If it is true that people learn from experience, and if large numbers of people participate in political life - both in democracies and, despite the personal cost, undemocratic societies - without having had the benefit of "civic education", then there must be other ways in which people are being educated. And indeed there are. The primary educational medium for civic education has been and remains the social process. Where this process is a vital one, and where those engaged in it are reflective of the philosophy behind their struggles and the practice in it, leaders are developed, citizens become active, and organisations increase in strength.
Educators may not be able to replicate the social conditions that lead to union organising, community civic organisation, and politics conducted in democratic ways. But they can engage these social processes in ways that make it more likely that people will learn and develop. This can only be done if educators are connected in some way to the hurly-burly of political life. Organisations that combine political activism with educational services, or educational organisations that have a relationship with those involved in social affairs, or even educators employed primarily as trainers within organisations, have more chance of ensuring that civic education takes place within and through the engagement with public affairs and social change that are the best of all possible schools for democracy.
It is possible that such schools can be created through the judicious development of public fora, associational life, and communal activity. While these may emerge apparently spontaneously, those in the business of civic education can also stimulate these as part of their own programme. Public debates about issues, for example, can provide an opportunity for people to learn about freedom of opinion, rules of debate, management of controversy, and rituals for decision making despite the fact that no educational purpose is perceived by those who attend.
In the first place, educators will rejoice in the fact that citizens participate in public and communal life, no matter what the issue that motivates them. Participation alone can hone people's understanding of political life, but without a reflective and educational component to their activism, these understandings can be limited and can even be inaccurate. The role of the educator vis-a-vis participation in political or civic activities is twofold:
Participation as Education
- to increase people's ability to engage in that political or civic activity
- to develop ways in which these same people can reflect on and learn from the experience of the political or civic activity
Of course, there is no guarantee that the outcome of citizens' participation will be a constructive one. There seem to be a number of cases in which people have become disillusioned and have taken to violent and undemocratic ways of obtaining their political ends. In other cases, people have merely capitulated. Yet the evidence does suggest that it is possible for people to commit themselves to the principles of democracy and, even in circumstances where there is no societal support for this commitment, engage in activity that increases their effectiveness over time.
This has certainly been the case in many countries where social movements have, through a confluence of forces not entirely of their own making, established cultures of democracy and public participation that are generally admired. These cultures, however, are not necessarily transportable, and the lessons learned in one society about how to achieve democracy may not always sit comfortably in a country in which there is a democratic constitution but good governance is more the issue.
The principle of encouraging people to work together, to build support for their cause amongst a disparate group of potential partners, with this inclusive group to develop codes of decision making and behaviour that are fundamentally democratic, and then to engage those who may support or inhibit the achievement of their intended social goals, continues to develop both civic virtue and civic activism.
Most countries conduct public education campaigns that deal with health or gender issues, water safety and use, environmental matters, city cleanliness, smoking, and so forth. These campaigns sometimes use the principles outlined in Public Education Principles. But they do not intend at the outset to promote civic education per se.
Public Education Campaigns
It is difficult to see, however, how a public education campaign cannot support civic education. When it is involved in coordinating and aligning large groups of citizens, civil society organisations, or educators, it is in the business of developing civic skills. When it is preparing its messages, it cannot avoid dealing with questions of civic virtue and citizen responsibility. When it is establishing its case, it cannot but deal with social questions and with social organizing.
Educators committed to programmes in support of democracy will make use of public education campaigns to carry civic messages and to ensure that these campaigns do adopt a broader view of their work. At the very least, they will engage them to ensure that the budgets of those programmes can be geared in such a way as to reduce the load on a purely civic education budget.
So educators will want to identify such campaigns and negotiate with them ways in which they can do the work of civic education. In order to do this, the insights of the civic educator regarding the importance of public participation for the success of public education, and the importance of political understanding and political skills for developing an environment within which the campaign can succeed, will be useful.
There are moments in the history of a country when change is apparent. At such times, people are more receptive to discussions of public life and political participation. They are likely to be involved, or at least to be concerned, and they are likely to express needs for education, awareness or information. Such moments are rare, but when they occur, they provide the educator with a real opportunity.
Transitional Moments
Perhaps the most regular transitional moment in any democracy is the election, especially the election in which it appears likely that there will be a change in government. Such moments are perhaps the main reason why voter education as opposed to civic education appears to have the lion's share of international and domestic attention and support. But actually, what is happening is that the election is providing an excuse (albeit a good one) for civic education. The issues of the election and the choices that have to be made are more stark, the public discourse is greater, and the opportunities for education, especially at an informal level, more patent.
There are other moments, however, and educators will want to acknowledge and make use of these. In large countries, where the national question of constitutional democracy has been solved, these moments may more readily be sought in local circumstances. And it is no surprise that civic education is being increasingly tied to questions of local democracy and local government. On the other hand, it may be that, in addition to local government, regional government or economic associations provide the next frontier of transition for many countries.
There is an increasing number of experiments, particularly in universities but also in some schooling systems and individual schools, to develop service learning programmes. These are normally designed as a combination of class room teaching and voluntary activity in existing service and welfare organisations. Because those involved are full time students and are drive by the needs of the educational year, the service offered and from which it is intended that lessons will be learnt tends to be sporadic and periodic, organized not by the students but by the educational institution and the receiving institution.
Public Work
With the increasing mobility of young people, especially in the north, voluntarism during vacations has become a large scale activity, and these intern, volunteer and fellowship programmes go further in plunging young people into development and service work, often but not always in a developing country.
The value of this is limited in scope – very few people can participate – and the level of learning is limited by the commitment of the individual and the sending and receiving institutions.
But a movement has begun which recruits groups of young people with an adult guarantor to engage in public work – the co-operative effort to improve their own society by focusing on real problems through designing and implementing real solutions. This is done by structuring social analysis, transferring organisational and political skills during the problem solving process, and encouraging young people to take constructive action over a fixed period of time.
Typically such public work groups, now operational in the USA, South Africa and Ireland, will meet during leisure time, select problems in their own communities, engage with those such as local governments who have resources and power, and build alliances with other groups in the community who have a common interest in solving the particular problem. It is not just an action group, because while in action, young people are learning how the world works and how to change it; and in the process developing a civic understanding which can be transferred to other parts of their life and society.
