The author discusses what it means to be a "good" citizen in a democracy, whether schools are teaching children to be good citizens, and ways to implement citizenship education in schools.

One month after the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, left three dead and many injured and arrested, another university faces a tough decision about whether to allow controversial alt-right leader, Richard Spencer, to speak on campus. What seems like a simple decision to allow or deny a speaking request becomes a much deeper…

Teaching courses that contain potentially high-emotional impact such as interpersonal violence (IV), have been noted as challenging. This is exacerbated during a pandemic when rates of IV are on the rise and requirements for physical distancing result in many courses being taught online. Although scholars have identified inherent challenges to…

Researchers have proposed integration as an approach to effectively teach social studies in primary grades. Many teachers integrate by teaching social studies content and skills during time allocated for other subjects, such as literacy, science, or math. Integration clearly uses time efficiently to allow for more social studies content. However,…

The United States has made many advances in establishing a culture of acceptance and inclusivity for individuals with disabilities. Through best practices in K-12 education, students with disabilities are becoming more independent and empowered, however, there are many potential risks students with disabilities face, especially in the area of…

The 2021-22 academic year was profoundly challenging for California schools. Eight critical issues emerged as serious threats to student learning, the operation of schools, and even the very institution of public education: (1) gun violence, (2) politicization of and support for public education, (3) controversy over what is taught in schools, (4)…

Teachers at a, mostly white, independent school met monthly for a year, discussing how to talk with children from pre-K through eighth grade about race. They looked at interactions that arose spontaneously in the classroom, from younger children's comments about skin color to racially tinged remarks in the older classes. Faculty members, who all…

This article focuses on techniques used in professional development to strengthen the community of faculty in FYE courses, while aiming at improving the classroom experience for today's learners, specifically those related to providing content, building community, and strengthening understanding. To provide a solid foundation, creating a course…

Tom Bennett begins his article with a tale of a frustrating afternoon with Year 7. We've all been there. In his case, his frustration was caused by his finding a conceptual gap between how well his class wanted to do and the actual quality of their causal thinking. Bennett decided to use counterfactuals to improve their thinking. This article…

The case study approach is one form of problem-based learning (PBL) that results in deeper understanding of content, and it involves pushing students to think beyond the answers appropriate for class (Hmelo-Silver, 2004; Nilson, 2010, 2013). Case studies prompt students to consider the realistic implications of how they use course content in…

Mathematics teachers are vital components in determining what mathematics students have the opportunity to learn. There are a vast number of factors and reasons that influence a teacher's instructional decisions. As such, teachers rely heavily on their curricular reasoning (CR) to make decisions about what content to teach, how that content is…

This article introduces Q methodology, an idea-sorting activity that can help Extension improve outreach and education on new and contentious issues. Q methodology is a helpful tool when Extension professionals are confronted with controversial or complex resource management challenges. Through the analysis of a simple card-sorting exercise,…

Words are more than a string of sounds and letters that denote a particular meaning. Linguistic anthropologist Judith T. Irvine contends that speaking is a social activity where the relationship of language, culture, and society is enacted (249). Linguist Deborah Cameron defines language ideology in "Verbal Hygiene" as the notions,…

In this article, the authors focus on ways to structure conversations about racism in world history classrooms through a case study of race and racism in Haiti at the turn of the 19th century. Drawing on the events of the Haitian Revolution, the authors describe how identifying patterns of racial hierarchy can provide a framework for talking about…

This article sought to give an overview of different interpretations and characterizations of socioscientific issues (SSIs) by identifying single entities that could form components of SSI and give examples of where single entities were combined to involve SSI in enhancing scientific literacy. Through a narrative literature review, the article…