Civic Learning, Democratic Citizenship and the Public Sphere


Book Description

This books explores the relationships between learning, democratic citizenship and the public sphere from thee interconnected angles: theory, methodology and research. The main message of the book is that civic learning necessarily has a public character, as it is learning that emerges from engagement in democratic processes and practices that occur both at the centre and the margins of society. Through a combination of theoretical development, methodological reflection and empirical case study, the chapters in the book provide new insights in the complexities of learning in the context of the ongoing struggle for democracy.




Young Citizens and New Media


Book Description

This book integrates four distinct topics: young people, citizenship, new media, and learning processes. When taken together, these four topics merge to define an arena of social and research attention that has become compelling in recent years. The general international concern expressed of declining democratic engagement and the role of citizenship today becomes all the more acute when it turns to younger people. At the same time, there is growing attention being paid to the potential of new media – especially internet and mobile telephony – to play a role in facilitating newer forms of political participation. It is clear that many of the present manifestations of ‘new politics’ in the extra parliamentarian domain, not only make sophisticated use of such media, but are indeed highly dependent on them. With an impressive array of contributors, this book will appeal to those interested in a number of spheres, including media and cultural studies, political science, pedagogy, and sociology.




Centering Global Citizenship Education in the Public Sphere


Book Description

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.




The Morality of Democratic Citizenship


Book Description

In recent years a number of political and educational leaders and groups have urged the nation's public schools to place a greater emphasis on teaching civic values and on educating students to become citizens. This book puts forth the civic values and ideas that schools should be teaching. The volume is not a handbook or curriculum guide, but is designed to broaden the perspective of curriculum specialists, textbook authors, teachers, and educational policymakers. In the first three chapters of this four-chapter book, the study of and learning about history, the study and learning about constitutional principles, and the study and learning about conceptions of citizenship are examined. The final chapter offers a set of 12 ideas and civic values that should suffuse teaching and learning in the schools. These 12 values are justice, equality, authority, participation, truth, patriotism, freedom, diversity, privacy, due process, property, and human rights. (DB)




Media and Political Engagement


Book Description

This book examines the media's role in shaping civic engagement and enhancing political engagement.




Education for Democratic Citizenship


Book Description

The aim of the questionnaire, which formed the basis of this paper, was to collect information to test the theory that parents have a responsibility to pass on certain values and a social way of life within a family unit. It analyses the use of words, reactions and attitudes of non-governmental organisations in the sphere of citizenship. The questions focussed on three main areas: who spoke and in what circumstances; the meaning citizens assigned to certain terms; peoples attitudes to citizenship.




The Wiley Handbook of Social Studies Research


Book Description

The Wiley Handbook of Social Studies Research is a wide-ranging resource on the current state of social studies education. This timely work not only reflects on the many recent developments in the field, but also explores emerging trends. This is the first major reference work on social studies education and research in a decade An in-depth look at the current state of social studies education and emerging trends Three sections cover: foundations of social studies research, theoretical and methodological frameworks guiding social studies research, and current trends and research related to teaching and learning social studies A state-of-the-art guide for both graduate students and established researchers Guided by an advisory board of well-respected scholars in social studies education research




Citizenship under Fire


Book Description

Citizenship under Fire examines the relationship among civic education, the culture of war, and the quest for peace. Drawing on examples from Israel and the United States, Sigal Ben-Porath seeks to understand how ideas about citizenship change when a country is at war, and what educators can do to prevent some of the most harmful of these changes. Perhaps the most worrisome one, Ben-Porath contends, is a growing emphasis in schools and elsewhere on social conformity, on tendentious teaching of history, and on drawing stark distinctions between them and us. As she writes, "The varying characteristics of citizenship in times of war and peace add up to a distinction between belligerent citizenship, which is typical of democracies in wartime, and the liberal democratic citizenship that is characteristic of more peaceful democracies." Ben-Porath examines how various theories of education--principally peace education, feminist education, and multicultural education--speak to the distinctive challenges of wartime. She argues that none of these theories are satisfactory on their own theoretical terms or would translate easily into practice. In the final chapter, she lays out her own alternative theory--"expansive education"--which she believes holds out more promise of widening the circles of participation in schools, extending the scope of permissible debate, and diversifying the questions asked about the opinions voiced.




Virtues in the Public Sphere


Book Description

Virtues in the Public Sphere features seventeen chapters by experts from a variety of different perspectives on the broad theme of virtue in the public sphere. Spanning issues such as the notion of civic friendship and civic virtue, it sheds light on the role that these virtues play in the public sphere and their importance in safeguarding communities from the threats of a lack of concern for truth, poor leadership, charlatanism, and bigotry. This book highlights the theoretical complexity of putting virtue ethics into practice in the public domain at a time when it has been shaken by unpredictable political, social, technological, and cultural developments. With contributions from internationally acclaimed scholars in the fields of philosophy, psychology, sociology, and education, this book highlights the main issues, both theoretical and practical, of putting virtue ethics into practice in the public domain. Split into three sections – "Virtues and vices in the public sphere", "Civic friendship and virtue", and "Perspectives on virtue and the public sphere" – the chapters offer a timely commentary on the roles that virtues have to play in the public sphere. This timely book will be of great interest to researchers, academics, and post-graduate students in the fields of education, character and virtue studies, and will also appeal to practitioners.




Building Better Citizens


Book Description

Educating for citizenship was the original mission of American schools, but for decades that knowledge—also known as civics education—has been in decline, as schools have shifted focus to college and career, STEM, and raising reading and math scores. But over the last few years, spurred on by political polarization and a steep decline in public understanding, civics education is seeing a nation-wide resurgence, as school leaders, educators, and parents recognize the urgency of teaching young people how America works—especially young people who have been marginalized from the political system. But this isn’t your grandmother’s civics. The “new” civics has been updated and re-tooled for the phone-addicted, multi-cultural, globalized twenty-first century kid. From combatting “fake news” with fact checking in Silicon Valley, to reviving elementary school social studies in Nashville, to learning civic activism in Oklahoma City, journalist Holly Korbey documents the grassroots revival happening across the country. Along the way, she provides an essential guidebook for educators, school leaders and caregivers of all types who want to educate a new generation of engaged citizens at a critical time in American democracy.