This column examines ways of teaching gifted students the meaning of politics. The author focuses on the verbiage of politics and methods for understanding, discussing, and role-playing politics.

The education of teachers who can effectively respond to immigrant and refugee students' needs has been a major issue in Türkiye and globally. Drawing on culturally relevant pedagogy, this phenomenological study explores the professional needs of 24 elementary teachers in Türkiye who teach immigrant and refugee students in their classes and were…

This article outlines a semester-long advocacy project that walks students through the steps to develop a successful advocacy campaign, culminating in a trip to the state capitol to "lobby" legislators. The manuscript provides faculty with the basic structure for the project and suggests gradable assignments. The project builds on the…

Computational thinking--a set of mental and cognitive tools applied to problem solving--is a fundamental skill that all of us (and not just computer scientists) draw on. Educators have found that computational thinking enhances learning across a range of subjects and reinforces students' abilities in reading, writing, and arithmetic. This book…

Competent social work practice includes the use of advocacy to promote equal opportunity and justice for all individuals, particularly those living in vulnerable circumstances. Group role-play exercises are an innovative teaching method that can promote advocacy skills guided by social work values and the code of ethics. Group role-play exercises…

In this interview, Paula Mathieu explores the rhetorical tactics and contemplative practices necessary to cultivate hope in a period of political tumult. Drawing on her scholarship on the "public turn" in Composition Studies, a term she gave us in her vital "Tactics of Hope: The Public Turn in English Composition," Mathieu…

The current education climate has brought the development of classroom drama as an art form to a standstill. Practitioners need to make a qualitative leap forward in both theory and practice in order to respond to the cultural demands of the times. By linking the best of the ground-breaking work of Dorothy Heathcote and Gavin Bolton with the…

In the fall of 2008, Stacy McCormack's students were caught up in the presidential election, and she began to wonder how she might harness this passion for politics in her high school physics classroom. At about the same time, a friend recommended the book "Physics for Future Presidents" (Muller 2008), which led her to develop a year…

Fictional film provides an opportunity to breathe life into the application of academic concepts by capturing the attention and imagination of students. Using the 2009 hit movie "Avatar", it is argued that popular fiction has the potential to help students grasp the dynamics of imperial/indigenous relationships in part because it removes…

Developing preservice and inservice teachers' sociopolitical consciousness remains an important part of supporting the success of P-12 student experiences. The authors recognize that one way to enhance the sociopolitical consciousness aspect of culturally responsive pedagogy/teaching is through experiential opportunities that support teacher…

The authors make a case for using "The West Wing," a political drama that aired on NBC from 1999 to 2006, as an instructional tool in high school civics and government classes. The show offers a realistic portrayal of life in the White House through the eyes of Democratic President Josiah Bartlet and his senior staff that can further students'…

The documentary play "Seven" is the collaboration of seven female playwrights with seven women activists connected in 2006 by the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization supporting the development of female leaders (Vital). The stated mission of Vital Voices is to "identify, invest in and bring…

During the six weeks before the 2008 elections, I conducted a contest for the 72 students enrolled in my upper-division course Campaigns and Elections. Using contract prices posted by Intrade.com, an electronic gaming market based in Dublin, I asked students to choose among 10 political outcomes. The "contracts" earned by each choice…

Popular music is ubiquitous in the lives of our students, music is used by politicians at virtually every one of their campaign events, and musicians are increasingly active in politics, but music has never been considered as a pedagogical tool in teaching political science classes. This article describes the use of music in an introduction to…

Experiments provide a simple and engaging framework for familiarizing students with the process of quantitative social research. In this article, I illustrate how experiments can be used in the classroom environment by describing a module that was implemented in four high school classrooms. The module familiarized students with how the scientific…