Civic Discourse (a first pass)
The precise nature of ‘civic discourse’ is contestable, but the conversation might begin with the fact that none of us lives on a desert island. For better or worse, we have to deal with people. People matter and how we treat them matters.
At a practical level, we don’t always like those around us. We may not always agree with them. Even so, we need to find ways to co-inhabit our homes, workplaces, and the planet.
At a baseline moral level, people deserve at least a modicum of respect. While there is plenty of room to disagree about what ‘respect’ means, the notion stands as a starting point for our collective dialogue. It is arguably a better starting point than assuming our family members, co-workers, and our fellow citizens of the world are disposal objects that can be tossed aside when they don’t suit our interests.
Core issue
Disagreements are inevitable. Yet, people don’t always disagree well. Building our capacity for civic discourse is probably preferable to clenching our way through each tense situation. While we cannot anticipate every situation or every potential difficulty, each of us can benefit from taking a careful look in the mirror. If we’re honest, each of us probably has some work to do. The sample exercises and the practical suggestions in this guide will not eliminate the possibility of disagreement or even guarantee satisfactory resolution, but they can help us build our civic discourse muscles.
National Trends
Various national organizations recognize that college graduates need the wherewithal to navigate disagreement and difference. Core concepts are talked about in slightly different ways, but they are all part of a cluster of thoughtful skills.
“Civic Preparedness”
The Institute for Citizens & Scholars promotes “civic preparedness” in partnership with College Presidents around the United States. They argue that:
“Colleges and universities must be training grounds for democratic life, creating a genuinely diverse community and ensuring that students practice listening, arguing, and collaborating with people who come from different backgrounds and hold different political views.”
“Civic Learning”
The Associate of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) calls for “civic learning” across the curriculum. They argue that:
“Educating students to be socially responsible, informed, and engaged citizens in their workplaces, nation, and the global community should be an expected goal for every major.”
“Civic Prosperity”
Project Pericles promotes “civic prosperity” through structured dialogue where students learn to “think together.” They argue that:
[civic prosperity] “includes students’ ability to navigate institutions, exercise voice, collaborate across differences, and contribute to community problem-solving in ways that strengthen both democratic life and economic opportunity.”
SUNY’s Competency Requirement
Effective fall 2026, SUNY’s General Education Program includes a civic discourse competency requirement. More specifically, it reads: “Students will demonstrate the discourse skills necessary to participate in civic life, including:
- the deliberation of ideas through reasoned inquiry that seeks new information and considers multiple viewpoints; and
- the ethical practice of advocacy, dissent, and dialogue that constructively attends to points of conflict.”
According to SUNY guidance, “the phrase ‘participate in civic life’ is intentionally broad to capture the ways in which individuals engage with various communities and public spaces, which may include political and social institutions within the United States and across the globe, as well as other spaces of public life, such as digital forums and the workplace. Conceived of in this manner, the skills of civic discourse are applicable across a range of disciplines.”
Civic Discourse Skills as Transferable Skills
When academics dream, they often talk about lofty ideas, like lifelong learning. This is typically cashed out in terms of preparing students for careers that have not yet been imagined. Foundational skills, goes the argument, gives them their best shot at an unknown future. That’s all true. But life on campus can also equips citizen-students for the messy business of being a human being. College campuses can be laboratories for deliberative democracy because they encourage students to examine their own values, consider alternative viewpoints, cultivate empathy, and maneuver amid indeterminate situations.
It may not always make the recruitment brochures or assessment reports, but life on a college campus can be a time for students to consider what and why they believe as they do. Do they endorse the values and politics of their parents? Or do they find their authentic selves elsewhere? College campuses can offer students (members of the workforce and citizens), the space to ask big questions, to explore who they want to be, and what they want to do with their lives.
Some courses explicitly include issues around civic discourse and have included these topics long before it became a requirement. For example, they might include uncomfortable conversations about the unsavory reality of United States history, the environmental impact of human consumption, the wage gap between men and women, and the criminal justice systems disparate treatment of people based on race.
Other courses might not seem to be about public discourse. At a fundamental level, however, every college class has the potential to contribute to that sense of curiosity and engagement with questions, the search for evidence, and making the case for particular answers to those questions. Each and every class can give students the opportunity to consider their use of information, their values, and their patterns of engagement with others. Because good scholarly habits are so similar to good citizenship habits, each class provides opportunities for cross-training these important habits. Even if the application isn’t always obvious, democracy benefits from a citizenry practiced in curiosity, courage, humility, and empathy.
This guide provides faculty with opportunities to decide for themselves what type and level of engagement best align with their course goals and larger objectives.