Deliberating Public Policy Issues with Adolescents: Classroom Dynamics and Sociocultural Considerations

Authors

Margaret S. Crocco, Michigan State UniversityFollow
Avner Segall, Michigan State UniversityFollow
Anne-Lise S. Halvorsen, Michigan State UniversityFollow
Rebecca J. Jacobsen, Michigan State UniversityFollow

Abstract

Classroom discussion and deliberation have been widely touted in the research literature as a centerpiece of high quality civic education. Empirical studies, however, of such processes are relatively few. In a public policy deliberation on immigration conducted in three Midwestern high schools during the academic year 2015–16, the authors found that analysis of a set of deliberations on the subject of immigration policy in the United States reveals the ways in which sociocultural identity aspects of the settings and participants influenced the processes and dynamics of these classroom events. Reflecting upon this analysis suggests a set of factors that reveal the degree to which classroom deliberations are shaped by factors other than rational consideration of the topic.

Response to this Article

Peter Levine, Deliberation or Simulated Deliberation?
Martin Samuelsson and Ingunn Johanne Ness, Apophatic Listening
Martin Samuelsson and Ingunn Johanne Ness, Cultivating Moral Imagination through Deliberative Pedagogy: Reframing Immigration Deliberation for Student Engagement Across Differences.

Recommended Citation

Crocco, M. S. , Segall, A. , Halvorsen, A. S. , Jacobsen, R. J. (2018). Deliberating Public Policy Issues with Adolescents: Classroom Dynamics and Sociocultural Considerations. Democracy and Education, 26 (1), Article 3.
Available at: https://democracyeducationjournal.org/home/vol26/iss1/3