To enact democracy, which is to live in communication with difference, requires a formative process that involves an education of the whole person for and through civic life. Drawing on Charles Mills's theory of "Herrenvolk" ethics and Jonathan Lear's analysis of psychosocial lapses that ail us, Sheron Fraser-Burgess and Chris Higgins…

Collegiate fraternities and sororities can have civic impacts. While some are known for building civic character among members, less is known about many others--partly because research on fraternities and sororities has been developed in separate academic disciplines from research on other civil society organizations (CSOs). In this literature…

A survey of the nation's civic health reveals troubling trends, with historic lows in trust among individuals and key institutions such as government, media, and the courts. Political polarization has significantly increased among Americans in the last 40 years, surpassing eight other democratic nations and challenging the idea that it is merely a…

Service learning can prepare undergraduate students with the necessary civic capacities and commitments for today's solutions to wicked social problems. However, most studies on the civic outcomes of service learning, such as civic-mindedness, are student self-reports on surveys given at the end of an academic term. A more nuanced understanding of…

In this paper, my aim is to reintroduce and reclaim the concept of civility for the ongoing debates on democratic education within the Arendt-inspired philosophy of education. I juxtapose a prominent interpretation related to theories of radical democracy and radical democratic education, referring to Gert Biesta's work, which amends Arendt's…

Contemporary literature reveals that many educators, especially those in elementary schools and in conflict-effected societies, are reluctant to engage in the teaching of current public issues, even more so social controversies. However, this qualitative study examined the successful experience and the perspectives of educators from two elementary…

Contemporary liberal democracies face complex and disruptive challenges, such as toxic populism, culture wars, political polarization, religious fundamentalism, the climate emergency, global conflicts, and the influence of powerful social media platforms. This is the disconcerting world that young people are growing up in and need support in…

Encouraging children to become 'good citizens' who positively contribute towards society through charitable and philanthropic action as part of their civic participation has become a core focus of policy and practice. Yet the opportunities afforded to children for active civic learning within primary education remain under-researched. This article…

As teachers are purveyors of digital citizenship and their perspectives influence classroom practice, it is important to understand teachers' views on digital citizenship. This study establishes the Teachers' Perceptions of Digital Citizenship Scale (T-PODS) as a survey instrument for scholars to investigate educators' views on digital citizenship…

This paper discusses how Bernsteinian concepts ('pedagogic rights', 'discursive gaps' and 'pedagogic code') from the field of sociology of education can be used as didactic tools to illuminate how different ways of organising teaching in VET has implications for citizenship preparation. The paper is based on results from a five-year research…

In this article, the authors review higher education's evolving role in this nation's democracy. They then describe a new collaboration, the Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Coalition, which responds educationally to the challenges facing our democracy. The CLDE Coalition aims to (1) reclaim and revitalize higher education's public…

This paper integrates theories and research from the fields of transliteracies and language brokering to understand the language and literacy experiences of bilingual youth who grew up in Mexican immigrant families. Analyzing data from three interrelated studies that used ethnographic research methods to understand the language brokering of…

Citizenship and related values are common elements in the missions of honors programs. Our goal was to design a junior honors seminar with an intentional focus on developing citizenship, civic identity, and civic virtues through engagement with the challenging history of our city, Montgomery, Alabama. The course employed four evidence-based…

Although an open classroom climate for discussion has been demonstrated to benefit students' civic outcomes, individual differences in its effectiveness have not been fully investigated. In this study, we hypothesized that the positive effects of an open classroom climate for discussion would be moderated by positive teacher-student relationships.…

American colleges and universities are failing at civic education. Too many graduates are ignorant of basic facts about American history and institutions. According to its most recent report on what colleges and universities teach students, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) found that only 214 institutions out of 1,135 (about 19…