Blogs

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.

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.

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.

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?