Abstract:

Gerrymandering, the process of changing political boundaries for partisan advantage, is an international phenomenon with the purpose of disenfranchising voters and threatening democracy (McCune & Tunstall, 2018). These concerns prompted us to consider the importance of instructing about gerrymandering, including the disenfranchising aspects, within high school government courses. We have included technology-based components within our model (e.g., online simulations and online databases) to illustrate how the redistricting process is operationalized and its impact on representative democracy as seen through disenfranchised groups.

The term gerrymandering originated in 1812 in Massachusetts, when governor Elbridge Gerry redrew districts to benefit his party and, as a result, established one district that resembled a salamander, hence gerrymandering.

In the U.S., state court cases attempting to mitigate the effects of gerrymandering have been stymied by a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the practice. As a result, challenges to democracy continue as parties holding power are permitted to make districts that create an electoral advantage and remain in power. In addition, such practices have also been enacted to disenfranchise specific populations, including ethnic, racial, and economic groups (Dawkins, 2014).

Throughout the U.S., state governments have adopted standards specifying content to be instructed within schools. Every state has generated standards in the areas of government and civics at the high school level. Often, these standards address how political districts are created (based on the decennial census) and their purposes (representation based on population distributions). However, the resultant voter disenfranchisement is not always addressed. In fact, the two states representing the authors of this proposal do not even use the term gerrymandering in their respective standards. At the national level, the College Board’s U.S. Government and Politics course emphasizes gerrymandering within a single standard focused on the influences of congressional behavior and governing effectiveness (College Board, 2019). Perhaps most alarming within a representative democracy is the omission of racial gerrymandering and voter suppression within the standards (Hornbeck, 2018).

As one might expect, the de-emphasis on gerrymandering affects the availability of age-appropriate resources and instructional support tools. As a result, we have undergone a curricular project to identify and adopt extent resources and generate additional resources that support gerrymandering instruction and its effects on voters. We will share our curricular processes and support resources and the implementation of the model in high school contexts.

Keywords:

High School Curriculum, Government and Civics Instruction, Curriculum and Instruction, Instructional Resources and Design, Curricular Innovation.