Citizenship Education In The United States

This groundbreaking book describes theory, research, and practice that can be used in civic education courses and programs to help students from marginalized and minoritized groups in nations around the world attain a sense of structural integration and political efficacy within their nation-states, develop civic participation skills, and reflective cultural, national, and global identities.

Citizenship education has recently re-emerged as an important issue, both in policy and in practice. As the nation state undergoes rapid transformation at the end of the 20th century, both Eastern and Western states have focused attention on using the school curriculum as a medium for sustaining cohesion and unity within society. But, as we approach the 21st century, is the possibility of a common citizenship a reality?; This book is designed to provide educators with access to ideas and information that will help them to understand current citizenship- education initiatives across a number of countries. It provides a theoretical rationale in which to consider those issues; illustrates how such issues are being worked out in practice in a number of countries; and provides assistance for policy makers, teacher educators and teachers who are responsible for making decisions about the context of citizenship education programmes for schools.

Education affects these two dimensions in distinct ways, influencing democratic enlightenment through cognitive proficiency and sophistication, and political engagement through position in social networks. For characteristics of enlightenment, formal education simply adds to the degree to which citizens support and are knowledgeable about democratic principles.

This book presents a history of the ideas and activities of the American Political Science Association (APSA) in the field of citizenship education in public schools. Examining APSA’s evolving objectives and strategies in implementing citizenship education, Ahmad analyzes the complicated relationship between the teaching of government in the public schools and the APSA’s changing visions of citizenship education. By offering a narrative of political scientists’ ideas on citizenship and citizenship education, Ahmad reveals the impact of APSA’s worldview and official policies concerning pre-collegiate curriculum and instruction in citizenship education. By providing a comprehensive history of ASPA’s agenda and its implementation, this book sheds light on the intersection between the pedagogical goals of political scientists and the meaning, purpose, and context for citizenship education in high schools.

"By nearly every measure, Americans are less engaged in their communities and political activity than generations past." So write the editors of this volume, who survey the current practices and history of citizenship education in the United States. They argue that the current period of "creative destruction"--when schools are closing and opening in response to reform mandates--is an ideal time to take an in-depth look at how successful strategies and programs promote civic education and good citizenship. Making Civics Count offers research-based insights into what diverse students and teachers know and do as civic actors, and proposes a blueprint for civic education for a new generation that is both practical and visionary. "This collection of state-of-the-art essays advances the discussion of civics from noble aspiration to empirical evidence and pedagogical practice. The authors, all noted scholars, have shown us how to improve civic education and--in the process--how to strengthen our democracy. It's time for policymakers to pay attention." -- William A. Galston, Ezra Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution "Making Civics Count models a brilliant alternative to the ideological polarization and paralysis that dominates civic education discourse. Campbell, Levinson, Hess, and the other contributors to this volume hail from across the political spectrum but share a critical commitment to reinvigorate dialogue around civic education. They seek not consensus but spirited engagement--with ideas, with solid empirical data, and with visions for a more robust democracy. This is an important book for scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in civic education's future." -- Joel Westheimer, university research chair, sociology of education, University of Ottawa "This compelling and persuasive book shows that an open climate for discussion of current issues, teachers' preparation across subject areas, and the new digital media can help foster a vision of democracy and counter prevailing inequality." -- Judith Torney-Purta, professor of human development, University of Maryland David E. Campbell is professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and founding director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy. Meira Levinson is an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Frederick M. Hess is resident scholar and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

The discourse of civic education privileges liberal democratic understandings of citizenship. Yet we know that such understandings do not accurately represent the complex, plural, and problematic nature of citizenship in contemporary society. To stimulate discussion about new possibilities for teaching citizenship, this volume brings together the work of Canadian and American curriculum scholars to «trouble» the existing canon of citizenship education. Addressing themes as diverse as gender, sexual orientation, globalization, agency, ontology, and interdisciplinarity, the essays that make up this collection seek to enlarge and expand upon the ways educators, curriculum developers, and policymakers might approach teaching citizenship.

This book brings together key perspectives from scholars in the Global South and Global North to illustrate diverse ways in which the UN’s Global Citizenship Education (GCED) agenda can promote social justice and be used as a vehicle for negotiating and learning about diverse and shared objectives in education and the global public sphere. Recognizing the historical function of education as a prominent public sphere site, this book addresses questions around how forms of global education can serve as public sphere sites in various contexts today and in the future. Specifically, it questions established notions of education and proposes new interpretations of the relationship between practices of education and the public sphere to meet the needs of our contemporary turbulent era and a post-2020 world. By offering conceptual analyses, examples of policy and educational practices which promote global learning, democratic citizenship, common good, and perspective-taking, the text offers new critical understandings of how GCED can contribute to the public responsibilities and roles of education. Chapters consider examples such as non-formal adult education at the Mexico–US border, teachers’ responsibilities in Japan and Finland, developments in education policy and practices in Brazil, civic religious teachings in Canada, online learning in the United States and China, and support to the participation of women in higher education in Pakistan. Given its unique approach, and the range of case studies it brings together, this book is a timely addition to the literature on education in the global public sphere. It will prove to be an invaluable resource for scholars working at the intersections of global education and transnational education policies, and for teachers involved in global education.

This book details how African American women used lessons in basic literacy to crack the foundation of white supremacy and sow seeds for collective action during the civil rights movement.

The book highlights current issues influencing civic and citizenship education and their theoretical underpinnings. It provides an overview of the key features influencing ‘democratic deconsolidation’ , suggests ways in which civic and citizenship education needs to be reframed in order to fit this new political environment, and demonstrates how social media will play a significant role in any future for civic and citizenship education. Currently, democratic institutions are under attack, democratic values are threatened, and there is a wide-scale retreat from the liberal consensus that has underpinned liberal democracies internationally. These trends can be seen in events like, Brexit, the election of a right-wing populist President of the United States and, anti-democratic governments in parts of Europe. It is this change in the direction of political ideology that is currently ‘deconsolidating democracy’ and thus challenging traditional approaches to civic and citizenship education. What is urgently needed is an understanding of these current trends and their implications for thinking in new ways about civic and citizenship education in the 21st century.