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Coalition Building
and
Democratic Principles

by
Terry Pickeral

Coalition building can provide an effective strategy to advance high-quality civic education while it models the principles of democracy.

Introduction
Currently, many national, state, and local organizations are interested in developing coalitions to advance effective education. This is especially true as educators, policy makers, and concerned citizens begin to focus on the Civic Mission of Schools and other policies, programs and pedagogies designed to improve civic education.

Coalition-building is not new to American education: school-to-career programs encourage collaborative efforts within schools and between schools and the workplace; arts education programs bring diverse organizations together to support the infusion of arts in the curriculum; early literacy efforts are assisted by interdisciplinary and community support; and early college entry programs are sustained through K–12 and higher education coalitions.

Why Coalition Building?

Why focus on coalitions? Isn’t it easier to establish an education agenda within your own organization, using your own methods and resources? Why take all the time and energy required to fabricate a new coalition to accomplish your objectives?

Most effective movements utilize coalitions because they complement the work of each organization and establish greater capacity and infrastructure. Effective collaborations strengthen each organization and model civic strategies for students and others to observe and adopt. Most important, coalition building in civic education provides a unique opportunity for reinforcing democratic principles. Coalition building can provide an effective strategy to advance high-quality civic education while it models the principles of democracy. A brief application of democratic principles to coalition building reveals the following connections:

Civic participation. Coalition participants have a right and responsibility to participate in the building and sustaining of a coalition. Coalition building means being informed, attending meetings, contributing to deliberations and making critical decisions for the public, i.e., the coalition’s good.
Equality. Collaborators should be treated equally and without discrimination and given equal opportunities to contribute to, learn from and represent the coalition.
Tolerance. Well-designed coalitions should ensure the rights of minority opinions. All participants should be allowed to express their opinions and choose ways to advance the coalition’s agenda.
Human rights. The coalition protects the rights of individuals and organizations and establishes agreed-upon rights and freedoms that can be guaranteed.
Rule of law. The coalition should ensure that no individual or organization is above the law, including its leadership. Everyone should adhere to the accepted processes and protocols. These processes must also be equally, fairly, and consistently enforced.
Accountability. A strong coalition is accountable to its participants for its actions, including how decisions are made and implemented.
Transparency. The coalition should be open to the participants and the public about its actions and should seek input before decisions are made.
Discussion, deliberation, and decision-making. The coalition should guarantee fair and regular opportunities for participants to engage in discussions and deliberations to meet short- and long-term objectives.
Controlling abuse of power. The coalition creates methods to ensure it operates in the best interest of its mission and does not allow for individuals or organizations to abuse shared power.

Linking principles of democracy to coalition building can yield benefits for the coalition, the organizations involved, and the teachers and students who will profit most from coalition-building endeavors.

Building Effective Coalitions: Thirteen Tips
Once a group of individuals and organizations establishes the desire to collaborate, the following strategies may be helpful in the design and implementation of an effective civic-education coalition.

Maintain fidelity to democratic principles. Ensure that the coalition participants commit to and practice equality; tolerance; accountability; transparency; and other democratic principles discussed above.
Create a common vision. Establish processes to ensure each collaborating organization (and participating individual) believes in and contributes to a shared vision by identifying a common purpose, inspiring action, and shaping the future.
Identify critical and complementary organizations. Consider the capacities of all participating individuals and organization. Invite others with complementary knowledge, skills, and networks to join.
Ensure reciprocity. Work to ensure there is reciprocity within the coalition so that all participants contribute to and benefit from the coalition.
Secure member support. It is easy to offer a commitment (or commitments) that signal(s) high interest; it is something different to obligate the organization to be active within the coalition. Stress that individuals and organizations are not just expressing interest; they are taking on a critical obligation to actively collaborate with others.
Develop a theory of change and action. Establish a set of processes that logically lead to the desired coalition outcome (theory of change) followed by identifying a set of corresponding activities that will yield specific results (theory of action).
Establish an advocacy agenda. Design a set of activities that includes an effective communications strategy, builds on current leadership, develops new leaders, and maximizes networks to achieve the coalition’s objectives.
Create a set of common expectations. Identify common expectations for individuals, organizations, and the coalition so that everyone understands what is expected of them and what they can expect of others.
Develop a communications strategy. Create a set of communication strategies that articulates the vision, purpose, and anticipated outcomes of the coalition.
Make room for new additions to the coalition. Oftentimes, coalition members use commitment to “the long haul” as the primary qualification for participation; this limits opportunities to engage new members. Successful coalitions recognize that well-qualified new arrivals can bring fresh ideas and energy to the coalition mix.
Identify and measure short- and long-term outcomes. Create measurable short- and long-term impacts so that progress is assessed frequently. This provides an opportunity to make mid-course corrections to the coalition’s process and outcomes.
Design and implement formal opportunities for improvement. The coalition needs to be committed to continuous improvement and thus ensure there are frequent formal opportunities to identify lessons learned and how they contribute to the coalition and its members.
Collect, analyze, and share knowledge. As the coalition proceeds, create formal products and resources for other individuals, organizations and coalitions to learn from and apply lessons learned.

Challenges to Effective Coalition-Building
Coalitions that are designed and implemented using democratic principles and the strategies outlined above will fare well but still face a variety of challenges. Individuals and organizations may (1) have competing priorities for their time and resources; (2) lack trust that the coalition will both succeed and benefit them; and (3) lead them away from their set of specific work and comfort toward a less comfortable (uncontrollable) future.

Many individuals and organizations have had experience with failed coalitions and may be skeptical about the potential success of another attempt. In addition, potential participants and organizations often focus on the cost of their participation in the coalition, rather than on the benefits of the investment.

Other groups have experienced discomfort when creating common work and committing to a set of expectations – especially when they become public. Finally, many coalitions fail because they are not adequately funded and lack the necessary capacity to carryout the strategic plans.

Examples of Statewide and National Civic-Education Coalitions
The strategies and challenges discussed above have been gleaned from actual coalitions that have struggled with the realities of coalition building and established a track record of success. Below are some examples of successful civic-education coalitions that operate at national and state levels.

Statewide: The California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools
Educating for Democracy
Convened by Constitutional Rights Foundation in collaboration with the Center for Civic Education and in cooperation with the Alliance for Representative Democracy, this campaign seeks the support of education, business, law, parents’, and other service groups to promote civic education in California.

The California Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools collaborates with schools to assess their current civic education practices and improve them by developing and implementing promising practices and providing teacher preparation and resources. In addition, this collaborative campaign is forming coalitions to build public support for improving civic education in California public schools and to advocate policies to implement more effective practices.

For more information, visit the California Campaign web site.

Statewide and National: Alliance for Representative Democracy
The Center for Civic Education, The Center on Congress at Indiana University, and the National Conference of State Legislatures developed the Alliance for Representative Democracy to advance civic education through national advocacy and state coalitions. This five-year effort addresses concerns about civic knowledge and engagement among young people and the decline in the teaching of civics in American classrooms.
The Alliance hosts national civic-education conferences that bring together educators and school activists, members of the judiciary, state legislators, and representatives from professional and civic organizations. It also provides civic-education resources, training, and develops strategies to make civic education a core subject in schools, to establish standards and curricular requirements, and to improve teacher education and professional development. For more information visit the Alliance for Representative Democracy web site.

Statewide and National: Civic Mission of Schools
The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools was created to expand and improve civic learning in American schools. The Campaign works with its 40 coalition partners to bring about changes in state, local, and national policy that promote civic learning and implement recommendations from the Civic Mission of Schools.
On its national advocacy track, the Campaign focuses national attention on improving civic learning in our schools; encourages the federal government to allocate funding to the states for civic education; and calls for more formal civic assessments.
On its state advocacy track, the Campaign funds eighteen state coalitions and provides technical assistance to strengthen civic-education policies; develops communications tools to support state advocacy; makes a comprehensive set of civic-learning resources and practices available online; persuades state legislators, education officials, teachers, business and community leaders, parents and students that civic learning is vital to democracy. For more information, visit the Civic Mission of Schools web site.

National: Education Leadership Colloquium
Campus Compact and the Education Commission of the States (ECS) formed a coalition focused on advancing citizenship education in K–12 and higher education systems through policy and leadership. The coalition designed and implemented four annual Education Leadership Colloquia (ELC) on the Civic Mission of American Education, engaging 20 state teams of policymakers, K–12 and higher education leaders, program managers and community partners in deliberations and decisions to sustain high-quality citizenship education.

The two national organizations shared responsibilities for influencing pedagogy, professional development, community collaborations, and support to integrate and sustain high-quality citizenship education.

As a result of the ELC, several states have developed state citizenship education policy initiatives, implemented state and local P–16 citizenship education coalitions, and aligned citizenship education with other state and local education policies, programs and priorities. For more information, visit the Campus Compact web site.

Summary
A good collaboration will continue to evolve as a result of mutual learning. To be successful, collaborations should be built on new patterns of information gathering, communication and reflection that allow all parties to participate in decision-making and learning. This requires time and face-to-face interaction.

– Judith Ramaley, The Perspective of a Comprehensive University

Individuals and organizations committed to high-quality civic-education coalitions need to understand the benefits of coalitions and the inherent challenges to their design and sustainability. Focusing on general principles of coalition development offers a broad framework to build coalitions, but to sustain high-quality civic-education coalitions, participants need to honor the basic values and principles of democratic systems.

Considering, adopting, or adapting the processes and characteristics outlined in this article will established a blueprint to design, implement and sustain civic education coalitions that achieve the coalition’s vision while contributing to the effectiveness of each participating individual and organization.

Policymakers should provide resources, incentives and accountability systems to support civic-education coalitions.

Education leaders should recognize the benefits of civic-education coalitions and provide the resources and infrastructure necessary to develop, sustain, and enhance both coalition and school-based desires to accomplish their goals.

Civic-education advocates and practitioners should articulate the benefit of civic-education coalitions and maintain fidelity to the principles of democracy in collaborative design, implementation and sustainability.

While working independently may well be an easier process to advance civic education, it will fall short of achieving long-term success in schools and impacts on students. Overcoming the inherent challenges of coalition building is not only possible but also necessary to maximize the limited resources and contributions to enhancing our democratic society.

Terry Pickeral is the Executive Director of the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC) at the Education Commission of the States (ECS) and provides leadership in citizenship education, state and district efforts to sustain service-learning and education policy.

Resources
Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health, 2002. Partnership Self-Assessment Too, June (www.cacsh.org)

Lawson, H. A. and K. Hooper-Briar, 1994. Expanding Partnerships: Involving Colleges and Universities in Interprofessional Collaboration and Service Integration. Oxford, OH: The Danforth Foundation and the Institute for Educational Renewal at Miami, Ohio.

Pickeral, Terry 2003. Partnerships with Elementary and Secondary Education. In B. Jacoby Building Partnerships for Service-Learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Pickeral, Terry 1996. The Roots of Campus-Community Collaborations. In T. Pickeral and K. Peters (eds.) Campus-Community Collaborations: Examples and Resources for Community Colleges. Mesa, AZ: Campus Compact National Center for Community Colleges.

Ramaley, Judith 2002. The Perspective of a Comprehensive University. In T. Ehrlich (Ed), Civic Responsibility and Higher Education. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx

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