The “Democracy Project” of the Society for Values in Higher Education is one significant example of the movement to rethink America’s basic values and seek a clearer vision for America. The following posting is designed to acquaint the reader with this important undertaking. You can receive more information about how you might participate by contacting the project’s director, Nancy Thomas at democracyproject@aol.com

About the Democracy Project *

Overview

Americans are discovering that discourse can be a persuasive tool and source of strategic power. There clearly is a national movement toward greater citizen engagement in the resolution of critical social problems, including those related to race, educational reform, environmental protection, community growth, and, more recently, homeland security in the post 9/11 era. A deliberative democracy engages citizens, encourages participation and collective action, and leads to meaningful, sustainable change.

The application of deliberative democracy in higher education has occurred simultaneously with the national movement to support democratic education, a movement that connects a number of educational goals: democracy building, globalization, civic education and engagement, diversity and intercultural learning, ethics, interdisciplinary studies, leadership programs, student activism, and others. As these conversations have begun to intersect, colleges and universities are turning to structured dialogue tools such as intergroup dialogue, study circles, national issues forums, and public conversations models. These tools have been incorporated in new classroom pedagogies (e.g., case method teaching, service learning, and other forms of interactive learning) as well as in decision making processes, thus creating a greater alignment between the values of liberal education and the experiences of students and faculty on campuses.

The Democracy Project began in 1999 as an exploratory initiative that examined models of deliberative democracy and higher education's capacity to engage those models. Working with pilot campuses and partner organizations that champion tested models - Study Circles Resource Center, National Issues Forums, Public Conversations Project, the Interaction Institute for Social Change, as well as SVHE's own "values audit" approach - we found that higher education can learn a lot from exemplars in public discourse and community action. WE now serve as a resource and advocate. We work with individual campuses and other national education associations.
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· http://www.svhe.org/node/11

For a draft copy of the “Wingspread Declaration on Religion and Public Life: Engaging Higher Education” (1/24/06) go to:

http://www.svhe.org/files/WingspreadDeclaration.pdf

Merle