This phenomenological study examined how eighth grade students in a privileged suburban community and school district understood their civic identities and saw their roles and responsibilities as citizens. Through analyzing artifacts the student participants generated in their eighth grade civics social studies class and conducting semi-structured…

In this article, the authors examine one approach to teaching hard history using an Inquiry Design Model (IDM) curricular loop. A curricular loop allows students to build a deeper understanding of a complex idea and develop a greater facility with the tools of inquiry over a course of study by regularly engaging in an inquiry. The curricular loop…

Race shapes the policies and history of the United States. Current research shows that state-approved social studies content standards are written in a non-racial and colour-evasive whiteness language that reinforces racist policies and practices in education. This qualitative framework analysis study examines the language of social studies…

The principal aim of this study is to highlight how students in 8th grade of middle school perceive the principal concepts present in Citizenship Education (lessons), namely the values of: citizenship, (personal) rights, responsibility, the state, the law, military service, the right to education, the right to vote and participate in the political…

This paper discusses the concept of "rational civic attitudes" and its link to knowledge, using data on eighth-grade students from 38 countries in the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement International Civic and Citizenship Education Study to examine these questions: (1) Are country-averages on self-reported…

The rise of state-mandated standards in public education have allowed legislators to answer the question of what constitutes a proper civic education, a debate that has existed in the United States since the turn of the twentieth century. Through the content they employ in their standards, states may indirectly influence the type of citizenship…

In a time of increasing plurality in today's public schools, it is essential that students become critically competent citizens by examining current and historical social justice issues. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide the research, theory, and practice for teachers to help students take a critical stance as they read and respond to…

Curricular materials of the past have much to offer researchers and educators today. In this article, I examine two pieces of instructional material, a textbook entitled "People of Denver" and a unit on the inequalities of opportunities available to minority groups in Denver. Both these items were written in Denver, by Denver teachers at…