So what are civics? Know Me, I never like to make an assumption that everybody understands what I'm talking about. So basic definition, civics is an intentional effort to develop our students, knowledge, skills and dispositions, those things that are needed in order for them to be active and responsible participants in a democratic society. When we're teaching civics, we should include instruction on government structures, on our constitutional system, as well as other systems, but especially here in the US, the constitutional system, the history of the Republic and the basic politics, not necessarily party politics, but understanding what is conservativism and what is liberalism? Them that there is no one cookie cutter. You're a conservative. People have a spectrum of ideas across a variety of topics, so understanding what that political spectrum is is important for our students as well. They have to have, we must develop in them critical thinking skills. And while we're doing that, we have to encourage them to participate in civics, to be engaged in the system that governs them. And when we look at K 12 civics education, it varies a lot around the country, but we should be giving our students some basic fundamental knowledge, not only about the US government, but their local and state politics. A lot of students don't understand that. You know, even school boards of education, you guys that are listening, yes, you are politicians. You are part of a political system. You run for an office, and once you hold that office, you are creating policy that impacts individuals, in this case, children. If we're going to develop critical thinking skills, our children should be able to use those skills to leverage those skills to analyze the political issues that are going on around them, and especially the ones that impact them, and without going through a litany of laws and actions and Supreme Court findings that are impacting our children, and I'm going to say especially our young girls, are women in having fewer and fewer rights, even to control their own bodies. It is important, it is critical, that they engage in an analysis of what's going on in the world around them. Unfortunately, for many of you educators, it's becoming not only touchy or sensitive, but illegal to discuss many of these things. So understand some of us have to walk a fine line. You're walking a tightrope. You want to keep your job, but at the same time you want to educate your children. So I'm hoping in this episode, and with some of the ancillary content, I can help you with with some of the skills and methods of doing that, but we want our children to have some skills based like deliberation, right to think about things and talk through things and debate things. Our children have to have media literacy. In my book that's coming out this fall, equitable classroom practices for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners got that title, I dive deep into MIDI media literacy and some of the things that you can do in your classroom, practical skills and tools for you to put to work right away in your classrooms. And we're doing book study on that and page on the Patreon channel, even in advance of the book coming out. So make sure you're tapped into that. We want our students to be informed as well as engaged. When we look at our college and career readiness standards, pull those out. Take a look. What's there? What can you leverage from the things that you have been told you must work towards to help your students develop civics literacy, because we should be making sure that they're equipped, not only with an understanding, but with those tools skills to be effective participants in civic life, in their political life, whether it's a local school board or us, Congress or presidency, even the Supreme Court. Even though we say that's not political, it is. And over time, how we educate on civics has changed tremendously. When I started thinking about and writing this episode, one of the first things that came to mind was the old Schoolhouse Rock. Anybody remember those? And the thing I was an episode I was thinking of was the I am not going to sing for you, because you all do not want to hear me sing, but I'm just a bill sitting on Capitol Hill. Remember that? Well, many of you have never heard of that, but those you young people just go ahead and Google School House Rock when I was in middle school. Those were the things we would sort of we would sing to ourselves to help us remember things for our tests, it was good civics instruction to understand how things got done, but it was put in a way that was was engaging for us, something that we could tap into. So when I think about, how do we do this, how do we get our kids involved? We have to think about holistic approaches. We have to make sure that what we're doing is interactive. We want to develop again those active, engaged citizens, not just have them open up their skulls and dump some stuff in seventh grade, back in my day, was when civics was taught. That was our seventh grade social studies class. It was civics, but all we. Did, or the majority of what we did was to focus on the structure of government. What were the institutions of government? What was the process? I'm just a bill sitting on Capitol Hill. How do I become a law? We were taught to memorize things. Who else out there had to memorize the preamble to the Constitution? You know, we the people, in order to form a more perfect union, established justice. What did that do for me, other than I can still recite the preamble to the Constitution? It was a course that relied on a textbook. It relied on lecture. It taught us to memorize stuff, and basically taught us to vote, and that was pretty much it, when I became an educator myself, thinking about that, and while I have fond memories of it, I love politics and the political process the government systems. I thought about how my students, then needed to be engaged. And so taking that broader view and having really a focus, really on critical thinking, remember, I said I did a unit rights and responsibilities, and that was in US history. Because if we're just teaching them, these are the institutions. These are the things you do. It does not help them with those critical tool skills that they need, because they don't just need knowledge. They need skills. We want our learning to be active. We want our learners to discuss and debate. They need some real world application. And it's not limited to just the social studies. ELA teachers, whether you're kindergarten or 12th grade, there is literature, there are speeches, there are writings, there are read aloud books for kindergarten, and there are first person narratives. There are historic documents that you can use, where children, your students, whatever grade they are, are analyzing the writing or just becoming engaged and interested in what's happening or what has happened in civics across history, in math, math teachers may think, well, there's no civics I can do in math. Are you freaking kidding me? What about statistics? What about polling? What about working on probability. Think about having your your your students, engaged in polling activities where they then go back and look at statistics and probability. You know, who's more likely to respond this way, they can break those things down by demographics. That's math, right? And at first, I've had science. Where do we go with science. And I thought, hello, climate change, climate science denial. What about how weather affects voter turnout? There are things you can do. Social Studies do. I even need to go there. I mean social sciences teachers, that is your lane, civics, as we're doing all of these things, as we're incorporating all of this into our teaching practices, into our lesson planning for the upcoming school year, we need to think not only about historical events, but current events, controversial issues, what's happening not only on the national level, but your local community level, and for those of you who are I'll Say overseas, not in the United States, but in Europe. There is a wave. This has been such a big year for elections across Europe and sweeping changes that are happening there. You know, is there a connection to what's happening there to what might happen here in the United States in November? A lot of times we are so, so isolationist, American centric thinking, that we are the center in the of the universe of the world and only our politics matter. That is not true, and we need to not only develop a broader view for ourselves and understanding what's going on in the world around us, but developing that same thing in our learners. So keep an eye on what's happening in the rest of the world. I'll go back to math teachers, statistics and probability. What is the likelihood based on what's happening in other places that you will see similar things happening here? I think that would be cool. Of course, I've not, and have never been a math teacher. That's always my disclaimer. If you're looking for places to get content, subscribe to Ed Week briefs. You can get topics in your inbox every single day. You can get practical, practical strategies for teaching and learning in your inbox that you can use in your classroom. Subscribe to this podcast. I have to say it again. Smash that subscribe button. Download every episode. Put it on auto download. I'll keep covering topics of equity that you can use. Give you some ideas. And of course, we've got bonus content that's going to be on the Patreon and will be on the Patreon channel, even to you. Uh, excuse me, even to this episode. So focusing on critical thinking, media literacy, civic participation. Media literacy is something that I did hit hard in the upcoming book, and we'll dig into that as well. What about service learning projects? Are you doing those? Can you incorporate those? If you're a school leader or a district leader listening to this podcast, does your district have service learning project requirements, a mandate, even for a senior project that is service learning based, what is your student governance look like? So we need to again, we need to prepare our students for a wider range of engagement beyond just voting, and as we're doing that, we need to place tremendous emphasis on civic dispositions. What does that look like? What does that mean? It means one. We need to be teaching tolerance. We need to be teaching tolerance for peoples, a variety of ideas, diverse ideas, diverse backgrounds. It doesn't mean if you are tolerant, it doesn't mean that you necessarily subscribe to all of those, but at least have the tolerance to accept that other people have diverse ideas, and it's okay for people to think differently, because in their eyes, you might be the one who is thinking differently, and you want them to tolerate your ideas. It's a two way street. I call it cognitive humility, the idea that we need to be open to other ideas, or at least the the fact that other ideas exist and your way may not be the only way. It may be the way that you were brought up with. It may be the way of your small and perhaps insulated community, but it is not the only way we need to be teaching respect for diversity, and we need to be teaching if you're here in the United States, our system is based on democratic values, we need to be teaching a commitment to democratic values. That doesn't mean Republican values versus big D, Democratic Party values, it means the values, the ideals of a democracy where people are the primary decision makers about what happens in their country. Civics education isn't a stagnant one class event. It is an ongoing process, and it extends well beyond our classrooms. But there are some challenges that are facing civics teachers. Civics educators, teachers in general, but particularly those of you in the social sciences who might have to touch on, have to teach civics. I pick on Florida and Texas quite often. It's just, you know, as I say, they give me plenty of fuel for the fire. There are restrictions on teaching civics and a lot of those related topics in those two states, but others as well. Now you know, big, big, big picture Florida. Anything that DeSantis says is is woke he has to have anti woke legislation for here in Texas. Those of you who know me know I'm here in Texas and we've got our own issues. We had a whole special called Session to discuss civics and what teachers can and cannot teach. So teachers can't discuss controversial issues of public policy or social affairs, and they can't do it in any course, not even in social studies classrooms. Schools can dismiss fire teachers for doing that. It's and it's not just in Texas and Florida, Idaho. Idaho restricts teaching critical race theory, which is not taught in K 12 education. Feel like I just have to keep saying that. But they also cannot teach quote divisive concepts. And again, if we're understanding and Teaching Tolerance and that there is a diversity of ideas, divisive concepts is in the eye of the speaker, right? It depends on who you are, whether or not something is divisive. In Oklahoma, teachers can't talk about race or gender. Teachers in Oklahoma are prohibited from teaching anything that suggests that people based on their race or sex are that they are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. You can't do that. That's banned in Oklahoma and Tennessee, very similar, no critical. Race Theory, no divisive concepts. They have a specific list of prohibited concepts, and they have penalties for schools that violate those restrictions. Up in Iowa, they are prohibited from teaching that the United States, or the state of Iowa is fundamentally or systemically racist or sexist. And this last one kind of surprised me, New Hampshire. Yeah, New Hampshire. No student or employee can be taught that they are inherently oppressive or responsible for past actions based on their race or sex. It's It amazes me how afraid, how afraid they are that if power is held by people who have been oppressed and discriminated against, that we will do the same to them that they have been doing to us for 400 plus years. So I understand, educators, you have some challenges, and I know that my list there is not all encompassing. Those the ones that came to top of mind from things that I've been looking at. So you have to navigate a potential backlash to your teaching. Which topics will be deemed controversial. How do you address those in the classroom even? How do you address them when they come up from students? You have to balance the variety of political perspectives in the classroom. But the thing is, if we use the right strategies, if we teach media literacy, then our children are prepared to have conversations, discussions and debates, without becoming emotional or intimidated or feeling that they are being viewed as an oppressor, right or racist or sexist? How do you do that? You've got to create a safe and respectful classroom environment. One of the things you can do is make sure you're using case studies or real world examples. So it's not you making something up. These should not be your ideas or your ideals, and that's why using case studies makes it a little bit safer. You want to keep discussions based in evidence, which means you need to teach things like evidence and critical thinking. So focusing again, on skills like media literacy, civil discourse is an effective strategy for you to teach civics in your classroom, and there are a lot of things that you can do in your classroom, just basic classroom activities, having debate on current issues, having students read and analyze Primary Sources and historical documents, although I will share that I was once told that I had to take the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence off of my classroom wall because of the language that was in those documents. We won't go there, but I'm going to put some classroom activities that are practical, that you can use and how to address controversial topics. I'll do that as some bonus content on the patron channel. So if you want all that, you can go there and grab it. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall told us that a democracy is ours only if we can keep it. He said, here's the quote. In order to keep it, you can't stand still. You must move, and if you don't move, they will run over you. We have to teach civics. We cannot just sit still. We cannot let our children grow up in a state of apathy to understanding their rights and their responsibilities in a democratic republic. So here's what you need to do if you're an educator, keep looking at your teaching methods, innovate, adapt, share what's successful in your classroom with your colleagues. There is a chat on Patreon for every single episode you can get into that chat. We can work through some of these things. Administrators make sure that civic education is prioritized in your curriculum. Make sure that your educators have resources and PD, that they have support for tackling subjects that might be challenging if you're a parent or a community member, engage with your schools if you're an expert in the area, volunteer advocate for robust civic education in your district. If you're a policymaker, school board members recognize what a critical role civic civics education plays in your community. You were elected. People voted for you. And if you've listened to my episode about voter apathy, you know that school board members win with a very, very small portion of the vote. We need to make sure that our children understand they must vote all the way down tickets. Right? Do? If you're a student, might be rare, but there may be a student or two listening. Maybe your parents are making you listen to this episode. Make sure that you learn what your civic responsibilities are. Learn how to have a respectful dialog, ask questions, seek out diverse perspectives, start your own podcast, practicing active citizenship, teaching civics, remember, isn't just about understanding government structure, it's about empowering our next generation to be active and inform participants. So I want to encourage every single person who's listening to this to take one action this week to support civic education, whether it's trying a new teaching strategy, or working one into your plans for the upcoming year, whether it's writing to your local representative about the importance of civic education, or just writing to a local representative about something you believe in, about schools, about teaching and learning, or maybe it's just having a discussion about current events with other people. Every single action you take counts, then join me again next episode. If you've got a question or a topic you'd like to have covered, or even a special request, remember, you can text that to me now, just look down in the notes for the link. I do want to hear your thoughts, your stories, and remember, don't worry about the things you cannot change. Change the things you can no longer accept, and that's a wrap for today's episode of the 3e podcast. Now here's how you can make a real difference. First, smash that subscribe button. It's free, it's easy, just do it. Second, share the show with anyone you know who cares about education. And third, consider becoming a supporter of the show. Together, we're not just talking about change, we're making it happen. Make a donation today to be part of that mission and change, and I'll catch you next time you.