Many students feel empowered participating in social movements connected to key issues--and this participation can be a powerful setting for civic education. School-based civic education can complement the empowerment that come with participating in social movements--if young people gain a deeper appreciation of social movements and understanding…

One of the central ways to teach young children how to take care of each other is through classroom management, says University of Michigan's Carla Shalaby. Here, she invites educators to: (1) understand classroom management as a curriculum; (2) understand care as political work; and (3) understand young children as already powerful.

"If education is to be a safeguard of democracy, then recent events suggest tweets and other social media must be part of curriculum," write Daniel G. Krutka and Jeffrey P. Carpenter. In this article, the authors argue that teaching citizenship also requires teaching with and about social media. They provide a framework for educators to…

President Barack Obama once said he believes that he learned how to be a good citizen by reading novels. In this article, Laura Tavares looks at the ways that ELA teachers can use fiction to illustrate social and ethical awareness, humility, and a tolerance for difference--all traits that are necessary to be a good citizen. By putting themselves…

In an era when overlapping, intersecting national and cultural identities are a reality for many K-12 students in the United States, it is schools' responsibility to nurture skills and attitudes that help students feel empowered as citizens of their local area or country as well as of other cultural groups they identify with--and of the world.…

"Teachers need to prepare young people for interdependence and diversity at all scales: in the school community, neighborhood, town or city, nation, and globe," writes Audrey Osler. "This is what I refer to as 'education for cosmopolitan citizenship.'" In this article, the founding director of the Centre for Citizenship and…

The curriculum of K-12 schools is scrutinized, Westheimer claims, because what we teach can be a proxy for the kind of society and citizen we hope to create. People need to look closely at what kinds of citizenship skills public schools are promoting. Westheimer recommends three practices we should inject into education to prepare youth to be…

Cultural Political Vignettes (CPVs) are hypothetical situations involving ethical or social dilemmas presented to students in the form of brief vignettes. They help students consider and discuss questions about ethics, society, and responsibility, and develop both skills (like critical thinking) and dispositions (like empathy) needed to be a…

British mathematics educator Tony Cotton suggests that teachers use math instruction to help students--who live in an internationally connected world--ponder international events and the global implications of policies in depth. He describes two math-based activities toward that end. First, teachers might guide learners in examining data connected…

Educating students to be good, informed citizens remains a core purpose of K-12 schools. The purposes of civic education, however, are contested, notes Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Levine argues that a citizen is someone who seriously asks, "What should we do?"--someone who…

While the purpose of K-12 education is largely to train students for college and career, free education in a democratic society has another purpose: to prepare citizens to rule themselves. In this article, Anderson and Gurnee explain how place-based learning equips students to be active citizens in their communities. In this model, school localize…

The current political climate has created urgency around civic education. The authors argue that educators can best seize the moment by infusing authentic activities and experiences in content studies. They provide an example of one such hybrid instructional model from Democracy Prep Public Schools.

Graduates of the John Stanford Public Service and Political Science Academy at Franklin High School in Seattle, Washington, leave school with self-confidence and a fiery sense of civic duty, giving back to their communities in crucial ways. Students tackle civic and ethical issues daily in the classroom, and the service-learning projects they…

According to former Supreme Court Judge Sandra Day O'Connor, active citizenship requires that students know how to persuade others by logic, seek consensus, understand and create constructive dissent, and practice other vital critical-thinking skills. However, in the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress in civics, only one in four…

The author presents evidence of "glaring gaps in U.S. students' civic knowledge, motivation, and interest." From the inception of the United States through the mid-20th century, he writes, civic education was at the center of U.S. schooling. Since then, however, there has been a decline in civics instruction, fueled by increasing…