Competition among parties is a central feature of democratic politics, but extreme partisanship can undermine democratic practices and institutions. We report the results of a formative curricular intervention involving reflective discussions designed to avoid hyper-partisanship in a training program for anyone--including university students--with…

The purpose of this lesson is to engage young students in thinking about the complexity of socio-historical symbols in the present day. After careful preparation, the authors decided to teach about the decision by the state legislature in July 2015 to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds. Presenting the…

Burns B. Crookston was a man ahead of his times. He left a legacy to the student affairs profession that inspired the practice of student development education. His writings described a role for higher education in training students to become active citizens by learning about leadership, decision making, and conflict resolution in democratic…

Because negotiation channels creative energy and uses student ideas for the benefit of the school, it can create an environment more conducive to teaching and learning than the repressive environments that cause petty irritations, repeated disruptions, violence, and vandalism. (Author/IRT)

This paper analyzes a study designed to determine if students understand the concept of democracy and can apply democratic principles. It also compares the study with related investigations conducted in Europe and calls for improved teaching to make the concept of democracy comprehensible. In 1974, 1,000 high school seniors in Pennsylvania…