Blogs

New Kettering Study: Civic Aspirations

Submitted by Claire Snyder-Hall on Fri, 12/11/2015 - 10:29

What motivates faculty to do civic engagement work at institutions that do not reward it? To learn more about the deep motivations and civic aspirations of faculty, Claire Snyder-Hall interviewed a diverse group of academics from all over the country who do civic-engagement work of various kinds, including deliberative pedagogy, service learning, public scholarship, and community engagement.

INTERVIEW: Tina Nabatchi & Matt Leighninger on 21st Century Public Participation

Submitted by Jack Becker on Thu, 12/03/2015 - 10:45

Tina Nabatchi and Matt Leighninger have helped shape public participation methods and thinking for a number of years. Already collaborators in assembling Democracy in Motion: Evaluating the Practice and Impact of Deliberative Civic Engagement (2012), they’ve now teamed up to author Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy (2015).

Connections 2015

Submitted by Melinda Gilmore on Mon, 11/30/2015 - 11:54

The 2015 issue of Connections, edited by KF program officer and senior writer/editor Melinda Gilmore and KF director of communications David Holwerk, focuses on our yearlong review of Kettering’s research over time, or our “tribal history.” The issue includes stories that highlight all of Kettering’s program areas. We know from our research that when communities tell stories about their past, it can affect their behavior going forward.

December “CGA Fridays” Forum Issue = Making Ends Meet

Submitted by Kettering Staff on Mon, 11/23/2015 - 15:23

As part of the #cgafridays series, National Issues Forums has three exciting opportunities coming up in December.

Historic Decisions Create Citizens of Tomorrow

Submitted by Kettering Staff on Mon, 11/23/2015 - 09:10

Lisa Strahley of  SUNY Broome recently shared a video her college and a local middle school produced based on their experience using NIF's Historic Decisions curricula in their classroom. Historic Decisions issue guides take important decisions from American history and frame them, not as stories of great men making decisions for the country, but in terms of the difficult choices citizens at the time were confronting.

Cornell Brooks’ Kettering Homecoming

Submitted by Kettering Staff on Fri, 05/29/2015 - 09:57

By Andy Mead

Shortly after Cornell Brooks walked into the Cousins House for lunch, David Mathews handed him a package of papers that Brooks had written for the Kettering Foundation.

The papers were dated in the 1980s and showed the unmistakable signs of having been written on a typewriter.

“Oh my, “ Brooks said, “this was before spell-check.”

Does Our Work Really Matter? Deliberative Practitioners Reflect on the Impact of Their Work

Submitted by Jack Becker on Thu, 01/08/2015 - 11:55

As attention to public deliberation has increased, one core interest of researchers has been evaluating the impact of deliberative processes. Researchers, practitioners, elected officials, and participants themselves want to know if what they’re doing matters. Does public deliberation impact policy? Does it change our attitude toward issues? Does it adhere to democratic ideals?

A Conversation on the Nature of Leadership

Submitted by Jack Becker on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 11:32

As a topic of inquiry and self-help, leadership has been covered from many angles and by many disciplines. To learn more about leadership, former Kettering Foundation research assistant, Jack Becker, sat down at a recent Kettering Foundation research exchange with Tina Nabatchi, Martín Carcasson, and Jeffrey Nielson. All three have written either directly or peripherally on leadership. Their conversation spans the nature of leadership, ideas for reform, claims to new thinking, and how we can better manage demands for high-functioning leaders and organizations.

LIVE STREAM: The Changing World of Work

Submitted by Kettering Staff on Fri, 12/12/2014 - 10:24

Join us for a national conversation on The Changing World of Work: What Should We Ask of Higher Education?

On Wednesday, January 21, 2015, from 9 am-noon, the National Issues Forums Institute will stream the event live from the National Press Club on the all-new nifi.org.

New Video: The Creation of Politics

Submitted by Kettering Staff on Wed, 11/26/2014 - 09:08

Those of you who have participated in Kettering’s annual summer Deliberative Democracy Exchange have probably heard Kettering Foundation president David Mathews tell a story about a small village that faces a recurring flood. It is a fable of sorts. In spite of the villagers’ many efforts to stop the flood, the waters return again and again. So the people in the story had to make a decision: should they move across the river, where another band of people already live? Should they stay in their homeland? Or, should they move to higher ground?