Democracy, public deliberation, and civic education: Education for democratic change and participation in the deliberative public

The dissertation examines recent decreases in citizen engagement in political activity and argues that current analysis which attributes these decreases to apathy are mistaken. It presents evidence that citizens have disengaged from politics because they believe that current mechanisms do not provide a satisfactory means for addressing public problems. It also presents evidence that citizens want to participate in a form of politics in which they come together to deliberate about and develop solutions to shared or public problems. It introduces evidence that citizens believe that current civic education does not acknowledge dissatisfaction with the current mechanisms of civic participation, prepare children to modify those mechanisms, or to engage in a form of political participation that would involve public deliberation about shared problems.;The dissertation illustrates that these beliefs can be supported with philosophical argument and analysis. The philosophical arguments are supported by appeals to two bodies of literature, the writings of deliberative democrats and John Dewey. Chapter Two appeals to this literature to describe in greater detail the form of political participation desired by citizens, namely, public deliberation or social inquiry. Chapter Three illustrates that this form of political participation serves several functions essential to the health of American democracy, and that public deliberation or social inquiry serves these functions as well as or better than traditional forms of political participation. Chapter Four makes use of John Dewey's work to identify the type of education that is needed if children are to develop their capacities to modify current mechanisms of political participation and engage in public deliberation or social inquiry. From this analysis, a set of recommendations is developed. In Chapter Five, this analysis is used to evaluate the current practice of civic education and two recent civic education policies. It concludes that children are not being adequately prepared either to modify the current practice of politics or to engage in a form of political participation that would involve public deliberation or social inquiry about shared problems.