[Ci4cg-announce] How Civically Intelligent is your College or University?

Fri Jul 29 10:57:00 PDT 2016

This is quite belated but thanks for this note Eevi! it provides a lot of
information that will be especially pertinent if we go forward with this.

I need to really digest everything you've written in  your note.

— Doug

> On Jul 18, 2016, at 4:23 AM, Eevi Elisabeth Beck <e.e.beck at iped.uio.no> wrote:
> 
> Dear friends,
> 
> I'm interested to contribute to the conversation about how to encourage 
> colleges and universities (and those who look at them) to become aware 
> of and appreciate their potential to help students become more 
> responsible citizens; for this to be seen as (close to) the core of what 
> education is about.
> 
> Others have looked at this too.
> Within the field of Education, practitioners and researchers have 
> struggled for years with articulating such processes and aims in ways 
> which communicate the intent, and with establishing them as legitimate 
> aims for educative efforts.
> 
> If you're interested to hear my views, read on; otherwise please do 
> something which is more worthwhile for you right now.
> 
> 
> As the question of terminology (wording) already came up, maybe it's 
> helpful to sketch some terms I know about and which I think relate 
> closely to the efforts of Doug and the students:
> 
> "Bildung":
> In the Germanic tradition, the term Bildung is perhaps seeing a revival 
> these days as it's getting stripped of some elitist connotations which 
> it had for a few hundred years. The term is also being used a little bit 
> in English nowadays. I've co-authored two papers that look into this, 
> aiming to spread its use and contribute to pushing at those boundaries 
> by asking how it applies in professional education. The original meaning 
> of Bildung is image, or development "in the image of". And some say it 
> includes the silent space where we can touch and develop some solidity 
> about our own truths, so we don't quite as easily get swept away by 
> dominant ways of looking at the world (such as established ways of 
> ranking universities).
> This could become individualist, but in the eyes of Wolfgang Klafki, a 
> renewed concept of Bildung must include: self-determination 
> (independence), co-determination (collaboration), and solidarity (with 
> those who have less opportunities to develop their self- and 
> co-determination).
> 
> "Formation":
> Some of my colleagues looked into the related term Formation, which from 
> what I know is more in use in the US than Bildung is. It seems to 
> connote to more practical work (yet a UK colleague once reacted very 
> strongly to the term Formation, hearing it as a straitjacket - the 
> opposite of the intention).
> 
> "Intelligences":
> As for intellingence(s), American educational researcher Howard Gardner 
> once proposed that there are seven of them, of which conventional iq 
> tests only address one. (Others include musical intelligence, etc).
> I really like the plural. Once we've opened up for the co-existence of 
> multiple forms of intelligence, it doesn't matter to me if we say there 
> are three or tree thousand of them. The point is that there is more, 
> always more, when we start looking... To me then, the question of where 
> to pitch the effort - how close to today's system, how visionary, how 
> close to daily experiences, how utopian - fortunately has no single 
> answer but loads. I fully agree with both Doug and Todd. Each of us 
> offers what we have - and there are shortcomings in all approaches. 
> Myself, I find it easier to deal with academic language and ideals, with 
> care of expression. Others maybe suffocate in that world where less time 
> is spent on real action. I believe we're all needed, but those of us 
> more bent towards theory (such as me!), could do well to listen to those 
> who attend to practical results (which I suspect includes both Doug and 
> Todd - at least I feel inspired by them :-).
> 
> Opinions are only opinions:
> More than anything, we need in my experience the kind of subtle (and 
> sometimes less subtle) respect for the others' point of view which we're 
> already seeing in this exchange. Thanks to both Todd and Doug for that.
> We are more than our opinions. Often i forget this simple truth but when 
> I do remember this, I feel more free. Because there are so many ways.
> To me, at core of such discussion as this is How can we culture the 
> insight of the centrality of students - and us, their teachers - 
> enjoying being responsible citizens? How can we provide some sense of 
> network, community, or recognition, to those who know but may seem to be 
> struggling alone?
> Disagreeing about the specifics of how seems to be one way of actually 
> doing the work, of raising awareness (our own and that of others). 
> Great! :-)
> 
> I see that my email has become long and that's not fully respectful of 
> others' inboxes - sorry! Thanks if you read on.
> 
> Cheers,
> Eevi
> 
> On 18.07.2016 05:23, Doug Schuler wrote:
>> Hi Todd,
>> 
>> Thanks for taking the time to raise these points! I'd really like to
>> hear from others who disagree with this line of reasoning or find it
>> lacking in other ways. Debating the viability of the concept (of civic
>> intelligence) and possible uses of it is very important.
>> 
>> The first thing I'd say is that I am not trying to come up with
>> something that measures /progressive social values/. I'm actually trying
>> to understand better how groups of people come up with approaches that
>> are effective and equitable. My basic hypothesis is that they use
>> something like "civic intelligence" to accomplish this. The hope is that
>> this could (1) help us to improve the civic intelligence of people
>> around the world (which, btw, takes different forms in different
>> contexts); and (2) help provide a useful concept for developing and
>> conducting collaborative projects of all types.
>> 
>> The reason that I want to use the term "intelligence" is that it seems
>> to be the best descriptor available for this job. Its main functions —
>> integrating thought and action, the use of reason (etc.), and learning —
>> are all distinct functions of "intelligence." I also want to assert that
>> intelligence in individuals is not only something that's adequately
>> described by IQ tests. THAT is an invention by researchers and to me it
>> does real harm to the richness of human thinking and activity and to the
>> worth of humans.
>> 
>> We developed the five perspectives because we really wanted to get a
>> view of the /whole/ range of ways that a college could be civically
>> intelligent. It's almost the opposite of trying to come up with a single
>> attribute that is the stand-in for the entire institution. (That will
>> also give us ideas as to how to actually improve it!)
>> 
>> We do acknowledge the value of knowing things about social issues
>> ("homelessness, economic inequality, police violence," e.g.).
>> Unfortunately I may have given this short shrift in the blog piece (see
>> below to see the verbiage that we used for this) but in the longer
>> version the topic is covered in more detail.
>> 
>>> (2) What does the college do to promote civic intelligence among students?
>>> This includes the classroom and other forms of evaluated teacher /
>>> student activities as well as other activities outside the classroom
>>> including student groups and activities, informal as well as formal.
>>> We also identified interdisciplinary classes, especially those focused
>>> on societal problem-solving, as very important, as well as the
>>> quantity and quality of student engagement and leadership in
>>> educational endeavors.
>> 
>> Finally, one of the reasons I'm so hep on the term is that students (not
>> all of them) seem to respond very positively to it. It allows us to
>> study important things such as how might we address historical
>> wrongdoings and it also allows us to feel that we actually ARE connected
>> to humankind in some sort of real way AND that we have some modicum of
>> power and self-efficacy to possibly help effect some change. I.e. it can
>> be liberatory and it's not always easy to make those claims about education.
>> 
>> Other feedback would also be very appreciated!!
>> 
>> Thanks Todd!!!
>> 
>> — Doug
>> 
>> 
>>> We will continue our examination of civic intelligence at Evergreen
>>> and we encourage other schools to examine theirs. The rankings, of
>>> course, aren’t intended to be permanent. They are aspirational and,
>>> with work and encouragement, the hope is that colleges and
>>> universities will become a critical backbone of social purpose,
>>> cooperation and civic intelligence that builds on their deep
>>> experience advancing the world’s knowledge and humanity.
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Jul 14, 2016, at 10:43 AM, Todd Davies <davies at stanford.edu
>>> <mailto:davies at stanford.edu>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I like the overall idea and the outline rubric, Doug. I am somewhat
>>> skeptical about trying to adapt the word "intelligence" to measure
>>> progressive social values. I realize, however, that you are heavily
>>> invested in the term "civic intelligence", and I respect the goals I
>>> think are behind that. It sort of reminds me of adaptations of the
>>> word "violence" to mean essentially the same thing as "injustice"
>>> (e.g. "structural violence", "economic violence", "cultural
>>> violence"). To the extent that I admire the hopes here, and I
>>> definitely /do/, I think trying to rank universities according to this
>>> rubric is a good way to promote the idea of civic intelligence.
>>> Universities tend to be thought of in relation to concepts such as
>>> "intelligent" and "smart", so using the word "intelligence" to judge
>>> their social values might be effective for that reason.
>>> 
>>> A challenge I see for this approach is that the concept itself may be
>>> so contentious that it will have a hard time getting traction, and may
>>> even spark a powerful counter-movement. The experience of trying to
>>> identify "peace" with "justice", which has had big names behind it
>>> (e.g. Martin Luther King) as well as an academic field of sorts (peace
>>> studies), may be instructive in that regard. An alternative approach,
>>> although one that would carry the project away from your concept of
>>> "civic intelligence", would be to assess universities according to
>>> somewhat more conventional (though still problematic) notions of
>>> intelligence, i.e. ones that relate to knowledge as opposed to values,
>>> and that can be tested objectively. How do students at different
>>> universities do, for example, on Simon Baron-Cohen's Reading the Mind
>>> in the Eyes test? Or, in the social welfare domain, how much do
>>> students know factually about topics like homelessness, economic
>>> inequality, police violence, and the effects of war on civilian
>>> populations? I bring up these ideas not to say that you should change
>>> your focus, but just that there are multiple ways to push back against
>>> the dominant and oppressive identification of universities with the
>>> ability to solve logic puzzles, and we should probably go at that from
>>> multiple angles.
>>> 
>>> Todd
>>> 
>>> Todd Davies
>>> Symbolic Systems Program
>>> Stanford University
>>> Stanford, CA, 94305-2150 USA
>>> email: davies at stanford.edu <mailto:davies at stanford.edu>
>>> phone: 1-650-723-4091
>>> office: 460-040C
>>> web: web.stanford.edu/~davies <https://web.stanford.edu/~davies>
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> *From:* ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org
>>> <mailto:ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org> <ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org
>>> <mailto:ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org>> on behalf of Peter Day
>>> <P.Day at brighton.ac.uk <mailto:P.Day at brighton.ac.uk>>
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, July 14, 2016 3:38 AM
>>> *To:* Doug Schuler; ci4cg-announce at scn9.scn.org
>>> <mailto:ci4cg-announce at scn9.scn.org>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [Ci4cg-announce] How Civically Intelligent is your
>>> College or University?
>>> 
>>> Thanks for this Doug
>>> 
>>> I like this a lot.....please feel free to keep me informed of
>>> developments......am busy on other projects right now but might like
>>> to think about ways in which we could include this in my modules.
>>> 
>>> Best
>>> 
>>> Peter
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> *From:* ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org
>>> <mailto:ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org> [ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org
>>> <mailto:ci4cg-announce-bounces at scn9.scn.org>] on behalf of Doug
>>> Schuler [douglas at publicsphereproject.org
>>> <mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>]
>>> *Sent:* 14 July 2016 05:13
>>> *To:* ci4cg-announce at scn9.scn.org <mailto:ci4cg-announce at scn9.scn.org>
>>> *Subject:* [Ci4cg-announce] How Civically Intelligent is your College
>>> or University?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Believing that this is relevant to many people on the list I'm
>>> pointing people towards an article of mine about ranking institutions
>>> of higher education.
>>> 
>>> I'm trying to make the case that colleges and universities should
>>> think about themselves in terms of /civic intelligence/.
>>> 
>>> I describe about how my students and I developed the idea and present
>>> the skeleton of a
>>> rubric. http://www.sigeneration.ca/civic-intelligence-university-college/
>>> 
>>> We're hoping to go to the next phase: putting more flesh on the rubric
>>> and using it to rank some schools.
>>> 
>>> I'd love to hear your thoughts in relation to this idea. Or if you'd
>>> like to help!
>>> 
>>> — Doug
>>> 
>>> PS. I sent a (nearly) identical note to the ciresearchers list....
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Douglas Schuler
>>> douglas at publicsphereproject.org <mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>
>>> Twitter: @doug_schuler
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> Public Sphere Project
>>>     http://www.publicsphereproject.org/
>>> 
>>> Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good
>>>     _ http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci4cg-announce_
>>> 
>>> Creating the World Citizen Parliament
>>> 
>>> http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament
>>> 
>>> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution
>>> (project)
>>>     http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv
>>> <http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/>
>>> 
>>> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution
>>> (book)
>>> http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> Douglas Schuler
>> douglas at publicsphereproject.org <mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>
>> Twitter: @doug_schuler
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Public Sphere Project
>>     http://www.publicsphereproject.org/
>> 
>> Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good
>>     _ http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci4cg-announce_
>> 
>> Creating the World Citizen Parliament
>> 
>> http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament
>> 
>> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution
>> (project)
>>     http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv
>> <http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/>
>> 
>> Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution
>> (book)
>> http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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> _______________________________________________
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Douglas Schuler
douglas at publicsphereproject.org <mailto:douglas at publicsphereproject.org>
Twitter: @doug_schuler

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Mailing list ~ Collective Intelligence for the Common Good
      http://scn9.scn.org/mailman/listinfo/ci4cg-announce

Creating the World Citizen Parliament
     http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament <http://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/may-june-2013/creating-the-world-citizen-parliament>

Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution (project) 
     http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/lv <http://www.publicsphereproject.org/patterns/>

Liberating Voices!  A Pattern Language for Communication Revolution (book)         
 http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601 <http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11601>

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