Ignorance is not bliss. For democracy, it could be the kiss of death.
Giving every citizen the vote is supposed to ensure the government will act in the interest of the people, but what do people know about the exercise of political power? All too many have little idea what the politicians they vote for are likely to do, while vast numbers simply assume it makes no difference anyway.
17 per cent of those eligible in Britain (24 per cent in the US) don’t register to vote. Among those who have registered, many do not turn out to vote (around a third or more in UK general elections, and about 40 per cent in US presidential elections). Some commentators think that the proliferation of protests points to an alternative expression of public influence. But protests are not a sustainable substitute for democratic accountability. Indeed, in the absence of any credible electoral challenge, unscrupulous politicians would find it far easier to secure power, and use it to pursue their personal agenda – while cracking down on protests in the name of public safety.
It is not surprising that manipulative politicians, whose powerbase is a mix of plutocratic, fundamentalist and illiberal interests, have been ramping up efforts to block the raising of political understanding. Conservative Education Secretaries in the UK and Republican governors and legislatures in the US have used a similar two-prong strategy. At the level of the school, they invoke the notion of ‘contentious issues’ to stop any teaching which may increase pupils’ understanding of issues that the partisan politicians in question would prefer to leave mired in false and misleading exchanges. They want to prevent any critical learning about issues such as the prevalence of racism or the causes of climate change, because their backers do not want them to be subject to informed reflection.
At the level of the university, they cite ‘academic freedom’ as the reason why no one – not white supremacists, unbridled misogynists, deniers of climate change or the Holocaust – should be denied the opportunity to promote their views on campus. They reject the idea that universities are learned institutions where dangerous, unfounded provocations ought to and can be differentiated from testable hypotheses. Instead, they want to use their power to facilitate the spreading of proven lies and malicious distortion to counter the development of civic minds that would be better equipped to engage in democratic politics.
So what is to be done?
In Who’s Afraid of Political Education? The Challenge to Teach Civic Competence and Democratic Participation, I brought together a team of leading experts to set out practical options for educators. Drawing on their own extensive experience and research findings from the US, Australia, the UK and the rest of Europe, they offer advice that falls broadly into four areas.
First of all, neither factual learning nor practical learning should be singled out to the exclusion of the other. All evidence points to a combination of learning about political ideas and institutions, and learning from participating in democratic activities as the most effective way to engender an informed interest in wider democratic politics. Notably, the impact lasts beyond school years to increase electoral engagement in later life.
Secondly, a focus on critical thinking is vital. Education has a key role to play in disseminating agreed texts on science, history, geography, etc, but there is a limit to how much information can be imparted. What is increasingly crucial is for young people to learn to discern the basis of what warrants belief and detect signs of unreliability. Teachers should help develop the skills and disposition to question claims which might be cloaked by misinformation and used to back extremist views; and foster cooperative enquiry to explore possible answers.
Thirdly, learning should take place in an open classroom culture, wherein everyone is respected and encouraged to participate, and authority is shared rather than vested solely in the teacher, an author, or the ‘brightest’ in the class. This does not mean that anyone can just say whatever they want. On the contrary, each is to be made aware that while one can express one’s feelings and beliefs (as can others), one is expected to talk through what may be behind such thoughts and attitudes, and they have to take account of others’ responses to them. The sharing of experiences does not necessarily (nor should it) resolve all differences, but it raises the shared understanding of what is being discussed.
Finally, political education should start as soon as possible, continue through all stages of formal education, and beyond that to informal action learning in the community. From the earliest age, children can learn from cooperative play to help each other and to solve problems together. As well as schools promoting factual and practical learning about democratic activities, further and higher education institutions can do substantially more in enhancing learners’ access to reliable information and skills in advancing democratic change.
Politicians who care about democracy should make it their priority to stop the manipulators who use ‘contentious issues’ and ‘academic freedom’ to mask their moves to keep citizens in the dark about critical political matters. Their prime task would be to give all the support they can to educators in the four areas where so much more could be – should be – done.
Henry Tam is a writer, educator and former Head for Civil Renewal under the last Labour government. He was previously a lecturer at the University of Cambridge.
Who’s Afraid of Political Education? edited by Henry Tam is available on the Policy Press website. Order here for £80.00.
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