Diminishing Democracy
Professor Westheimer holds the University Research Chair in the Sociology of Education and, along with his colleague Sharon Cook, runs a research collaborative called Democratic Dialogue to study the role schooling plays in strengthening democratic societies. The vast majority of current Canadian school programs (K to 12) that take the time to teach citizenship emphasize either good character or technical knowledge of how governments work.
Westheimer argues that current education reform is limiting the ways teachers can develop the kinds of attitudes, skills, knowledge and habits necessary for a democratic society to flourish. "Our research has generated concern that current school practices teach more about how to please authority and pass tests than how to develop convictions and stand up for them," explains Westheimer. The effects of these trends are showing up in people's lack of knowledge about public issues or the ability to think critically about complex policy decisions.
Most of us take for granted that our children are learning democratic values at school, but Professor Westheimer's research illustrates that is not always the case. Among programs that hope to foster democratic citizenship, the vast majority have more to do with voluntarism, charity and obedience than with democracy. "Citizenship in a democratic community requires more than kindness and decency," insists Westheimer.
Joel Westheimer's research is helping us understand democratic educational goals and how to effectively bring those lessons to the classroom. He is the recipient of the 2009 Whitworth Award for Education Research. His third book, Restoring the Public in Public Education, comes out in Spring 2011.
François Rochon
Published: January 2011