A study investigated the contention that secondary school literature programs have offered, and continue to offer, what could be construed as a literary canon, a relatively small body of literary texts to which a majority of students have been and are continuing to be exposed. Several surveys of the literary works teachers assign, dating back to…

The motivation for monitoring public affairs and for taking part responsibly in the civic process depends on a person's "civic identity," defined as a sense of kinship with and responsibility toward others in the community. Currently civic education is the province of social studies teachers, but English and language arts teachers could…

Civic education "means explicit and continuing study of the basic concepts and values underlying our democratic political community and constitutional order" (Butts 1988, 184). It draws its content chiefly from four disciplines: political science, jurisprudence, history, and economics. Political science and jurisprudence provide an…