Classrooms for Democracy, by Denis V. Makarov, documents a project,
carried out by the Foundation for Development of Civic Culture, in
collaboration with the Department of Political Science and Sociology,
Moscow State Pedagogical University, that undertook comprehensive
research on how deliberative, politically-oriented communication in
college courses, along with other helpful educational methods and tools,
could improve the way in which institutions of higher education in
Russia carry out responsible civic and democratic missions.
This book details the project's five stages, carried out over five
academic years. The first two stages examined Russian universities' and
colleges' exposure to the civic and political agendas of their society.
The researchers looked for the potential that higher education could
offer for the country's democratic development. Stages three and four
experimented with different educational practices related to
deliberative pedagogy. Five public issues were framed and conducted
within the National Issues Forums format. The purpose of these
experiments was to understand the impact that a wider presence of
deliberative pedagogy might have on Russian education. The goal of the
fifth stage was to synthesize and critically analyze outcomes collected
during the previous stages of research and to address the current state
of the civic attitudes of college students, challenges of introducing
public politics, and prospects for the current generation of college
students.
Includes a foreword by Juan Pablo Beca.
About the Kettering Foundation
The Kettering Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit operating
foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research.
Kettering's primary research question is: What does it take to make
democracy work as it should? Kettering's research is distinctive because
it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what
people can do collectively to address problems affecting their lives,
their communities, and their nation. For more information about
Kettering research and publications, see the Kettering Foundation's
website at www.kettering.org.
