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Abstract:
The
concern for civic education has re-entered the mainstream
agenda of American political science. The primary
task is to consider what should be done to "reach"
the next generation of students. Most efforts in this
regard have operated under the assumption that students
of the future will be like students of the past. Based
on this view, the problem is most often regarded as
a matter of selecting an effective way to disseminate
relevant knowledge.
In
this paper I argue for operating on a different set
of assumptions, i.e. that we need to take seriously
the emergence of the new worldview among students
growing up in the age of the personal computer and
other new technologies. Put briefly, how do we prepare
ourselves for educating what Marshall McLuhan called
the "nomadic gatherers of knowledge" who
are the citizens of tomorrow?
To
meet this challenge, we must rethink the very nature
of what civic education entails. Rather than viewing
it as the training and "informing" of more
rational voters and community activists, we need to
think of civic education as the cultivation of a relevant
"narrative" that will engage students in
American civic life.
After
presenting a brief and speculative characterization
of the "nomadic student," I offer a brief
overview of the role played by different civic education
narratives over the past two centuries. Finally, I
consider how we might approach developing a civic
education narrative of the future, and what the implications
of the narrative shift might be for those of us who
will be engaged in "educating nomads."
Originally
posted 8.12.98
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