THEME: Democratic Dialogue and Civic Education

This issue of the Campus Compact Reader focuses on the use of dialogue as a pedagogical tool that can foster civic learning. Each of the four essays included here addresses how dialogue can foster both public deliberation and the skill of civic discourse. Of particular interest for those involved in service-learning and civic engagement is the place of dialogues in higher education. Service-learning practice embodies the characteristics of dialogic education (Paulo Friere) and the de-centering of the teacher that are cornerstones of what Myles Horton created at Highlander Folk School with the Citizenship Schools that were central to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. Horton was interested in experimenting with democratic education and found that circles of learners in dialogue with each other could learn from each other in such a way as to discover new ways of public problem solving, bringing their collective knowledge and experience to bear on the most pressing issues of their communities. Central to this concept of democratic education was the notion of respect: in a circle of learners whose purpose in learning is to apply knowledge in socially responsive ways, there has to be equal respect for the experiences and knowledge that each person brings to the circle. By creating communities of learners who respect the contributions of each member of the community and share a goal of public problem solving engendered through dialogue, service-learning represents a powerful form of democratic education.

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