College Students and Deliberation: A Benchmark Study

An Argument for Teaching Deliberative Collective Action Skills in the Political Science Classroom

“…The argument that effective citizenship ought to be promoted by enhancing citizens' deliberative, communication skills is certainly not a new one in the United States~Barber 1984;Fishkin 1991;1995;Gastil 2000;Gastil and Dillard 1999;Matthews 1994;McMillan and Harringer 2002;Ryfe 2005!. Yet this approach should play an especially important role in higher education's efforts to produce civic leaders for two reasons.…”

Deliberative civic education and civil society: a consideration of ideals and actualities in democracy and communication education

“…Similarly, McMillan and Harriger (2002) identified concerns related to both "internal efficacy" (feeling personally capable of altering the system) and "external efficacy" (believing that the larger system will accommodate proposed changes) (p. 248). While initiatives such as "deliberative polls" do attempt to answer the call for external efficacy by linking the results of citizen deliberation with institutions of power by publishing and distributing intensive survey results (see Fishkin, 1995), the students in a typical communication classroom must likewise see that their deliberations can have an impact on the larger community in which they live.…”

“…McMillan and Harriger (2002) noted that a "movement has taken root" (p. 240) to address civic renewal throughout higher education, and that deliberative civic education is a promising method by which to do so. If the trend toward both civic education and democratic deliberation is to continue, it is important to recognize the unique contributions afforded by a review of contemporary rhetorical theory.…”

“…The classical tradition of rhetoric, as well as the genesis of communication as a field of inquiry within modern higher education, can be read as partially responsive to the democratic context in which they were born. Harriger's (2002) benchmark study of discussion in college classrooms illustrated more specifically how contemporary civic education in deliberation can reinvigorate the democratic focus of communication education by engaging students in questions of public life and democracy. The study pointed to a potential transformative effect that may help alleviate widespread feelings of political alienation and apathy among U.S. college students.…”

“…For this reason, communication scholars have examined the NIF for purposes of communication pedagogy and deliberative civic education (e.g., Gastil & Dillard, 1999;McMillan & Harriger, 2002;Osborn & Osborn, 1991). In the sections that follow, I extend this discussion by outlining the type of structured deliberation practices used by NIF and addressing the potential advantages of such exercises for classroom use.…”