“Activism, Power & Identity”' is a culturally-sustaining, civics curricular intervention in a time of socio-political upheaval. Harkening back to Septima Clark’s Citizenship Schools and SNCC’s Freedom Schools, students co-create an anti-oppressive educational space that centers analyzing their positionality within the US political system alongside enacting their own freedom dreams. This workshop will share historically and culturally-responsive pedagogical frameworks, example lesson plans, and whole-school engagement strategies to successfully implement critical civics curriculum. This session is geared towards social studies educators, curriculum specialists, and others who will gain (1) pedagogical analysis to situate critical culturally sustaining civics curriculum in our current time, (2) tools to cultivate family, educator and administrative buy-in, and (3) space to freedom dream their own interventions in their schools and communities.
In this session, we will share the journey that San Francisco University High School (SFUHS) is on to become a school that teaches students to engage in discourse across difference and support teachers in developing classroom lessons about controversial issues. In the 2023-2024 school year, SFUHS became disabled by the conflict in Israel and Gaza and shifted away from teaching into its mission. Rather than retreating, school leaders made the decision to lean hard into the lessons of the 2024 school year to transform our school culture into being a school that not only supported discourse across difference, but brought along our board of trustees, families, students and faculty as part of this transformational work. We have engaged in teacher training, student workshops, parent education and policy change to become a school that shows up best when learning about controversial issues and fostering a supportive environment in which students and teachers can engage together safely.
Teaching students how to enter conversations with curiosity and humility grounds everything we do in schools. In particularly fraught times, these skills and competencies counter contempt and inspire students to seek a deeper understanding of the people around them. (1) As much as we try to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals whose values and views support our own, it’s impossible (and perhaps boring!) to imagine a life that doesn’t offer intellectual challenge. Even so, we go to great lengths to insulate ourselves from opposing perspectives by curating our news, carefully selecting which information we are exposed to, how it is analyzed, and by whom. Social media amplifies our tendency toward echo chambers by employing algorithms that only expose us to ideas and people that align with our beliefs. (2) A 2022 Stanford study concluded that the resulting polarization and partisanship are having disastrous consequences for the American public and for children. (3)_x000D_ _x000D_ According to the work of Lynne Marie Kohm, Lynn D. Wardle and others, “when alternative viewpoints, opinions, and arguments are significantly absent from any community… it results in an ‘echo-chamber effect.’ The lack of intellectual diversity results in the community hearing only itself, hearing the ideas it wants and expects to hear, and hearing nothing but echoes of the arguments, and viewpoints it prefers and supports. Consequently, the discourse in that community becomes narrower and more extreme as it is unchecked by ideas from outside.” (4) This dynamic can fracture relationships, leaving people feeling bitter and isolated. (5) If we seek to counter these trends in exchange for a culture of care and compassion, we need to model empathy and provide students with opportunities to practice doing so, as well. _x000D_ _x000D_ This workshop invites participants to consider how to deliberately teach productive dialogue skills in history and social science classrooms. We will briefly explore research by Hess, McAvoy and Cohen regarding the crucial role of civil discourse education in safeguarding democracy, nurturing belonging, and promoting humanity. Building from a civility self-reflection that can be used in the classroom or to support faculty professional development, participants will examine sample lessons that can be adapted to various content areas. By the end of the session, individuals will have learned practical tools and strategies for amplifying competencies and skills instruction related to civil discourse._x000D_ _______________x000D_ (1) Arthur C. Brooks, Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from Our Culture of Contempt (New York, NY: Broadside Books, 2019), 34._x000D_ (2) Matteo Cinelli, Gianmarco De Francisci Morales, Alessandro Galeazzi, Walter Quattrociocchi, and Michele Starnini. “The Echo Chamber Effect on Social Media.” National Academy of Sciences Volume 118, no. 9 (March 2, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023301118._x000D_ (3) Matthew Tyler and Shanto Iyengar. “Learning to Dislike Your Opponents: Political Socialization in the Era of Polarization.” American Political Science Review Vol. 117, no. 1 (2023): 347–54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305542200048X._x000D_ (4) Lynne Marie Kohm and Lynn D. Wardle, “The ‘Echo-Chamber Effect’ in Legal Education: Considering Family Law Casebooks,” University of St. Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Volume 6, Issue 1 (Fall 2011): 104 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217155846.pdf _x000D_ (5) Geoffrey Skelling and Holly Fuong. “3 In 10 Americans Named Political Polarization As A Top Issue Facing The Country.” FiveThirtyEight, June 14, 2022. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/3-in-10-americans-named-political-polarization-as-a-top-issue-facing-the-country/.
The session delves into the presenter’s original methodology of the Civic Empowerment Pyramid, a strategic framework developed to guide minors and individuals in navigating the complexities of civic engagement. This step-by-step methodology provides actionable insights into how young people can leverage their unique perspectives and energy to influence decision-makers, from local leaders to policymakers.
