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  • "The process of involving people, even if they have different points of view, maybe conflicting points of view, is very important."

    Svetlana Chernikova

  • Coping With the Cost of Health Care:

    What Is The Public Voice?

    Video Podcast

  • "We can improve the conversation and that directly impacts people's lives."

    Martin Carcasson

  • DDEX

  • Ibtesam, Rhanda Slim

    Mideast Network

  • "In our research, we look at what ideas community leaders have about the role of the public in deliberating issues and forming policy."

    Alberto Olivas

  • "When I'm working with the different Pacific Island communities, I must make sure that their way of being is always respected and regarded."

    Moerangi Falaoa

  • "You can't sustain an urban community without the voice of its citizens."

    Louise Spiegel

  • "Students have more of a sense that 'maybe we can do that, too.'"

    Katy Harriger

Podcasts

  • David Mathews discusses Education Research
  • Speaking of Politics Interview

Public Academy

Higher education institutions have played a significant role in democracy. While all institutions profess to serve a “democracy,” the term has so many meanings that the effect academic institutions have on the democratic citizenry and its work is less than clear. Currently, various campus engagement projects appear more focused on providing services than building the capacity of citizens to decide and work together.

It would seem that the most constructive effects—both for the academy and the citizenry—might come from direct contact with the citizenry that is working (or wants to work) to gain greater control over its future.

Although new forms of engagement haven’t been confined to one academic field or one type of institution, they may flourish in cooperative extension because of efforts to revive the community mission of extension. New forms may also emerge in academic institutes that use public deliberation as a means of capacity building.

Many of the initiatives Kettering has seen so far, however, have not come from trustees or administrators but rather from faculty and staff who hope to have a public life as well as scholarly career and want to integrate the two. This has not only generated an interest in a more public form of scholarship but an epistemology that respects the way citizens create the knowledge needed to rule themselves.

The academy has affected democracy most directly through the political education of its students, and the foundation continues to study the impact of deliberation-based education on campus. Kettering wants to learn more about what effect experience in public deliberation has on students’ understanding of democracy and their role in it.

Explore Research in this Area


Democracy's Megachallenges Revisited
How academic institutions meet their obligations to democracy is crucial. Colleges and universities have an understanding of citizenship that is implicit in nearly everything they do, including the kind of education they provide to undergraduates, the kind of leadership they champion in leadership programs, and the services they offer to their communities.

Higher Education Exchange
This annual publication serves as a forum for new ideas and dialogue between scholars and the larger public. Essays explore ways that students, administrators, and faculty can initiate and sustain an ongoing conversation about the public life they share.

Involving Students in Securing Future for Fraternal Organizations
The Fraternal Futures initiative offers students, staff, faculty, and community members a new way to think about change in fraternities and sororities. Results from Fraternal Futures indicate that if serious change is to occur in fraternal life, it must begin by engaging students in authentic, meaningful conversations.

Publications

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