An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Values: The Foundation for Civic Engagement

1. An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Values: The Foundation for Civic Engagement Randall E. Osborne, Ph.D. & Paul Kriese, Ph.D. Presented at Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities Conference, Honolulu, HI, January 11-14, 2008

2. Positive Youth Development • Thomsen (2004) suggests that Positive Youth Development (PYD) is inherent in good educational practice & prepares students for life beyond the classroom. • As such, PYD can be built into existing educational practices and provides core skills that promote both academic excellence and personal/social development

3. Positive Youth Development • PYD has 5 basic tenets (Thomsen, 2004) • Connection • Confidence • Competence • Compassion • Character • Brain-based emotional intelligence • Research (e.g., Thomsen, 2002) shows that teaching students to cope effectively with their emotions frees up working memory and enhances learning.

4. Positive Youth Development • Connection – connecting self to community • Confidence – must have confidence that “real” problems can be addressed and resolved • Competence – must believe that he/she has the ability to be an effective part of the solution • Compassion – must learn to care about others • Character – character traits must be modeled, practiced and reinforced

5. Civic Engagement - Defined • Adding one’s voice to community conversations. Advocacy on behalf of others. Participation in public life. Encouraging other people to participate in public life. Joining in common work that promotes the well being of everyone. • Although we fervently agree with the above definition of civic engagement, we are concerned about requiring students to become actively involved in their broader community BEFORE they have explored their own biases and values that are likely to affect the interactions they have with others in that community.  To address this concern, we developed an Internet course on the Politics and Psychology of Hatred specifically designed to assist students in uncovering, exploring, analyzing and learning from their personal biases and values.  We developed a 4-step model (which we call the "humanities model") to facilitate this uncovering process.  

6. Preparing for Civic Engagement • It is our belief that discussing social issues (such as prejudice or racism) without requiring students to explore the roots of their views, to understand the roots of other views, and to appreciate the nature and importance of different views about those issues, perpetuates ignorance. • To raise the issue without using the humanities model (or to send students out into the community without having explored their biases and values) may simply reinforce prejudices by giving them voice without question. • Lastly, we believe that all that we do in these courses should center on the theme of “civic engagement.” Although that is sometimes defined as sending students out into the community via service-learning, we believe that the themes in the course of: (1) social justice, (2) having a voice through vote, (3) condoning hatred through silence, (4) exploring image and stereotypical views of others, (5) environmental hatred, and (6) self-referent thinking (among others) assist students in exploring their role in the broader community.

7. Examples of Assignments That Facilitate Aspects of PYD • Connection – Middle Class Mentality • Confidence – Phenomenal Woman • Competence – Immigration Reform • Compassion – Nuclear Shelter • Character – Diversity Philosophy

8. Connection • Reach consensus on how to define "Middle Class Mentality.“ • post that group definition to the discussion list. In your response, be sure and include answers to the following questions: • can anyone "become" middle class? Why or why not? • what all different aspects of society does the middle class mentality permeate? • how is the concept of middle class mentality linked to legal issues such as: • immigration laws, • welfare policies, and • access to resources for higher education?

9. Confidence • Read Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” • What is she trying to say?  • What are you using to reach this conclusion? •  How do her comments/points relate to the content and focus of this course? • How does that make you feel & why?

10. Competence • Immigration Reform Assignment • Locate a website that deals with the concept of immigration (U.S. immigration) • provide the URL for this website within the assignment • describe the opinion of this site. • What are the pro's and con's to this site's perspective on immigration? • in your opinion, what are the main points this group is trying to make? • What are the linkages between the main points of this site and immigration reform?

11. Compassion • Nuclear Shelter Group Assignment – Part A: • Students are told that nuclear warheads have been launched toward the United States and that they are responsible for a particular nuclear shelter that will hold eight people. • Students are given a list of twelve people, asked to decide who will get into the shelter, required to state why they have chosen each individual that will get in, and must explain why each person they are leaving out is being left out.

12. Character - Diversity Philosophy • What foundational premise best guides your thoughts about race? • A. Race is a social construct. • B. It is not the color of their skin, but the content of their character that matters. • C. Race is biologically based and needs to be used in race definitions. • D. Respect for each race is important in building a diverse society. • A= Inclusiveness B= Tolerance • C= Assimilation D= Multicultural

13. Diversity Philosophy – Sample Questions • What foundational premise best guides your thoughts about religion? • A. We are a nation built on Christian values. These are our guiding principles • B. We should not condemn those who are not Christians. • C. We should actively utilize the values and insights from the many different religions to enhance clarity and understanding. • D. We should acknowledge and respect many religions. • A= Assimilation B= Tolerance • C= Inclusiveness D= Multicultural

14. Assimilation • The practice of categorizing a group based on artificial social constructions that impart an “essence” of that group, which homogenizes the group and effaces individuality and differences. The word implies that we are forming conclusions, relationships, and other cultural ties based only on the essential elements, as determined by “us”. It also implies that there is some minimal level of understanding that applies to groups.

15. Diversity Philosophy • Tolerance = acceptance and open-mindedness of different practices, attitudes, and cultures; does not necessarily mean agreement with the differences. Implies an acknowledgement, or an acceptance or respect. Not necessarily an appreciation and usually consists of only surface level information.

16. Diversity Philosophy • Multiculturalism = the practice of acknowledging and respecting the various cultures, religions, races, ethnicities, attitudes and opinions within an environment. The word does not imply that there is any intentionality occurring and primarily works from a group, versus individual, orientation.

17. Diversity Philosophy • Inclusiveness = the practice of emphasizing our uniqueness in promoting the reality that each voice, when, valued, respected and expected to, will provide positive contribution to the community.

18. What Did We Learn? • Tolerance is not enough! • Example from student • “I always prided myself on being tolerant. This exercise has made me ashamed of myself. I realized that tolerance is not enough. Tolerating someone does NOT counter hate.”