The Role of Civic Debt in Democratic Education

Abstract

The notion of educational gaps often portrays students of color as lower performing (or with less resources) than their White counterparts. The most prevalent gap narratives in civic education are the civic opportunity gap, where students of color in low-income areas tend to receive less quality civic education than White, wealthier students; and the civic empowerment gap, where disenfranchised students (often students of color in low income neighborhoods) display less civic knowledge, attitude and behavior than White students. In this paper, I argue that both of these civic gaps are a manifestation of a larger civic debt that is partially rooted in the racial grammar of civic education.

Notes

1 See http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/19/us/ferguson-social-media-injustice/index.html for a broader use of the hashtag.

2 This anecdote is derived from classroom observations collected during a larger research study.

3 See O’Connor’s (2002) discussion of this term as well as Lewis’s (1981) chapter titled “The Culture of Poverty” (p. 316).

4 See “Actions Sparked By Protests Can Have Sustained Influence” (n.d.), “Message To ‘Resistors’ From Occupy Co-Creator” (n.d.), and Pakman (2017) as examples.

5 The ideals of equality, popular sovereignty, civil rights and liberties, rule of law, etc.