Date of Award
Spring 1-1-2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Education
First Advisor
Kenneth Howe
Second Advisor
Michele Moses
Third Advisor
Ruben Donato
Fourth Advisor
Ben Kirshner
Fifth Advisor
Claudia Mills
Abstract
Political divides in our democracy are ever-widening. Deliberative democratic civics education provides a new way for civics education to prepare students for a democracy that addresses the diversity in moral perspectives that have created the divides in a more constructive way. Civics education traditionally has been tied to aggregative theories of democracy. My dissertation defends grounding civics education in deliberative democracy. This type of civics education requires bringing moral controversy to the center of the civics classroom, and I defend that practice against its critics. I also examine controversies in deliberative democratic political theory from the perspective of civics education, and outline what a deliberative democratic civics education would look like in the classroom. Grounding civics education in deliberative democracy provides students not only with the means to participate in democracy as citizens, but to influence the shape of that democracy going forward.
Recommended Citation
Hanson, Jarrod S., "In Defense of a Deliberative Democratic Civics Education" (2013). School of Education Graduate Theses & Dissertations. 28.
https://scholar.colorado.edu/educ_gradetds/28
Included in
Civic and Community Engagement Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons