Higher Education Exchange 2018 – Kettering Foundation

Posted by Kettering Foundation on March 19, 2019

The 2018 edition of the Higher Education Exchange focuses on a research question that has structured much of the foundation’s work during the last year: How can an organization come to align itself with a democratic citizenry? For both higher education and for Kettering itself, this question is a challenge to consider how we can create complementary working relationships with citizens. It can be easy for even well-meaning institutions to allow their own patterns and prerogatives to override the more organic rhythms of community life. Many of the articles in this issue of the Higher Education Exchange focus on how Kettering, and our academic partners, have structured work with citizens and community partners to be collaborative rather than controlling—including through the student civic organizing model of Public Achievement, among campus centers in the foundation’s network, within the international Talloires Network and the domestic Democracy Commitment coalitions, and in democratic pedagogy. Through examples like these, this issue of the Higher Education Exchange aims to demonstrate the possibilities of alignment between citizens and higher education institutions.