Thursdays, 5:30 - 7:20 pm (PT) • 5 weeks • Sept 24 – Nov 11
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At a time when public discourse is increasingly polarized, learning to disagree thoughtfully and engage across differences from a young age has become an essential civic skill. This course examines how the principles of deliberative democracy can be applied in K–12 classrooms, equipping educators with practical tools for teaching civil discourse and engaged citizenship. Developed in partnership with the Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab, it combines research insights with classroom-ready strategies.
Students learn to design and facilitate structured deliberations, practicing these methods through guided exercises and applying them to real and often contentious public issues such as climate policy, free speech, immigration, and emerging technologies. They also explore Stanford’s AI-supported deliberation platform, which helps structure and moderate student discussions, and connect with a broad network of educators using similar approaches, including Northwestern’s Center for Enlightened Disagreement and the Close Up Foundation. Students leave with adaptable lesson plans, facilitation strategies, and digital tools ready for immediate use in their classrooms.
| Registration Opens August 17 » |
Course Instructor
Alice Siu
Associate Director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab and Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford
Alice Siu received a PhD in communication from Stanford, with a focus in political communication, deliberative democracy, and public opinion. She also received a BA in economics and in public policy and an MA in political science from Stanford. Siu has advised policymakers and political and industry leaders around the world at various levels of government. Her research interests in deliberative democracy include the quality of deliberation, scaling deliberation to K–16, and scaling deliberation through technology for deliberative societies.
This course is designed for teachers and educators. The course may be taken for continuing education credit, and a digital certificate of completion is available in addition to an official transcript. Educators may be eligible for a 20% tuition discount. After registering, students complete a verification form, and Continuing Studies applies the discount retroactively once eligibility is confirmed.