Educating Citizens: Preparing America's Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility (review)

Many of us who are passionate about moral and civic education and preparing college students for lives of social responsibility anxiously awaited the publication of Educating Citizens, the first volume in a new series about important issues in higher education from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. I feel confident that I speak on behalf of my passionate colleagues that we have not been disappointed. The authors set out to elucidate why moral and civic education should be a central goal for higher education and how colleges and universities can achieve this ambitious goal. I believe that they succeed admirably.

The names of the senior authors alone entice us to read this book. Ehrlich and Colby have long been well-known and well-respected for their commitment to enhancing the role of colleges and universities in preparing students for lives of moral and civic responsibility, Ehrlich from the perspective of higher education and Colby from the perspective of the psychology of moral development. Beaumont and Stephens added the perspectives of political science and educational psychology, respectively. The book is based on the team's review of the practices of moral and civic education at many institutions of higher education and in-depth visits to 12 diverse campuses.

Although other books and articles address aspects of this topic, I know of none that address it as clearly and as comprehensively or from so many angles—historical, philosophical, pedagogical, and practical, to name but four. Educating Citizens contains much of value and interest to all of its intended audiences: policy makers and scholars, administrative leaders, and individuals whose work is more grounded in particular courses, programs, or departments than at the broad institutional level. Because student affairs professionals are surely represented in all three audiences, the book contains at least something for all of us who are concerned with student learning and the health of our democracy.

Chapter 1 lays out the rationale for undergraduate moral and civic education, emphasizing the public purposes of higher education and the well-chronicled decline in civic participation, especially among young people. As student development educators, we resonate with the carefully crafted definition of a morally and civically responsible person:

A fully developed individual must have the ability to think clearly and in an appropriately complex and sophisticated way about moral and civic issues; he or she must possess the moral commitment and sense of personal responsibility to act, which may include having moral emotions such as empathy and concern for others; moral and civic values, interests, and habits; and knowledge and experience in the relevant domains of life. (pp. 17-18)

The second chapter addresses the historical context of moral and civic education, together with the challenges, barriers, and "hopeful developments" in today's higher education. Despite these challenges, chapter 3 profiles 12 colleges and universities, dramatically different from one another, that are building moral and civic education into the core of undergraduate learning. The authors identify three thematic approaches to moral and civic education: (a) connections with the different sorts of communities, (b) moral and civic virtue defined in various ways, and (c) concern for social justice or systemic social responsibility. I found these themes to be thought-provoking and useful in reflecting on the purpose and desired outcomes of moral and civic education at my institution.

In chapter 4, the authors provide a thorough review of relevant research and theory. They draw the multiple dimensions of moral and civic education from this work and helpfully cluster them into three intersecting categories: moral and civic understanding, motivation, and skills.

Chapters 5, 6, and 8 address the how of moral and civic education to achieve these dimensions, or outcomes, through pedagogical approaches; the integration of moral and civic learning in general...