From the country's foundingAmericans have long recognized the role that schools play in ensuring a stable democracy and a cohesive society. But while we agree that schools should serve democratic and social purposes, we disagree about how they should do so.
Today, blue and red America think very differently about many things. Over the past 20 years, Gallup has found that the gap has grown Across all 24 political and social issues surveyed, the gap between Democratic and Republican views either widened or remained steady, while the Pew Research Center found that the pandemic has only exacerbated partisan divisions. Americans' trust in institutions of knowledge such as science and medicine.
It’s not surprising that these differences of opinion extend to public schools.
About this project
This project is part of a special report called Big Ideas EdWeek reporters, the EdWeek Research Center and contributing researchers ask the tough questions about K-12 education's biggest challenges and provide insights based on their extensive reporting and expert knowledge.
Unfortunately, seemingly opposing views on how schools should develop citizens don’t eliminate the need to instill fundamental values ​​in the entire population – they just make it more difficult.
We need to find virtues that both the political right and left see as valuable, and we need those virtues to have meaningful connections to our political and social well-being. When it comes time to instill those virtues in our schools, we need an approach to instruction that resists the temptation to paint this work in partisan red or blue colors.
Intellectual humility is one thing to look out for.
What is intellectual humility?
Intellectual humility is a concept that dates back to ancient texts like the Proverbs in the Bible. It means acknowledging that our knowledge is biased and that others know things that we don't. It means admitting when we don't know something or are wrong. It means being willing to learn from others, including those who see things differently than we do.
Research suggests intellectual humility The more self-confident a person is, the more likely they are to display arrogance (although arrogance often masks deeper insecurity)..
Being intellectually humble doesn't mean avoiding conflict: On the contrary, intellectually humble people tend to be interested in politics and enjoy political debate.Perhaps approaching these discussions with intellectual humility makes them more interesting and productive.
And intellectual humility doesn't require us to give up all knowledge, or to surrender, or to constantly change our views. Rather, as Benjamin Franklin said, it requires us to doubt our own infallibility a little and to change our views when the evidence leads us to do so.
Why do we need intellectual humility now?
Consider the decades-long debate over the teaching of evolution.
This conflict took place during a particularly ugly time when one of us (Tenelle Porter) was in high school. On the one hand, some members of the faith community denounced evolution as pseudoscience. Popular Christian books attacked evolution, portraying it as false and hostile to religion.
On the other hand, some atheists and members of the scientific community viewed religious people as fundamentally anti-science, and likened belief in God to belief in the “Flying Spaghetti Monster.”Popular scientific religious texts of the time portrayed believers as stupid, delusional, and hateful.
For the students at that Bible Belt high school, the message was clear: Pick a team and stick to it zealously. Forget trying to understand different perspectives on ancient mysteries or wrestling with deep questions about humanity and a fascinating, incomplete, and complicated evidence base. There was a battle to be won.
That heated debate, full of enthusiasm, rigidity and self-confident ignorance, demonstrated the need for real guidance beyond simple dogma — in other words, perhaps an exercise in intellectual humility.
Young learners today have the same needs, and they are even more so as social media makes the information environment more fragmented. We all need the intellectual humility to lay down our weapons, challenge our false beliefs, and seek to understand those who hold different perspectives.
Research supports the idea that intellectual humility is helpful: With increased intellectual humility, people tend to be less dogmatic, more curious, and more willing to learn about opposing points of view.Intellectual humility helps prevent people from believing or sharing false information. From supporting conspiracy theories.
Regardless of political views, intellectually humble people place greater weight on evidence-based public health recommendations. And they are more likely to follow the recommendations..
Can intellectual humility be taught in schools?
Inculcating intellectual humility is crucial to the school's mission of instilling a lifelong desire for truth, understanding and learning.
Are people born intellectually humble, or is it something that can be learned? What makes us want to be intellectually humble? Is the desire hardwired, or can it be shaped? Recent research A study of middle school students and their teachers, co-authored by one of us (Tennell Porter again) with several collaborators, may provide some initial answers.
The study included survey responses from more than 500 sixth- and seventh-graders over the course of a year, as well as more than 100 face-to-face classroom observations. Three times over the year, students rated how willing they were to admit when they didn't know something, for example.
The study found that some teachers created classroom cultures that prioritized learning and growth (trying to understand) over getting grades (trying to look smart). These teachers were more likely to produce students who demonstrated intellectual humility from the end of the school year to the next.
Further research has suggested that When teachers first model intellectual humility, students are more likely to follow suit.
Ultimately, when intellectual humility is valued, modeled, and practiced in the classroom, students can You will develop greater intellectual humility and, as a result, you will learn more.
How can we teach intellectual humility about polarizing issues?
As educators, we encounter students with whom we disagree, and with each other. How should we handle disagreements over emotional issues?
In our view, students need intellectually humble teachers, coaches, counselors, and religious leaders who can teach them how to seek out competing ideas and how to generously admit to themselves and others that their underlying assumptions may be wrong.
Children need to hear that even teachers they respect sometimes get things wrong or change their minds.
They need to know how to talk to people who hold different views and how to do the difficult task of formulating a position based on fair consideration of the various sides of an issue, and then be prepared to revise that position afterwards.
Realistically, we're not going to see a situation in the near future where Americans of all political persuasions fundamentally share the same worldview, and that's okay.
But we need to find ways to coexist peacefully with different perspectives, and schools can help us do that.