In this article, the author reexamines some of the educational responses Sarah M. Stitzlein outlines in her presidential address and explores the need for additional responses to polarization that are, as the author puts it, less "schoolish." These kinds of broadly "educational" responses to polarization can go a long way to…

This paper develops the following thesis: teaching about religions in public school holds meaning and value beyond civic purpose, aiming also to educate the existential and spiritual dimensions of students. In developing this thesis, Carmelo Galioto employs a phenomenological approach in considering the place and role of religion in public…

Two growing phenomena, polarization and populism, are significantly shaping how people determine and use truth, sometimes in ways that jeopardize the ability to reason together well. In this Presidential Address to the Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society, Sarah M. Stitzlein sheds light on how polarization and populism pose threats to civic…

These are times of rapid change. According to the Marrakech Framework for Action, adult learning and education (ALE) can and should play an important role in equipping citizens with the necessary skills to participate actively in these processes and shaping the future. In this article, we share case studies from community projects in Tunisia and…

A survey of the nation's civic health reveals troubling trends, with historic lows in trust among individuals and key institutions such as government, media, and the courts. Political polarization has significantly increased among Americans in the last 40 years, surpassing eight other democratic nations and challenging the idea that it is merely a…

In the elementary years, social studies is an essential subject, critical to young learners' academic success and well-being. The success of our democracy depends on equitable access to this vital learning for all students. Social studies must be taught in every classroom starting in PreK so learners can develop into civically knowledgeable,…

In 2024, fewer than one in four US youth felt like they belonged to a group that expresses itself politically, and 44 percent of young nonvoters were disinterested or disliked the candidates. In a moment where many adults of all ages are dissatisfied with politics, polarization, and American governmental institutions, the state of youth civic…

While civics learning was marginalized in an era of standardized testing and fiscal constraints, more states are incentivizing students, schools, and districts to foster civics learning and engagement opportunities through civic diploma seals and school recognition programs. With an eye toward equitable implementation, these early adopters…

In this article, James Joshua Coleman and Jon Wargo interrogate the (queer) child as a concept and specter that haunts civic life in the United States. Whereas scholars across a range of fields and standpoints have questioned the value of LGBTQ+ inclusion in public school curricula, and society more broadly, together Coleman and Wargo wonder at…

Within the last decades, a new way of policymaking has become increasingly prominent: civic hackathons. However, in education policy research, hackathons have not been broadly addressed so far. With this article, we contribute to closing this research gap by empirically investigating the educational #wirfürschule (#wfs) Hackathons that took place…

How can we imagine the ideal of "civic friendship" in the current contentious atmosphere? This article recasts the original concept of civic friendship through a tangle construct known as "weak ties." It introduces the initial interactions between Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Jane Addams as a useful model for forging weak ties…

In a time of for-profit schooling, continuing segregation, racism, book banning, unconscionable inequality, and antiquated approaches to pedagogy, the prescription for democratic schooling seems daunting. Yet the path is clear: We need to change society to enable democracy in schools; we need democratic schooling to bring the public out of its…

in this article, author Neil Shanks writes about a "people's economics" approach to teaching K-graduate economics, an approach he argues should replace the more traditional and pervasive neoclassical approach. Similar to the shift from 'great white men and wars' history to social and 'bottom up' history, Shanks believes a people's…

This paper discusses how Bernsteinian concepts ('pedagogic rights', 'discursive gaps' and 'pedagogic code') from the field of sociology of education can be used as didactic tools to illuminate how different ways of organising teaching in VET has implications for citizenship preparation. The paper is based on results from a five-year research…

In this article, the authors review higher education's evolving role in this nation's democracy. They then describe a new collaboration, the Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Coalition, which responds educationally to the challenges facing our democracy. The CLDE Coalition aims to (1) reclaim and revitalize higher education's public…