A healthy democracy requires informed citizens on all sides of the political spectrum but extreme political polarization creates significant challenges. This study examines how teachers conceptualize civic education in an ideologically and racially diverse school district. Embedded within a research-practice partnership, this case offers timely…

The paper "American democracy is distress: The failure of social education" presents several "symptoms of democracy's dysfunction in the United States". These include the extreme reliance on campaign contributions, giving the donors--economic elites and groups representing business, frequently operating at a transnational…

This paper examines whether Hong Kong teachers and students perceived Liberal Studies and its ongoing curriculum review as politically driven during and after the Umbrella Movement, a large-scale civil disobedience campaign that took place in September 2014. The findings presented herein show that both groups disagreed with the claim that Liberal…

Democratic comprehensive education has been the target of neo-liberal governments--Conservative and New Labour--for thirty years. The project of the present right wing regime Coalition is to complete the demolition. The question before the social democratic tradition is thus to ask whether Raymond Williams' historic "long revolution"…

During the last decade the agenda of local and global politics is heavily marked by the encounter of two powerful currents, namely democracy and political Islam. On the one hand Islam as a religion itself is facing a cultural dialectic between a modern and an authentic form, producing a synthesis which is only to be criticized again by a new…

Those who would defend liberal democracy in today's changing world face a new toleration debate. While we still want to help our children grow up to see the world from other perspectives than their own, we are no longer as sure as we were that we know what toleration means or what it entails. Where education is concerned, it seems the focus is on…

In this paper I conduct a historical analysis of the emergence of ALBA in Nicaragua prior to Daniel Ortega's return to the presidency and the country's official membership in the initiative from January 2007 on. I argue that ALBA is a rival structure that evolved from the contradictions inherent in hegemonic globalisation. Within the framework of…

Surveys the interrelationship between language and politics. Touches on the context of political discourse, or political culture and ideology in new and old democracies and the reemerging manifestations of totalitarianism, censorship, and linguistic imperialism; then examines selected linguistic features of political discourse and their…

Maintains that the effects of the French Revolution continue today. Presents scholarly views on the significance of the revolution. Challenges the view that the French Revolution led to the violent totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. Traces the history of the revolution and outlines its legacy. (RW)

Educational planning is presently confronted by an identity crisis. As long as it was believed that educational expansion was a principal ingredient for securing economic growth, democratic political processes, and greater equality of economics and social participation, the tenets and practice of educational planning were rarely questioned.…

To improve social studies instruction and curriculum content in the United States, Northwestern University and the North Central Association Foreign Relations Project conducted 14 experimental seminars (1964-69) in which 894 teachers and administrators from 25 states took part. To determine the effectiveness of the seminars, two surveys were…

The ethical and educational dimensions of the quest for multicultural and bilingual education are explored, introducing the variety and complexity of these problems and ways of thinking about them. The application of liberal, democratic, and communitarian theories of political morality is discussed as examples of alternative approaches to these…

Background information on lobbying will help secondary and college students and adults develop a clearer understanding of how U.S. democracy works. Discussed are what lobbying is, who the lobbyists are, lobby regulation, and the different kinds of lobbying groups. As an example of the environment within which lobbyists work, lobbying efforts…

Analyzes how the need to maintain the societal system results in the practice of power politics and the repression of human needs. Examines how democracy is an institutionalized means of resistance to demands for human needs. States that the Western political philosophy's interest-oriented system is a major source of global violence. (GEA)

This collection of papers shows the significant achievements that can be made through collective strategies that empower the poor to become active partners in revitalizing their neighborhoods. The 12 chapters are: (1) "The Role of Social Capital in Combating Poverty" (Mark R. Warren, J. Phillip Thompson, and Susan Saegert); (2) "Social Capital and…