Who’s Paying the Bill: An Examination of the Civic Education Debt in America

By

Averill Kelley Ph.D. - State University of New York, Brockport School of Education and Health and Human ServicesAcacia Dorsey M.Ed. - University of Nevada, LV College of EducationDashad Greene - University of Nevada, LV College of Education

Classrooms across the U.S. have become more diverse in race, culture, ethnicity, and language. In 2014, the number of students in public schools changed from a predominantly White population to predominantly students of color (National Center for Education Statistics, 2014). In 2022, the ratio of White to non-White students in American public schools was approximately 46% to 54%. By 2043, the proportion of Black students in American classrooms will be even greater. This essay describes the relationship between multicultural education and civic education and the relationship between Ladson-Billings’s (2006) education debt and the civic empowerment gap (Levinson, 2012), from which a framework for civic debt emerges (Lo, 2019).

Connection Between Multicultural Education and Civic Education

As multicultural education is conceived of like a civic mission of schools, there is a close relationship between the two educational ideas. Multicultural education calls for the participation of all people in education, and civic education calls for full participation in the narrower discipline of civics. Participation in both civics and education is necessary to maintaining democracy and preserving a connection between Banks’s dimensions of multicultural education and civic education.

The civic mission of schools requires that all students learn how to participate in American democracy. Levinson (2010) showed that not all students have the opportunity to participate or engage civically, a problem that is only exacerbated when they receive ineffective curriculums and miss the opportunity to learn civic engagement. Therefore, the only way to ensure that students learn to participate is to include multicultural education in the civics curriculum. Scholars have noted that the civic mission of schools is to ensure that all students receive an equitable, high-quality, and fair civic education, and that multicultural education and diversity education are often at odds with each other even though their goals and purposes are the same (Navarro & Howard, 2017).

In the relationship between multicultural education and civics education, schools model the skills needed to sustain and live in a diverse and inclusive democracy and promote active participation in democratic processes (Navarro & Howard, 2017). Multicultural education and civic education prepare students to be engaged and productive participants in society, fight inequalities, protect equality, liberty, justice, and democracy, and create an inclusive world for all people. Civics and multicultural education provide students with knowledge, skills, behaviors, and dispositions that are essential to learning about one another. Students also learn to stand up, speak up, develop a sense of agency, and actively participate in their communities. Multicultural education fights for educational equity while civics education teaches students how to fight for their rights.

Samuels et al. (2019) examined how race and racism affect teaching and learning and how civics education could address racial inequities inside and outside the classroom. They found that although teachers believed it was important for students to discuss race, racism, and the inequities in society, these topics were either downplayed or avoided because teachers lacked the skills and comfort levels to discuss controversial topics.

When civics education embraces the ideas of multicultural education, teachers can teach the ideas, histories, narratives, knowledge, achievements, and contributions of Black people. The newly released Educating for American Democracy (EAD) Roadmap (2021) and the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Inquiry Arc Framework are curricular examples and frameworks for how teachers can integrate diverse contents into civics teaching. The EAD and the C3 promote equity, inclusion, and multiple interpretations of history and civics instruction by asking critical questions. This is a pedagogical model that teachers use in civics that goes beyond the traditional approach (Swan et al., 2018).

The relationship between civics and multicultural education is related to the construction of knowledge. The experiences of Black people and their history of civic engagement continue to be ignored or silenced in the civics education curriculum. This curriculum disproportionately muffles the voices of Black people and amplifies those of wealthy White U.S. citizens (Levinson, 2010). By addressing civic knowledge and the information that is missing from the curriculum, teachers and students can address many absent narratives, such as race and gender.

Cohen (2010) proposed four approaches to civics education to describe how a teacher’s epistemological and ontological perspectives influence the teaching and learning of civics: liberal civics education, diversity civics education, critical civics education, and republican civics education. A teacher’s pedagogical approach can significantly influence students’ civics experience, knowledge, and interest. If educators want students to value the American ideals of justice, equality, and freedom, then a civics education must begin by asking what knowledge is involved and what instructional approach is the most culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining.

Civics education must help to meet the needs of all students. Epstein et al. (2011) studied a teacher who taught U.S. history by addressing racial diversity, racism, and individual and collective agency among low-income urban Black and Latinx students. Their study showed that it is possible to either transform one’s teaching or to identify inequities in the standard curriculum to ensure that all students’ histories and experiences are included and represented in the history curriculum. Research has shown that adolescents have biases and that students come to school with biases against different groups (Banks, 2020). Civics classes can combat negative racial attitudes by encouraging students to discuss and collaborate with others who are ideologically, racially, politically, socially, and economically different. Civics classes should focus on the lived experiences of students and their communities. Equitable civic education can reduce prejudice, bias, and stereotypes about people with different racial identities. Explicitly addressing attitudes about race, racism, class, gender, sexism, and other controversial issues of systemic inequity will help students reduce their own biases and prejudices. Students are empowered in this way to listen to the experiences of their peers, ask questions, seek new understanding, and challenge assumptions and beliefs. They learn how to engage respectfully with people who hold different and conflicting views.

When civics education is part of the school structure, teachers must be encouraged to use a variety of pedagogical strategies to ensure that all students learn. Civics education can help schools create empowering school cultures and fulfill their neglected civics mission by providing an equitable, fair, and democratic education to all students. Schools can also teach students to respect individuality while also teaching them how to protect and promote the common good and make positive changes in society. Researchers have made recommendations to address the challenges and problems in civics education (Levinson, 2012). However, few scholars have offered practical recommendations for diverse, equitable teaching resources and materials that teachers can use in the classroom to ensure that civic education addresses diversity.

The Education Debt and the Civic Empowerment Gap

For years, the American school system has ignored and underinvested in the education of low-income students and Black students, especially when those demographics overlapped. Ladson-Billings (2006) argued that an education debt exists and has accumulated over time which disproportionately targets low-income and Black students. The debt includes the four components of historical debt, economic debt, sociopolitical debt, and moral debt. The study focused on sociopolitical debt and the implications for students’ learning and civic participation.

Sociopolitical debt explains the extent to which Black communities have been excluded from the democratic civic and political process, engagement, and participation in the United States (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Black people have experienced systemic hindrance to equitable participating in civic and political life in the United States. But despite being historically excluded from civic processes, many Black communities have prepared their own communities for civic engagement, such as the Citizenship Schools in the South in the 1960s, which taught Black people about the Constitution and voting rights (Ladson-Billings, 2006).

Ladson-Billings’s (2006) education debt and Levinson’s (2010) civic empowerment gap provide historical and theoretical frameworks for current inequities in opportunities for civics learning and engagement. Schools can address the civics empowerment gap by encouraging actively civic participation by teachers and students. Teachers can provide more civic engagement and educate students from a perspective that is more diverse, inclusive, relevant, and responsive to close the empowerment gap. Students should learn essential knowledge and skills and appropriate grammar and language to discuss race and racism both in schools and in their communities, as this affects future civic participation (Duncan, 2019). As schools work to close the civic empowerment gap, they can gradually ameliorate the educational debt.

Sociopolitical debt must be addressed by a diverse group of elected officials who represent the interests of all Americans, not just a faction. Greater diversity in elected leaders and government officials also means that the issues facing Black communities are more likely to be addressed. By working together, schools can address the civic empowerment gap, develop a racial grammar to discuss race and other inequities in society, and see students’ strengths and cultural capital as less problematic and challenging. Failure to address the civic empowerment gap and the education debt leads to what Banks (2020) called failed citizenship because it continues to exclude many students from the civic and political process.

The Debt in Civics Education

Bonilla-Silva (2012) used the term “racial grammar” to explain how language can shape and distort the way we see ourselves and each other. He described language composition as a sliver of what racial grammar shapes in everyday life. The racial grammar of civics education unnecessarily excludes the experiences of Black students and ignores issues such as race, class, and gender, which are crucial aspects of the philosophical foundations of the American republic. Bonilla-Silva encouraged a movement of racial liberation that resists the dominant grammar that continues to oppress certain groups. By addressing these issues, America can be multicultural and democratic while expressing the views, interests, and feelings of all its residents.

Lo (2019) used this concept to situate the civic education debt in context. Schools are not fully responsible for the sociopolitical debt, because it is the government’s responsibility to address and remedy it. However, schools play an active role in deepening the debt (Lo, 2019). Scholars have pointed out that the civics education curriculum is White, with middle-class values and civic ideas (Levinson, 2012). The civic debt framework acknowledges the problem of race and racism in civics education and assumes that civics teachers do not have the language or preparation to address complex and complicated topics in this area. The idea of race is rooted in our everyday experiences, however, and is not limited to overt racism but includes subtle moments of institutional inequity and racial microaggressions. Teachers need training on discussing race in the classroom to ensure they are comfortable doing so and to create an environment where all students know that such discussions are acceptable. Kaplowitz et al. (2019) provided teachers with skills and materials to facilitate conversations about race and racism in the classroom, a framework civics teachers could use to address the challenges of racial grammar and civic debt.

Lo (2019) argued that focusing on the civic opportunity and empowerment gaps is insufficient because outcomes and effectiveness require different ideas about addressing civic engagement and empowerment. As research in the field of civic education has shown, teachers can address gaps in civic opportunity and empowerment gaps in their own pedagogy. The research has highlighted the best practices and examples of professional development, but has failed to address how race and racism are reflected in civics curriculums. The lack of an effective racial grammar for civics teaching leads to problems in addressing controversial and complex topics. Lo noted that the socio-political education debt is created by lack of civic opportunities and empowerment and devolves into a larger civic debt created by a lack of racial grammar in civics and teacher preparation.

Black Civic Engagement

Although addressing the civics education debt in schools is a priority, Black people have historically been community oriented and have engaged through collective action (Levinson, 2010). Despite the systemic obstacles discouraging and disenfranchising Black civic and political engagement, Black communities have navigated to increase their political presence and activism. The 1960s saw citizenship schools and Black-centered organizations like the Black Panther Party (Ladson-Billings, 2006), and current efforts to increase Black involvement in civics and politics include campaigns like Rock the Vote and organizations like the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation (NCBCP). NCBCP is dedicated to increasing civic engagement and economic empowerment among Black people (Nabatdni et al., 2012). They use technology, education programs, and civic leadership programs to encourage Black communities to make things like voting and civic participation cultural responsibilities and traditions (Nabatdni et al., 2012).

Conclusion

Civics education must address the education debt, the civic empowerment gap, and the civic debt for all students. The education debt changes the focus of deficit thinking about how students cannot achieve, and how educational institutions have continually failed, marginalized, and discriminated against students, especially Black students. The education debt has hurt students by creating civic empowerment gaps in civics knowledge, skills, behavior, and participation, which produces a civic debt.

To address these debts, schools must change the way they prepare students for civic engagement. When teachers provide students with relevant and reflective curriculums, the debts and gaps can be addressed with young people, and the next generation of Black community civic engagement leaders can continue the fight to reduce the debt and increase civic and political equity.

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