Teaching Across the Political Divide: Civic Education in an Era of Intense Polarization

1. Teaching Across the Political Divide: Civic Education in an Era of Intense Polarization Diana E. Hess Senior Vice President , Spencer Foundation Professor, University of WI-Madison

2. Questions • What is political polarization? • Why is the US so politically polarized? • What happened in the November election that is important for teachers to understand? • How does political polarization create barriers to high quality civic education? • What might we do differently?

3. What is Political Polarization? Political polarization refers to moments in time when political discourse and action bifurcates toward ideological extremes, causing a crowding out of voices in the middle, leaving little room for political compromise.

4. The Story of Political Polarization

5. Liberal Conservative

6. Conservative Liberal Movement toward ideological extremes

7. Income Inequality and Political Polarization

8. Liberal Conservative

9. Effects of Ideological Sorting • Ideological sorting is happening residentially, and in our social spheres. • When we talk with people who agree with us, our views tend to move toward the extremes. • One result is a more active, but also more hostile, political sphere.

10. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart

11. The Big Sort, 2008 Red = 70% Rep Blue = 70% Dem

12. The Big Sort, 2008Correcting for population Red = 70% Rep Blue = 70% Dem

13. 2012 Presidential General Election - Colorado

14. Why the Big Sort is good and bad for democracy • People are able to only interact with people and read material that support their views. • = Ideological amplification • = less tolerant public, but more likely to vote/participate

15. Conversation with people who disagree “Talked about news and current events with people who disagree with you”

16. Distrust

17. For the past 6 consecutive elections, youth have voted Democratic, but there is still significant Republican support.

18. Youth Voters & TurnoutPresidential Election

19. General Election Youth Turnout in Colorado 50% 52% 40% Source: CIRCLE, http://www.civicyouth.org

21. Polarization in Youth Vote by Age and Race

22. Young Voters in Colorado (ages 18 to 29)

23. Latino Vote in 2012 Presidential Election In Colorado, Obama carried the Latino vote by a wide margin—75% to 23%. The president’s performance among Latino voters in Colorado was better than in 2008, when Obama won the Latino vote 61% to 38%. Hispanics made up 14% of Colorado voters this year, up from 13% in 2008.

24. US Support for Social and Fiscal Issues

25. What does this mean for teachers? • Schools are institutions experiencing growing public distrust. • Teachers’ political views under scrutiny. • In many schools, it is much harder to engage students in high quality, non-partisan civic education. • Is it in your school?

26. Open vs. Closed Issues No one right answer - would expect disagreement and teachers would aim for multiple and competing views, best care-fair hearing of competing points of view Open Issues: Question for which there is a right answer that teachers want students to build and believe Closed Issues:

27. What Might We Do? • Don’t abandon the project. Schools a good place for non-partisan political education. • Activate the differences you have. • Choose questions and topics carefully (open political and ethical questions). • Play fair. Don’t encourage/model the values of polarization. • Make the case to the public, parents, school board members, and administrators.

28. The Political Classroom

29. What is the Political Classroom? The political classroom is one that helps students to develop their ability to collectively make decisions about how we ought to live.

30. Democracy is a Verb

31. Presidential Debate Viewing Students have a viewing session of the first Presidential Debate sponsored by their school.