This is a different kind of blog post – it is a collection of tweets about an article I read, so it will probably be a bit disjointed.
Just finished reading “Australian schools as deliberative spaces: framing the goal of active and informed citizenship” by Sarah Sorial and @apetersoned in The Curriculum Journal. Great stuff. Some thoughts: I really like the transdisciplinary nature of this article. Sarah is a law academic, Andrew is an education academic. Reminds me of work that @ninaburridge1 has done with law faculties and human rights education. The article explores deliberative democracy and its role in education for citizenship and democratic participation. Placed within the context of Australian schools – and the transient and difficult nature of civics and citizenship education in them.
Some interesting snippets of their exploration of the Australian context – school leaders have very different understandings of citizenship and citizenship education. Both, however, avoid discussion of political aspects.
Still ongoing concern regarding Australian students’ understanding of civics and citizenship as evidenced in the NAP for Civics and Citizenship. (Tell me about it: this is what started my whole PhD journey).
Thinking about this – are there elements of power that need to be considered here? There are challenges with dialogue of this nature – I think Kathryn Choules has written about this.
Excellent summary of the features required for deliberative pedagogies, including: recognising they are not given or static, require explicit planning, need to cultivate diversity, need to embrace interconnections between classrooms and school-wide environments (and beyond?)
Finishes on a cautionary note: i.e. deliberation does not dictate which interests and perspectives are legitimate.
Fantastic article. Very thought provoking.