Using a mixed-methods approach, this paper investigates current views within society about what civic knowledge is important for students leaving secondary education. We combined questionnaire data from a representative national sample with data from a multiple-case study among several focus groups of stakeholders with various roles in society.…

In this study, we aimed to understand the role of place in how young people come to understand civic life. We implemented and studied an action civics curriculum at two sites to explore the connections between place and youth civic identity. We found that (1) place informs students' conceptualizations of community responsibility and collective…

In this collection, scholars from the United States, Canada, and Australia examine the concepts of villainification and anti-villainification in social studies curriculum and popular culture, as well as within broader sociocultural contexts. Villainification is the process of identifying an individual or a small group of individuals as the sole…

The purpose of this study is to examine profiles of students' attitudes toward citizenship norms and inclusiveness in the political process, focusing on changes in the frequency of particular profiles and in the strength of predictors across a decade. Using data from 16 countries participating in the 1999 and 2009 International Association for the…

High school social studies teachers play an important role in fostering the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students need to thrive after graduation. These efforts can also help counter Truth Decay--the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life. Although several factors, such as state standards and assessments,…

In this article, Dafney Blanca Dabach investigates how teachers and their students of different citizenship statuses navigate tensions in formal state-sponsored citizenship education. In traditional US high school civics courses, undocumented immigrant youths' liminal status is often invisible and overlooked as undocumented youth are educated…

The context of privilege provides unique opportunities and challenges for youth civic development. A mixed-method approach was used to examine links between school-based community service, school climate, and civic orientation among students in cultures of privilege. Surveys completed by students (N = 376) at two private high schools--one with an…

This qualitative study examines Civics teachers' perceptions of working with immigrant students in a new gateway state. By analyzing collective case studies of six teachers in central North Carolina, from different types of schools and with different professional backgrounds, this study is positioned to make recommendations for social studies…

Notwithstanding all the studies and data on schooling today, one has to go back more than a decade--to the 1998 Public Agenda study "A Lot to Be Thankful For"--for a serious attempt to examine what parents think public schools should teach children about citizenship. The annual Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup poll on schooling has not asked…

Young citizens growing up in different societies experience multiple socialization processes that help to shape their values and attitudes toward the political life of their societies. In this cross-national study, researchers asked students directly about their views of what "good" citizens do, how they saw themselves participating in…