Building a Civic Vision for Education

by Matt Doran

If we want to find enduring relevance in education, we must draw from the deep cultural foundations of history and philosophy, not economic and business principles. Education is a social institution with a civic mission. It's not enough to define what we want students to know and be able to do. We must also wrestle with the question: What do we want to students to value? College and Career Readiness is a necessary, but not a sufficient mission for schools. A more comprehensive vision needs to include College, Career, and Civic Life Readiness.

The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools defines civic dispositions as a concern for others' rights and welfare, fairness, reasonable levels of trust, and a sense of public duty. Civic dispositions are crucial to democratic character formation, and the sustainability and improvement of constitutional democracy. If standards must drive our work, then we need a set of civic anchor standards to match those that define critical knowledge and skills. One good option is to pair some of the indicators from the C3 Framework with the Social Justice Standards from Teaching Tolerance.

From the C3 Framework:

Dimension 2. Civics: Participation and Deliberation: Applying Civic Virtues and Democratic Principles 

• D2.Civ.7.9-12. Apply civic virtues and democratic principles when working with others.
• D2.Civ.8.9-12. Evaluate social and political systems in different contexts, times, and places, that promote civic virtues and enact democratic principles. 
• D2.Civ.9.9-12. Use appropriate deliberative processes in multiple settings.
• D2.Civ.10.9-12. Analyze the impact and the appropriate roles of personal interests and perspectives on the application of civic virtues, democratic principles, constitutional rights, and human rights.

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Dimension 4. Taking Informed Action

• D4.6.9-12. Use disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to understand the characteristics and causes of local, regional, and global problems; instances of such problems in multiple contexts; and challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address these problems over time and place.
• D4.7.9-12. Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning
• D4.8.9-12. Apply a range of deliberative and democratic strategies and procedures to make decisions and take action in their classrooms, schools, and out-of-school civic contexts.

From the Teaching Tolerance Social Justice Standards:

​Identity Anchor Standards

• 1. Students will develop positive social identities based on their membership in multiple groups in society.
• 2. Students will develop language and historical and cultural knowledge that affirm and accurately describe their membership in multiple identity groups.
• 3. Students will recognize that people’s multiple identities interact and create unique and complex individuals.
• 4. Students will express pride, confidence and healthy self-esteem without denying the value and dignity of other people.
• 5. Students will recognize traits of the dominant culture, their home culture and other cultures and understand how they negotiate their own identity in multiple spaces.

​Diversity Anchor Standards

• 6. Students will express comfort with people who are both similar to and different from them and engage respectfully with all people.
• 7. Students will develop language and knowledge to accurately and respectfully describe how people (including themselves) are both similar to and different from each other and others in their identity groups.
• 8. Students will respectfully express curiosity about the history and lived experiences of others and will exchange ideas and beliefs in an open-minded way.
• 9. Students will respond to diversity by building empathy, respect, understanding and connection.
• 10. Students will examine diversity in social, cultural, political and historical contexts rather than in ways that are superficial or oversimplified.

Justice Anchor Standards

• 11. Students will recognize stereotypes and relate to people as individuals rather than representatives of groups.
• 12. Students will recognize unfairness on the individual level (e.g., biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g., discrimination).
• 13. Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.
• 14. Students will recognize that power and privilege influence relationships on interpersonal, intergroup and institutional levels and consider how they have been affected by those dynamics.
• 15. Students will identify figures, groups, events and a variety of strategies and philosophies relevant to the history of social justice around the world.

​Action Anchor Standards

• 16. Students will express empathy when people are excluded or mistreated because of their identities and concern when they themselves experience bias.
• 17. Students will recognize their own responsibility to stand up to exclusion, prejudice and injustice.
• 18. Students will speak up with courage and respect when they or someone else has been hurt or wronged by bias.
• 19. Students will make principled decisions about when and how to take a stand against bias and injustice in their everyday lives and will do so despite negative peer or group pressure.
• 20. Students will plan and carry out collective action against bias and injustice in the world and will evaluate what strategies are most effective.