Empowering Students For Just Societies

In Empower, A.J. Juliani and John Spencer provide teachers, coaches, and administrators with a roadmap that will inspire innovation, authentic learning experiences, and practical ways to empower students to pursue their passions while in school. Empower will provide ways to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities for our learners.

In school reform, students are rarely consulted. This book presents a step-by-step process for involving students in transforming schools and empowering them to make real decisions that affect their education.

In this special edition, we call attention to the role of Critical Multicultural Citizenship Education (CMCE) in schools, societies and global contexts. The fundamental goal of CMCE is to increase not only the students’ awareness of, and participation in, the political aspects of democracy, but also students’ abilities to create and live in an ethnically diverse and just community. Global migration and increasing diversity within nations are challenging conceptions of citizenship all over the world. The percentage of ethnic minorities in nation- states throughout the world has increased significantly within the past 30 years. The United States Census, for example, projects that 50% of the population will consist of culturally, linguistically, racially, ethnic, and religiously diverse groups by 2050. With an increase growth of diversity within national borders, issues concerning educational equity, equality, and civic engagement have not always been well attended to in educational and societal contexts. Growing ethnic diversity in schools/ society has not automatically led to a dismantling of persistent educational barriers or structural inequalities. In the past decade, culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse populations have faced barriers impacting their rights as citizens in the United States and international contexts. Citizenship, and the rights that are associated with being a citizen, are re-framed when culturally, ethnically, and linguistically students seek equality. In 2020, many urban cities in the United States witnessed Latino/Black youth demonstrate peacefully guided by social justice and their civic responsibilities. Similarly, in international contexts students have demonstrated civil disobedience by expressing concerns about their rights as citizens and the disempowerment of communities. We emphatically believe that students in K-12 settings must begin to understand their rights as citizens and also advocate for the rights of others in order for communities in the U.S. and international contexts to achieve democracy.

Conceived through collaboration by activist academics from Israel and Northern Ireland, this book draws from experience to offer practical and theoretical insights and programs for promoting activist pedagogy for shared learning and shared life in divided societies.

Established in the aftermath of World War II, UNESCO succinctly states its peace mission as well as its peaceful resolution to peace in its Constitution—constructing the “defenses of peace” in the minds of peoples on the “intellectual and moral” grounds. For more than seven decades, UNESCO has been consistently positioning peace as its unwavering core and ultimate goal through promoting international understanding and cooperation in and across its five major sectors of competence in education, natural sciences, culture, communication and information, and social and human sciences. Historical Dictionary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 700 cross-referenced entries on UNESCO’s initiatives, programs, projects, normative instruments, and partners over the past 76 years. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about UNESCO.

Help students of all levels develop relationships based on mutual trust and understanding in digital spaces and become active, participatory citizens in these spaces. During her doctoral program, Kristen Mattson became frustrated by the negative underpinnings that described the internet as a dangerous place and positioned young people as careless victims or malevolent bullies. Digital citizenship curriculum became the focus of her work and led to the development of her book Digital Citizenship in Action, which focuses on one of the most important aspects of citizenship – being in community with others. As citizens, we have a responsibility to give back to the community and work toward social justice and equity. Digital citizenship curricula should strive to show students possibilities over problems, opportunities over risks and community successes over personal gain. Digital Citizenship in Action shows educators how to do just that. In this new, expanded edition, Mattson incorporates the latest research from scholars in media and information literacy, educational technology and digital citizenship. She also extends the coverage to provide guidance for elementary and secondary teachers, and includes updated examples that are relevant to today’s most widely used technologies. The book: • Includes tips for creating a digital space where students can try something new, grow through mistakes, and learn what it means to be a citizen in different spaces. • Features “Spotlight Stories” from teachers engaged with participatory digital citizenship that demonstrate how these ideas play out in actual classrooms. • Includes a featured activity for elementary students and secondary students in each chapter to help teachers integrate the ideas into their work. • Provides QR codes linking to additional resources in “You Can Do It!” sections throughout the book. In this book, you’ll find more ways than ever to take digital citizenship beyond a conversation about personal responsibility so you can create opportunities for students to become participatory citizens in online spaces. Audience: Elementary and secondary educators, curriculum directors and library media specialists