"Contributors explore methods of incorporating primary source materials into classroom instruction to promote civic engagement"--

This practical book provides teachers and teacher educators with concrete strategies for doing community-based work. By reframing the act of teaching to include working for social change, the author pushes readers to see school and community revitalization as reciprocal, not separate, projects. Drawing on the strategies and tactics of community organizers and activists, Charest describes an approach to schooling that addresses the social and economic concerns that students and families in under-resourced communities confront in their daily lives. He uses a decolonial framework to examine how schools can de-center Whiteness and reimagine curriculum and teaching. He also shows teacher educators how they can better prepare the next generation of civic-minded teachers to create a more just and democratic society. This model of intentional community engagement, when initiated by teachers and school leadership, is designed to re-position schools to take up questions of equity, racism, and the long-term health and well-being of individuals and communities. “Charest urges us to imagine a path to teaching and learning that is inseparable from democracy . . . Let’s join the movement.” —From the Foreword by Kevin K. Kumashiro, former dean, School of Education, University of San Francisco “I am overjoyed that Brian Charest is brave enough to take a stance on justice-centered teaching as a relational and political act rooted in the principles of organizing.” —David O. Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago “This book takes up the central problem of our country’s failed education system: how to move schooling away from structures that isolate, stigmatize, and disempower students and communities towards structures that prioritize democracy, relationships, and organizing for power.” —Jay Gillen, teacher and organizer

In Teaching Democracy, Walter Parker makes a unique and thoughtful contribution to the hot debate between proponents of multicultural education and those who favor a cultural literacy approach. Parker conclusively demonstrates that educating for democratic citizenship in a multicultural society includes a fundamental respect for diversity. This scholarly yet accessible work: Bridges the widening gap between multicultural education and civic education.Provides powerful teaching strategies that educators can use to draw children creatively and productively into a way of life that protects and nurtures cultural pluralism and racial equity.Explains the unity–diversity confusion that is found in popular media as well as in multicultural– and citizenship–education initiatives.Defines deliberative discussion and explores its promise as the centerpiece of democratic education in schools, both elementary and secondary. “At a moment in time when our connection to the nation seems superficial and jingoistic, Walter Parker offers us a vehicle to reach our ideal of deliberative, committed civic participation for every citizen. This book explores the hard work of citizen-making in a diverse and complex society where individual and group interests often are in conflict. Parker makes us realize that in a democracy ‘public’ is not a dirty word and schooling should not be punishment.” —Gloria Ladson–Billings, University of Wisconsin, Madison “This book deals in an engaging and thought-provoking way with both social realities and democratic possibilities—exactly what I try to do in my classroom.” —Wendy Ewbank, teacher, Seattle Girls’ School

Young Children’s Civic Mindedness provides a well-grounded understanding of children’s civic thought and action by inviting readers to look and listen carefully to the voices of young children themselves. Grounded in research on children’s evolving civic identities and drawn from extended case studies and rich narrative vignettes, this book shows the many ways even the youngest children can be civic-minded and political. The book engages readers in thinking about the many ways children reason about and approach civic problems; how children’s experience in various local and larger contexts shapes their thinking and action; and the environmental factors that delimit what children see as possible in civic spaces. Written for early childhood, elementary and civic educators, this book encourages readers to go beyond mere rhetoric on the importance of civic education, to develop improved ways of teaching for children’s civic development.

Cultural competence in education promotes civic engagement among students. Providing students with educational opportunities to understand various cultural and political perspectives allows for higher cultural competence and a greater understanding of civic engagement for those students. The Handbook of Research on Citizenship and Heritage Education is a critical scholarly book that provides relevant and current research on citizenship and heritage education aimed at promoting active participation and the transformation of society. Readers will come to understand the role of heritage as a symbolic identity source that facilitates the understanding of the present and the past, highlighting the value of teaching. Additionally, it offers a source for the design of didactic proposals that promote active participation and the critical conservation of heritage. Featuring a range of topics such as educational policy, curriculum design, and political science, this book is ideal for educators, academicians, administrators, political scientists, policymakers, researchers, and students.

. Renewal of Life by Transmission. The most notable distinction between living and inanimate things is that the former maintain themselves by renewal. A stone when struck resists. If its resistance is greater than the force of the blow struck, it remains outwardly unchanged. Otherwise, it is shattered into smaller bits. Never does the stone attempt to react in such a way that it may maintain itself against the blow, much less so as to render the blow a contributing factor to its own continued action. While the living thing may easily be crushed by superior force, it none the less tries to turn the energies which act upon it into means of its own further existence. If it cannot do so, it does not just split into smaller pieces (at least in the higher forms of life), but loses its identity as a living thing. As long as it endures, it struggles to use surrounding energies in its own behalf. It uses light, air, moisture, and the material of soil. To say that it uses them is to say that it turns them into means of its own conservation. As long as it is growing, the energy it expends in thus turning the environment to account is more than compensated for by the return it gets: it grows. Understanding the word "control" in this sense, it may be said that a living being is one that subjugates and controls for its own continued activity the energies that would otherwise use it up. Life is a self-renewing process through action upon the environment.

American democracy is at a critical crossroads. Rancor, division, and suspicion are the unfortunate byproducts of the contentious 2016 presidential election. The election also bred a measure of civic uncertainty where citizens of all ages struggle to find and define their roles within a functioning democracy. No Reluctant Citizens: Teaching Civics in K-12 Classrooms is designed to help social studies teachers reinforce the centrality of civic education through a series of hands-on, participatory, and empowering activities. From civic literacy to human rights, from service learning to controversial issues, No Reluctant Citizens: Teaching Civics in K-12 Classrooms explores an array of topics that ultimately provides K-12 students the conceptual and practical tools to become civically engaged.