Cognitive-emotional skills and democratic education

A primary aim of any comprehensive democratic education is to prepare citizens for full and active participation in the public sphere. Crucial to meeting this aim is the development of key cognitive-emotional skills, such as perspective-taking. At the same time, many of the social institutions in which cognitive-emotional skill training might be implemented – such as schools – are insufficiently diverse, particularly with respect to race and socio-economic status. Yet, without a sufficiently diverse setting in which to train perspective-taking and other cognitive-emotional skills, we run the risk of simply learning to exercise these skills with those who are similar to us. Philosophers have already drawn attention to the benefits and risks of widespread and thorough integration as a strategy for addressing the insufficient diversity problem. Against these alternatives, I argue that measures can be taken to create more integrated contexts in which to train cognitive-emotional skills and engage constructively with diverse others as part of a comprehensive democratic education under current non-ideal conditions – what I call taking a Purposeful Interaction Approach. The Purposeful Interaction Approach may even promote more sustainable versions of other, more robust forms of integration. Far from replacing them, the Purposeful Interaction Approach is thus meant to amplify a variety of efforts to achieve the broader social justice goal of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in public life.