Civics education in Nova Scotia – Part II

Last week I discussed a mandatory civics course for high school students in Nova Scotia. In closing, I suggested that such a course would meet two immediate challenges: first, that pedagogy may not be available that effectively enhances students’ active support of democratic processes and institutions; and second, that teachers might advance their own political views as currency for success in such a course.

The latter of these is less problematic. One way around it would simply be for texts in such courses to declare the possible problem, alerting students to the fact that employing one’s position of power in such courses to assess student responses is not in keeping with democracy, which would be the central defining feature of any such a course — except, that is, to discourage the expression of hate.

Attempt to manipulate students or grade them politically rather than on the quality of their work would be to confess that one didn’t really understand the course one was teaching.

The other challenge is more daunting; to find a form of curriculum and pedagogy that isn’t so preachy about the good of democracy or the need to become a certain sort of person that it turns students off, effectively lessening their interest in politics and government.

Some general ideas

Trying to propose such a curriculum in the space of a short column is too ambitious, but some general ideas might be advanced. First, any such course probably should be split 60/40, with the lion’s share devoted to the institutions and processes of democracy in Canada. Here the trick would be not to seek comprehensiveness. The role of the senior bureaucrat, for instance, might well be left to subsequent study.

Instead, a civics course for high school students should identify the central institutional locations where decisions are made and criticized. Attention should be given to the role of Question Period, the representative and policy-making functions of Cabinet, the impact of the electoral system, and the division of authority between our three levels of government. As well, it should identify the ideological differences that animate party competition, with some of their intellectual origins.

To make such attention interesting and to locate it in terms of the distinctiveness of democratic politics, a comparison between these functions and those of comparative performance in the American system might is useful. One would have to pay attention to the presidency and congressional committees, and contrasting these with Canadian institutions would be instructive.

Beyond this, attention would need to be paid to the regional, ethnic, genderic and income class differences by which Canadians define their political interests and party preferences. Attention would need to be given to the practice of democratic journalism.

Identifying values logical next step

The other 40 per cent would be more challenging: to identify the values associated with the development and maintenance of a healthy democracy; and to nurture a commitment to such values as such values are contested. Still, most democratic virtues can be identified as balances between competing values, and discussion of these balances are useful.

Democracy requires citizens both to accept the authority of democratic decisions yet to be ready and willing to speak out against what they take to be injustice, and to employ their critical thinking skills publicly. They need to know that they have knowledge upon which good public decisions turn, while understanding that dominating democratic discourse with one’s personality or one’s private interests is harmful to democratic decision-making.

We need to feel free and confident enough to speak up while knowing when it’s time to listen or to be silent. Democratic citizens need to understand that democracy requires the recognition of our deep equality as human beings while respecting differences between us.

We need to value freedom while recognizing the legitimate role of the public good and the demands of justice. A sense of humour helps, while it is recognized that politics can be a noble and, in any event, is serious in its impact upon our lives.

My sense is our public school system does much of this sort of nurturing all along the way. Still, some discussion of such values, especially linking these to the flourishing of democracy, may be in order as students join the adult world.