Many students feel empowered participating in social movements connected to key issues--and this participation can be a powerful setting for civic education. School-based civic education can complement the empowerment that come with participating in social movements--if young people gain a deeper appreciation of social movements and understanding…

The work of Crocco and her colleagues, "Deliberating Public Policy Issues with Adolescents," combines two important fields--deliberative democracy and discussion as a pedagogy--with a study of policy deliberations in three classrooms. Their article yields valuable insights. As the authors note, the results are disappointing. This may be…

We cannot pretend to educate young people for citizenship and political participation without teaching them to understand and use the new media, which are essential means of expressing ideas, forming public opinions, and building institutions and movements. But the challenge of media literacy education is serious. Students need advanced and…

Educating students to be good, informed citizens remains a core purpose of K-12 schools. The purposes of civic education, however, are contested, notes Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Levine argues that a citizen is someone who seriously asks, "What should we do?"--someone who…

Sports participation in high school has positive effects on students' later civic engagement. But that is true of nearly all forms of extracurricular participation in high school--whether a group is explicitly civic (student government or a service club) or far removed from civic life (an academic club or a music group). Indeed, the civic…

The liberal arts and the civic mission of higher education are under attack in this time of economic crisis and political polarization. But we can proudly and forthrightly make the case for the civic mission of higher education. The purpose of the liberal arts is to prepare people for responsible citizenship, and the best forms of civic engagement…

As the American public starts to focus on the 2016 election, questions about whether "young people" (generally people who are under 30) really know enough to vote, and whether they will vote, often dominate the media discussion. It's important to know the answers to these questions because they affect our democracy. Young people have…

At every stage in the nation's history, the next generation must be deliberately educated to be active and responsible citizens. That is always a complex and challenging task, but the challenges differ as the context evolves. Today, students and teachers of civics face special barriers as well as unusual opportunities. For one thing, national…

A decade ago, research on the civic engagement and learning of young people was still in a "bear market" (Cook 1985). The body of literature was strikingly small, considering that the future of democracy depends on the preparation of young citizens. Today, the situation is dramatically different. There is a torrent of research on youth civic…

The shifting relationship between citizens and government has special implications for public schools. How schools approach civic education isn't just a matter of course content--it is wrapped up in how teachers and administrators view their role in the larger community. This article describes ways in which both civic education for young people…

Constance Flanagan and Peter Levine survey research on civic engagement among U.S. adolescents and young adults. Civic engagement, they say, is important both for the functioning of democracies and for the growth and maturation it encourages in young adults, but opportunities for civic engagement are not evenly distributed by social class or race…