Deliberation and the Work of Higher Education: Innovations for the Classroom, the Campus, and the Community

This book, edited by Kettering Foundation Vice President and Program Director John Dedrick along with Laura Grattan and Harris Dienstfrey, demonstrates how deliberation can help higher education renew its mission of preparing citizens to sustain democracy and stimulate civic involvement on college campuses around the country. It also describes how deliberative dialogue—in both the classroom and on campus—can promote learning and problem solving amidst a culture of argument, debate, and polarization that is prevalent on campus and in society. First and foremost, however, it is a book about the possibilities of deliberation and the ways in which teachers and administrators can adapt it to their instructional and organizational goals.

Deliberation and the Work of Higher Education features an afterword by David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation, and the following essays by professors, administrators, and researchers who have experimented with deliberative practices in central areas of college and university life, from classroom teaching to campus concerns to campus-community relations:

• “Creating New Spaces for Deliberation in Higher Education,” Laura Grattan, John R. Dedrick, and Harris Dienstfrey
• “From ‘Youth Ghettos’ to Intergenerational Civic Engagement: Connecting the Campus and the Larger Community,” Michael D’Innocenzo
• “Introducing Deliberation to First-Year Students at a Historically Black College/University,” Lee Ingham
• “Individual and Community: Deliberative Practices in a First-Year Seminar,” Joni Doherty
• “The Deliberative Writing Classroom: Public Engagement and Aristotle in the Core Curriculum at Fordham University,” Maria Farland
• “Four Seasons of Deliberative Learning in a Department of Rhetoric and American Studies: From General Education to the Senior Capstone,” David D. Cooper
• “Reinventing Teacher Education: The Role of Deliberative Pedagogy in the K-6 Classroom,” Cristina Alfaro
• “Learning about Deliberative Democracy in Public Affairs Programs,” Larkin S. Dudley and Ricardo S. Morse
• “Deliberation, Civic Discourse, and Democratic Dialogue in the Context of Academic Change,” Douglas J. Walters
• “Deliberation and the Fraternal Futures Initiative,” Dennis C. Roberts and Matthew R. Johnson
• “Contexts for Deliberation: Experimenting with Democracy in the Classroom, on Campus, and in the Community,” Katy J. Harriger and Jill J. McMillan
• “Notes and Reflections on Being a Democracy Fellow at Wake Forest University,” Allison N. Crawford
• Afterword: “Who Else Cares?,” David Mathews