In recent years, youth across the planet have begun to mobilise, motivated by the perceived injustices associated with the causes, consequences and politics of climate change. However, education systems lag behind, preoccupied with the "what" and "how" of climate change, rather than engaging it as a social issue in which…

A number of social and ecological justice educators have long recognized the need for educational institutions to foster the development of a critical interest in civic engagement. They also have recognized the lack of appropriate education for students who are already civically engaged. One popular way to address this context in higher education…

Based on ethnographic and archival research, we explore how 10 students asserted their rights to belong and secure a space where they felt safe at UC Davis. We examine the activities and practices of 10 undergraduate Chicanxs and Latinxs students: members of "Radical Academics for Pedagogy" (RAP) and RESISTENCIA. Our interest lies on…

In this essay, Nicole Mirra and Antero Garcia explore how young people from six demographically distinct communities across the United States understand the social and political issues affecting their lives, engage in storytelling and dialogue across differences, and collaboratively imagine humanizing and hopeful civic futures. Drawing from…

As a school librarian, one of the author's goals is to teach students to become responsible citizens who recognize a sense of purpose and place in the larger community. Many schools have core values that reflect a desire for students to develop a broad community mission and purpose, often through programs with thoughtful curricula, including…

This paper presents findings from analysis of two learning sites, a classroom and a community-based youth organizing group for Latino adolescents where adult "educators" attempted to promote both critical and civic development for the participating learners. By examining the two unique learning spaces with similar youth development…

Teacher educators have an obligation to prepare preservice teachers with the skills and dispositions necessary to promote a socially just world. Yet the results of this study uncovered that the majority of elementary preservice teachers in a national sample (N = 846) have a simplistic perception of good citizenship consistent with what Westheimer…

This article explores civic learning, civic participation, and the development of civic agency within the Council of Youth Research (the Council), a program that engages high school students in youth participatory action research projects that challenge school inequalities and mobilize others in pursuit of educational justice. We critique the…

"Critical social dialogue" (CSD) is the process of problem posing, facilitating personal stories through silence and multimodal assignments, and positioning them for students to re-examine and re-evaluate their understanding of systems of social difference, the beginnings of a multicultural and social justice intellectual frame for…

Due to the complex nature of global understanding and practice of citizenship, it is essential to understand how to educate for a responsive public sphere with active and emancipated citizens. This study aims to clarify how social movements (through a case illustration of Occupy) are representative of global citizenship goals while illuminating…

Many U.S. higher education institutions are reaffirming their commitments to public purposes--preparing graduates for civic engagement for the public good and producing knowledge with real-world applications. Developing students for civic engagement for justice in the context of a diverse and inequitable democracy is a complex task. In Article 1,…

The practice of teaching democracy in school is diminishing. The implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has forced teachers to teach to the test, and has required some to follow scripted curriculum, leaving little time or incentive for teaching democracy. This study examines the importance of practicing democracy and identifies ways in…

The classroom teacher plays a pivotal role in any formal educational environment. More specifically, how this individual is involved and how s/he structures activities and discussions about a topic depends on the preferred learning style, personal demeanor, and educational philosophy of the teacher. For teachers that employ service-learning…

University of the Pacific is a private, comprehensive university with a College of Arts and Sciences and six professional schools, and with a population of more than four thousand students on its main campus in the ethnically diverse central valley city of Stockton, California. The signature component of Pacific's general education program is the…

The Youth Leadership Institute (YLI), was founded in 1989 to address the clear need among youth-serving institutions, such as schools and school districts, community organizations, health care providers and the public health system, and the juvenile justice system, to give young people a real say in the key decisions, programs, and systems that…