For links to the entire report and the appendix go to

http://www.nifi.org/news/news_detail.aspx?itemID=14738&catID=24 .

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS ON THE USE OF NATIONAL ISSUES FORUMS IN THE CLASSROOM (NIFIC) IN THE LAST THREE YEARS

General Findings

•  Some of the educators using NIFIC are yet to understand the concept of a different kind of democracy and politics
•  Some of the educators are using NIFIC materials for debate
•  Most of the educators have not been trained on naming and framing issues
•  The motivating factors for educators are hope and belief in NIFIC
•  Connection with the communities not fully on the ground
•  Sustainability of NIFIC is difficult
•  The inaccessibility of the NCLB grant to aid NIFIC
•  The motivating factor for students is their desire for a different kind of politics
•  Other social activities in schools promote the use of NIFIC
•  Students that are already involved in school club activities are better than their    contemporaries
•  The current NIFIC materials are difficult for high school students to comprehend
•  There are many uses of NIFIC
•  Passion is the common cord that binds educators and students together

On the Effects of NIFIC

• The outputs of NIFIC activities and materials are the number of forums, workshops, training programs and engagements held within the period under review. The table will show this.
•  The outcomes are, but not limited to, improved understanding of issues, improved democratic attitudes, enhanced knowledge, amount of information shared, enhanced speaking and listening skills. These are also components of a different kind of politics.
• The impacts of NIFIC can only be viewed from other achievements that students made or are making from their follow-up activities, which are directly from the measurable outcomes. For example, in Wheatley Middle School, Birmingham, AL, 3 students won scholarships as prizes for a Stop-the violence essay contest. This is a direct impact from the outcome of the forums held in their schools.
• The impacts are not always quantifiable- one cannot measure the impacts of a worthy cause such as NIFIC, but we can identify them in the long run.
  The impacts of NIFIC on the understanding of students on democracy and democratic practices can only be identified if students take the outcomes to the next level while they are in schools, otherwise, if you see a product of NIFIC taking a leaderful role in the community tomorrow, beat your chest a little because other factors or programs might be partly or fully responsible for the impact.
• Rate of transition from a lower grade to a higher grade, and rate of graduation would have been methods of identifying the impacts, but NIFIC is not set out to achieve these - other factors would contribute to the performance rate of the students. 

Recommendations

• There should be regular retraining of educators to update their knowledge and skills in deliberative practices
•  A mechanism should be instituted to connect the good works educators are doing.
• Students should be encouraged to join school clubs since it has been established that students who are participating in extra-curricular activities remain more civically engaged than their contemporaries.
• Educational administrators should be fully integrated into the scheme of things.
• Out-of-classroom activities should be used to complement NIFIC
• Educators need to learn more about naming and framing
• Funders, donor agencies and civil society organizations already promoting democracy and democratic practices should also pay attention to schools that are trying to inculcate these practices into their school system and encourage them.
• Science students should not be left out in this process
• On impacts, past beneficiaries of NIFIC should be monitored by the school through Old Students Association.

Note: These recommendations are not only for the Kettering Foundation, but also for other promoters of deliberation in the classroom.

Folorunsho Moshood, mfolorunsho@kettering.org
Kettering Foundation, International Fellow