SCiLL Summer Civics Institutes teach democracy fundamentals
In separate seminars led by Carolina faculty, civics teachers and high school students debated issues faced by the nation’s founders.
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Two weeklong campus seminars — one for teachers, one for students — examined America’s foundational documents and welcomed debate about them.
The UNC School of Civic Life and Leadership received nearly $1 million from the U.S. Department of Education to host these civics institutes over three summers. The seminars are based on SCLL 150: Foundations of American Civic Life.
Each institute also included a field trip. The teachers visited Historic Stagville in Durham before sessions on slavery and civil rights. The students went to Raleigh, touring the North Carolina Capitol and the Legislative Building, meeting General Assembly members and an adviser to the governor.
“As Americans, we’ve never had a greater need for civil discourse,” said Jed Atkins, SCiLL dean. “With the 250th anniversary of our nation, the Summer Civics Institute is a great opportunity to equip our students with the habits they need to be thoughtful, informed, engaged citizens and our teachers with the capacities to teach courses that instill those habits.”
Teachers first
At the teacher institute (July 6-9), 20 middle and high school teachers from nine North Carolina school districts were no longer the only civics teacher. At Carolina, they shared meals, read assignments and discussed civics with other specialists.
SCiLL professor of the practice Kyle Martin led them through a lively Socratic-style session on “Should We Have a Bill of Rights?” Responding to his questions, teachers cited the U.S. Bill of Rights, the “Second Bill of Rights” proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Locke’s views on natural rights.
The resulting exchange was “almost like a mirror of what I was trying to have in my class,” said Sakura Dozier-Muhammad, who just completed his second year of teaching civics and economics at Durham School of Technology.
He admired the teachers’ willingness to discuss their beliefs. “Because I think when we all come together with a willingness to listen and have a solutions-based goal, it’s going to be pretty easy to find common ground.”
Students also debate
At the student institute (July 12-16), 20 students from 15 public, charter, private and home schools got a taste of college life, including classwork. In a session on religious freedom, reading President George Washington’s letter to Quakers opposed to military service led to a discussion of later concepts like conscientious objection.
“Now that I’m being exposed to it and learning about these ideas, I’ve realized that it’s so much more rich when you really dive into them,” said Lee Marcus Idjao, a senior at Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte. “Seeing that even the Founding Fathers were thinking about all of these hypotheticals and how the society would work — wow, this is amazing.”
Abigail Slack, a junior at Covenant Day School in Charlotte, liked hearing from people of other faiths or no faith. “I’m learning more and seeing different people’s opinions and how they differ from my own,” she said, “but also how I can develop my own beliefs and ideals from seeing how other people think.”
Martin, who also led the religion discussion, enjoys interacting with future college students as well as the high school teachers who guide them. “The biggest component for me right now is that this is an opportunity to reach out beyond the University and build relationships.”
Rita Koganzon, the SCiLL associate professor who wrote the grant proposal for the institutes, looks forward to hosting 40 teachers and students in 2027 and 60 in 2028.
“These teachers will bring these pedagogies back to their districts,” she said. “We’re hoping to have an expanding effect on the state and also serve the state in a way that I think UNC is pretty committed to.”
