Kettering Foundation

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  • "The process of involving people, even if they have different points of view, maybe conflicting points of view, is very important."

    Svetlana Chernikova

  • Coping With the Cost of Health Care:

    What Is The Public Voice?

    Video Podcast

  • "We can improve the conversation and that directly impacts people's lives."

    Martin Carcasson

  • DDEX

  • Ibtesam, Rhanda Slim

    Mideast Network

  • "In our research, we look at what ideas community leaders have about the role of the public in deliberating issues and forming policy."

    Alberto Olivas

  • "When I'm working with the different Pacific Island communities, I must make sure that their way of being is always respected and regarded."

    Moerangi Falaoa

  • "You can't sustain an urban community without the voice of its citizens."

    Louise Spiegel

  • "Students have more of a sense that 'maybe we can do that, too.'"

    Katy Harriger

Podcasts

  • David Mathews discusses Education Research
  • Speaking of Politics Interview

Public and Public Education

Both a concern and a responsibility of a community’s citizens is how to educate young people. One of the major institutions communities use to educate future citizens are public schools. However, many citizens don’t have a relationship with or feel responsibility for them.

Thus, public ownership of education is central to the foundation’s research. The foundation seeks to learn how citizen educators go about their work and what motivates them to do it.

Connecting public work in ways that are complementary to the work of professional educators has proven challenging. How communities assess their ties to education remains a critical question.

By examining the role of school boards and professional educators, the foundation could learn more about the possibilities of bridging public work with the institutional routines of schools.

Explore Research in this Area


The Public and the Public Schools: The Coproduction of Education
The public is losing its sense of ownership of its schools, which threatens democracy itself. And as long as citizens are treated as mere consumers of education, the problem will not be solved.

Engaging Untapped Community Resources
What does it take to solve community problems? What does it mean to tap community resources? Can public deliberation and dialogue catalyze the resources among people in minority and low-income communities? What are people in these communities willing to do? Research on untapped community resources seeks to answer these questions.

Citizens Boards: When Local Isn't Enough
Local citizen boards are meant to be a primary entryway for people to engage in politics. Yet Kettering research has found that citizens often feel as shut out from these boards as they do from the institutions of state and national government.

Public Engagement in Five Colorado School Communities
How can citizens and school boards work together to educate a community’s children? A study by the Colorado Association of School Boards provides examples of what can happen when local school boards attempt to change their relationship with the public. The research highlights the factors that contribute to a gap between citizens and schools and among citizens themselves.


What’s Changed? Are Citizens Reestablishing Education Ownership?
Public ownership of and responsibility for education is at the heart of our democracy. But in practice parents, citizens, and the public feel isolated from the education process. They don’t feel they have a say or can make a difference in the schools even if they wanted to.

Publications

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