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Civic Institutions

3 units

 

Civic Institutions courses provide students a breadth exploration of Civics.  CI courses utilize interdisciplinary and multi-perspective approaches to thinking about foundational systems and institutions that make up and shape the United States. Through exploration of systems, institutions, and roles- students understand the foundational, economic, logistical, and philosophical pillars that not only shape a nation, but also the experiences of groups and individuals within society.

 

LEARNING OUTCOME

From one or more perspectives, students will analyze and evaluate U.S. Institutions to critically inform public policy, personal, and professional decisions, focusing on historical developments, the principles and application of constitutional democracy, founding documents and constitutional debates, the effects of Supreme Court cases on law and society, civic participation and dialogue necessary for a self-governing society, and foundational economic knowledge.

Because civics is expereinced differently by different groups and individuals, courses falling under the Civic Institutions category are expected to engage in Perspective and Multi-perspective taking.Perspective-Taking in Civic Institutions courses are not restricted to academic disciplines. Courses may (and are encouraged to) considered social perspectives such as Borderland Residents or humans with disabilities. Courses can also include professional perspectives such as lawyers, teachers, or chemists. 

The Seven ABOR CIViCS AreAs

Civic Institutions courses must cover the seven ABOR Civic Areas within the same course. This means the course must include a breadth level review of US history, principles of consitutional democray, US Constitution and development, US foundational documents, cover one or more landmark supreme court cases, discuss civic actions and behaviors, and support the development of basic economic knowledge. These areas can be covered from the discipline of the course. Below you will find examples of how this can be done from three different disciplines.

Courses will address and cover how the history of the United States continues to shape the present.

Course Examples:

  • An Africana Studies course covers the significance of 1619 and the ways that Chattel Enslavement has shaped the lives of Americans well into the 21st Century.
  • An Environmental Studies course covers the relationship between humans and the environment inclusive of philosophies such as manifest destiny and how this might shape human care for the environment, sustainability, and global warming.
  • A Gender and Women Studies course may explore the roles of women from the foundation of the republic and determine how their roles have shifted well into the 21st century.

Courses examine in breadth the basic principles of American Constitutional democracy and how they are replied under a republican form of government.

Course Examples:

  • An Africana Studies course explores the U.S.  Constitution, what/who is omitted from protections under the constitution and how this might play out in the carceral system.
  • An Environmental Studies helps students think through land rights and how land entitlement might prevent sustainable practices or collective decisions that may supercede individual land rights.
  • A Gender and Women Studies course examines the experiences, roles, and social standing of women in a western democracy.

Courses will discuss the U.S. Constitution and major American constitutional debates and developments.

Course Examples:

  • An Africana Studies course explores the three-fifths compromise and codefying racial inequality in the U.S. Constitution.
  • An Environmental Studies helps students think through general welfare congressional authority established through the constitution and the developments of watershed rights in the Southwest.
  • A Gender and Women Studies course examines women's right to vote through the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Courses will cover the essential founding documents and how they have shaped the nature and functions of American Institutions of self-governance.

Course Examples:

  • An Africana Studies course examines Federal and State Black Codes and the shaping of African American labor in the United States post-Civil War.
  • An Environmental Studies course explores the general welfare clause of the Constitution and the creation of environmental protections under the law.
  • A Gender and Women Studies course analyzes the omission of women and types of women from foundational movements and documents in the 17th and 18th century.

Courses will include at least one or more landmark Supreme Court cases that have shaped law and society.

Course Examples:

  • An Africana Studies course examines Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and the role of desegregation on the quality of education for African Americans.
  • An Environmental Studies course analyzes the authority of the EPA to make regulatory decisions through landmark court cases such as Massachussettes v. EPA (2007).
  • A Gender and Women Studies course examines legal precidence set in Muller v. Oregon (1908) in preventing women from working as many hours as men based on perceived physical differences.

Courses will cover the civic actions necessary for effective citizenship and civic participation in a self-governing society- for example civil dialog and civil disagreement.

Course Examples:

  • An Africana Studies course examines the role of protest in the fight for civil rights in the United States during the Black Power movement.  
  • An Environmental Studies helps students grapple with divergent wants by examining the Dakota Access Pipeline, water access rights, and the Sovereign Nation of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
  • A Gender and Women Studies course hleps students identify the fight for women's right to vote in the 20th century.

Courses will introduce basic economic knowledge to critically assess public policy options and to inform professional and personal decisions.

Course Examples:

  • An Africana Studies course examines the economic power behind the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and similar communal actions.
  • An Environmental Studies course helps students to map the economic cost of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, impacts to the environment, humans, and resulting policies to prevent future spills.
  • A Gender and Women Studies course explores the Pink Tax and gender based economic burdens in the United States.