READING TODAY | May/June 2015
Maximizing this potential depends
greatly on what students witness and
experience as being valued societal
behavior. Thus, the importance of the
classroom experience, one of the first
nonfamily communities where children
learn how to be successful as an individual
and a group, can’t be minimized.
Elements for success
I have been privileged to visit
classrooms and talk with educators
throughout the world. I quickly learned
every one of us is committed to the
development of our students’ literacy
skills. I observed that, no matter the
conditions under which we teach,
instructional content and delivery
are positioned to promote future civic
competence and engagement.
Every one of us contributes to
the development of knowledge, skills,
attitudes, values, and intentions
needed for a competent and engaged
citizenry, elements identified in the
2013 publication Civic Education and
Competences for Engaging Citizens in
Democracies (Sense Publishers).
For some, knowledge signifies
something absolute. The student’s
relation to this knowledge seems little
more than memorizing information.
But students with this understanding
are ill-prepared for citizen engagement
where competing perspectives are
discussed and challenged.
Knowledge is a process and includes
accepting the possibility of more than
one set of answers. It’s why we expose
students to multiple genre and authentic
cross-cultural texts that represent
different points of view. Active citizens
need to comprehend and integrate
diverse concepts to arrive at substantiated
knowledge. As our students examine
competing ideas, we are preparing them
to be informed citizens.
Skills help us obtain, judge, and use
information to contribute to knowledge
construction. Skills can be as basic as
the ability to decode text. Deeper skills
are developed when students become
aware of their relation to the text and
ask questions such as “What am I
expected to conclude from this text?”
and “How do my own views affect my
interpretation?”
Particular knowledge and skills
can be taught and tested, but attitudes
cannot. It is here that we get to the
heart of the matter.
Even our youngest students carry
attitudes learned through interactions
with family and others. We cannot
(nor should we) force students to have
certain attitudes, but by attending to
how we teach, we create environments
and provide opportunities for students
to have a broadened experience of what
is acceptable and what is possible.
I often observed students working
collaboratively, an instructional
approach with academic benefits.
But this collaborative space can also
collapse the distance and alter attitudes
when differences among participants
are large. As students combine their
ideas, drawing upon the strengths and
experiences of others to achieve a goal,
we support them in all the processes
required for building a social support
system, establishing a workable code
of conduct, and recognizing how
community interdependence can
function effectively.
We encourage students to exercise
personal decision making, often asking
them to choose what they read and
decide how they demonstrate their
learning. As they alternate between
autonomy and collaboration, students
learn how to balance personal desires
and group preferences—preparation
for participation in a democracy.
Personal values undergird our own
actions and how we interpret the actions
of others. The values I saw promoted
in classrooms included respect for
differences, belief in equal treatment and
nonviolent resolution, and consideration
for others. Although unable to command
these values, we can create environments
in which actions that disregard them
impair the efficiency of the group and
interfere with the accomplishment
of a valued task.
Intention, our last component of
civic competence, refers to the unique
characteristic of civic association
that is motivated by a goal to be met
voluntarily by citizens.
Students in our classrooms set
and achieve goals through communal
action. I witnessed them designing and
undertaking purposeful projects such
as creating instructional podcasts and
campaigning for library books. Students
used sophisticated literacy skills while
discovering their potential to shape their
futures and grapple with civic issues.
Strong, sustainable democracies
require strong democratic leaders.
Sometimes class leaders emerge
naturally by helping others to take
responsibility, work as a team, or
resolve conflicts. We encourage shared
governance, guiding students through
project-based learning and alternating
leadership roles we assign to ensure all
students gain practice with leadership
skills and appreciate the role of a leader
in empowering others.
Experiencing shared governance in
classrooms is key to understanding how
civil societies behave.
The end result
Some students enter classrooms
with the knowledge, skills, values,
and attitudes necessary for citizen
participation and believe their personal
goals are achievable. Fortunately, our
literacy instruction—how and what
we teach—increases the possibility of
promoting citizen engagement among
all students while in our classrooms and
continuing into their adult lives.
I believe this is the larger purpose
of our instruction, and I have witnessed
teachers everywhere educating
students to become literate, purposeful,
and civic-minded individuals capable
of making a difference in their
communities.
Thank you for this privilege. Thank
you for what you do.
Experiencing shared governance in
classrooms is key to understanding how
civil societies behave.
Catch Jill Lewis-Spector
at ILA 2015
Lewis-Spector, along with
Peter Freebody, will present on
“Literacy for Engaged Citizenship:
Preparing Students for the Public
Space” on Saturday, July 18.