Democracy in the classroom

The mission of historically Black Colleges and universities (HBCUs) and political science courses at these must work harder to engage students more fully in democratic processes. More needs to be done to meet the challenge of growing distrust, apathy, and frustration among college students. Political science courses are a good starting point. Course curricular can be designed to strengthen civic responsibility and the creative capacities of students. Traditional pedagogies tend to produce traditional patterns of behavior. The concepts and strategies begun by the National Issues Forums are effective tools that can help facilitate greater deliberation and engagement on HBCU campuses.
The mission statement of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), one of the nation's largest and academically diverse historically Black college and universities (HBCUs), is not much different than its [...]