Public sphere pedagogy

Public sphere pedagogy (PSP) represents an approach to educational engagement that connects classroom activities with real world civic engagement. The focus of PSP programs is to connect class assignments, content, and readings with contemporary public issues. Students are then asked to participate with members of the community in various forms of public sphere discourse and democratic participation such as town hall meetings and public debate events. Through these events, students are challenged to practice civic engagement and civil discourse.

Public sphere pedagogy is theoretically grounded in Jürgen Habermas' conceptualization of the public sphere. In his seminal work The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Habermas envisioned the public sphere as an inclusive discursive space in which the citizens of a society gathered, discussed, and debated over the issues of the day. Habermas argued that the European bourgeois public sphere that emerged in eighteenth century coffee houses and salons represented an idealized form of the public sphere. Individuals engaging in discussion in these spaces would share and debate their views with one another. Habermas argues that this dialectic encounter was a critical part of one's social life where individuals, as part of a larger public, could construct public opinion through critical rational discourse. Habermas argued that these discussions served to fill the gap between the state and the people by creating what he called a "civil society". Further, Habermas argued that a functioning public sphere was critical to maintaining a healthy democratic order and deliberative democracy.

This traditional notion of a face-to-face public sphere has evolved with the invention of online technologies. The public sphere no longer requires a physical setting, but can manifest in cyberspace. The coffee house discussions idealized by Habermas have expanded to blogs, discussion forums, and online videos. Henry Giroux in particular discusses the role of new media in the public sphere and public pedagogy. However, scholars debate whether computer-mediated communication in an online setting actually constitutes a functioning public sphere or just a public space.

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