Alberto Olivas

Creating Space for Democracy: A Primer on Dialogue and Deliberation in Higher Education (Chapter 25: Enacting Democracy in "Democracy's Colleges"); Oct 2019. Stylus Publishing, LLC. https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Space-Democracy-Deliberation-Education/… 

This primer offers a blueprint for achieving the civic mission of higher education by incorporating dialogue and deliberation into learning at colleges and universities. It opens by providing a conceptual framework, with leading voices in the dialogue and deliberation field providing insights on issues pertinent to college campuses, from free speech and academic freedom to neutrality and the role of deliberation in civic engagement. Subsequent sections describe a diverse range of methods and approaches used by several organizations that pioneered and sustained deliberative practices; outline some of the many ways in which educators and institutions are using dialogue and deliberation in curricular, co-curricular, and community spaces, including venues such as student centers, academic libraries, and residence halls. All of the chapters, including a Resource Section, provide readers with a starting point for conceptualizing and implementing their own deliberation and dialogue initiatives.

Deepening Deliberation in Community Colleges: Reflections on Our Research; Jan 2019. Higher Education Exchange/Kettering Foundation Access this article: https://www.kettering.org/catalog/product/developing-deliberative-pract…

"In this article, we describe a three-year project... to embed deliberation as a civic skill in community colleges... [as] a way to redirect civic initiatives away from a focus on the problems in democracy to the problems of democracy. Whether fostered in the curriculum or the extracurriculum, deliberation 'is a critical approach to educating for democracy, to engaging students in the practice of acting in the public arena, and to helping students understand that their voices and experiences can indeed have an impact on our communities and our democracy.'"

Community Colleges and Educating for Democracy; Mar 2016. EJournal of Public Affairs, Vol 5, No 1 (2016) Access this article: http://www.ejournalofpublicaffairs.org 

"The community college is widely viewed as an institution of democracy. Policymakers value it as a low-cost way to educate and train the nation’s least prepared and less well-off, and students view it as a good way—for many, the only way­­—to educate themselves and transcend the social class into which they were born. Yet acting as an institution or an agent of democracy is not the same thing as educating for democracy, which means engaging students in both an understanding of civic institutions and the practical experience of acting in a public arena. Educating for democracy is an active notion; it implies intention, commitment to an ideal. Whereas democratizing education is a function community colleges perform, educating for democracy is a choice, one that must be renewed and refined with each successive cohort of students, administrative change, and budget cycle. In this essay we explore several key questions related to community colleges and educating for democracy. In particular: How do community colleges and their constituents understand the notion of educating for democracy, and why is it important to the colleges’ democratic mission? What challenges do community colleges face in educating for democracy? And finally: How do deliberative practices fit within community college efforts to educate for democracy? We contend that deliberation is a critical approach to educating for democracy, and represents a way to redirect civic initiatives away from a focus on the problems in democracy to the problems of democracy."

Developing Deliberative Practice: The Role of Deliberation with Underrepresented Populations in Community Politics; Apr 3, 2008. Kettering Foundation. Access this article: https://www.kettering.org/catalog/product/developing-deliberative-pract…

"The focus of this research was on the political and community engagement of underserved and underrepresented populations. Specifically: 1. How do underserved and underrepresented populations view their own community engagement activities in relationship to community politics? 2. Can deliberative practices help engage people, particularly underserved and underrepresented populations, in community politics? Research was conducted with a dual approach–interviews and test case analysis. We examined work completed from Summer of 2006 to Fall of 2008 in order to understand how a center can best work with leaders in public institutions and ethnic/minority-based organizations in a way that challenges traditional methods of convening. A particular area of emphasis was identifying ways of engaging underrepresented populations in deliberative forums and the difference that deliberative forums can make, or not, in surfacing unique perspectives from these populations."