Following a foreword by Derek W. M. Barker, "Deliberation as Public Judgment: Recovering the Political Roots of a Democratic Practice," contents of this issue include: (1) Beyond Adversary Democracy (Jane Mansbridge); (2) What Is Political Judgment? (Ronald Beiner); (3) The Bumpy Road from Mass Opinion to Public Judgment (Daniel…

The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. The foundation seeks to identify and address the challenges to making democracy work as it should through interrelated program areas that focus on citizens, communities, and institutions. Each issue of this annual newsletter…

This Cousins Research Group report includes two articles by Kettering Foundation president David Mathews that were published previously. "The Public for Public Schools Is Slipping" was first published in "Education Week" in 1995. The second piece, "Putting the Public Back into Public Education: An Old-Fashioned Remedy for…

This annual publication serves as a forum for new ideas and dialogue between scholars and the larger public. Essays explore ways that students, administrators, and faculty can initiate and sustain an ongoing conversation about the public life they share. Following a Foreword by Deborah Witte, this issue of the "Higher Education Exchange"…

Started in 1998, the Whisenton Public Scholars program is a collaboration of Joffre T. Whisenton and Associates, the Kettering Foundation, and participating higher education professionals. The program works primarily with faculty and administrators from schools with a mission to serve minority communities (such as historically black colleges and…

The Kettering Foundation is a nonprofit, operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. Kettering's research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively to address problems affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation. The…

Each issue of this annual newsletter focuses on a particular area of Kettering's research. The 2015 issue focuses on a yearlong review of Kettering's research over time. This issue contains the following articles that address this review: (1) How Kettering Discovered Democracy (David Mathews); (2) Key Events in KF History (Collette McDonough); (3)…

Bob Cornett, a former state budget director for Kentucky, describes himself as a "retired bureaucrat." But as a parent, grandparent, and a person who has been involved in education reform for more than 20 years, he's come to understand that, if public education policies are to be corrected, the impetus has to come from the citizenry. In…

As scholarship has become increasingly narrow and disconnected from public life, Kettering research has documented an intense sense of malaise in higher education, what Harry Boyte has called a loss of civic agency. Surprisingly, however, faculty at a few campuses have begun to self-organize to integrate civic work into their teaching and…

Almost everyone is familiar with the African saying, "It takes a village to raise a child." However, there are very few "villages" that actually engage in this practice. The educational assets of the village include the knowledge of neighborhood residents, the clubs, groups, and associations that are citizen-based learning…

When citizens deliberate together about important issues, they can reach decisions and take action together on problems that confront them. Deliberation does not require a certain kind of guide, or framework, or language, or facilitator, but, because it can be difficult to face such choices, supporting materials can make it easier. In Developing…

Research shows that not only does higher education not see the public; when the public, in turn, looks at higher education, it sees mostly malaise, inefficiencies, expense, and unfulfilled promises. Yet, the contributors to this issue of the "Higher Education Exchange" tell of bright spots in higher education where experiments in working…

Marguerite Shaffer, director of American Studies at Miami University, is one of a surprisingly large number of faculty members who are at odds with an academic culture that isn't hospitable to their efforts to combine a public life with a scholarly career. She is concerned about what is happening in her field and about the world her two children…

In 1993, the Kettering Foundation and Public Agenda released a report titled "Divided Within, Besieged Without: The Politics of Education in Four American School Districts." The study's attention to communities was distinct from the conventional focus on the technical issues of school administration and funding, and it reported on what…

At state and institutional levels, leaders are discussing and enacting policy changes that could shape the future of higher education for decades-especially public higher education. But when citizens talk about the mission of higher education today, their conversations are different from those of policymakers. How do their values and concerns…