Learning and Teaching about Deliberative Democracy: on Campus and in the Field

Abstract

College students, particularly those enrolled in public affairs programs, need to learn the skills of deliberative democracy. How can public affairs programs develop these skills and knowledge base among their students? This paper reports on a variety of efforts to teach deliberative democracy to undergraduates and graduate students through coursework and extracurricular experience.We describe how public affairs programs may include deliberative democracy in the curriculum through the teaching of basic participation models, the art of reasoned judgment, moderator skills, issue framing, and the crafting of research agendas from practice. Developing these democratic competencies will benefit students as future citizens and/or public officials.