Discusses literature on children's community participation and analyzes case studies on children's involvement in neighborhood improvement in Finland, Switzerland, and France. Case-study findings indicate that the creation of child-friendly environments with young people requires a shift toward more ecological and socially supportive settings with…

In this article, the author discusses the pedagogical negligence on civic education after 9/11 due to the No Child Left Behind Policy resulting in several counterproductive restructuring of curricula, which include the creation of a core ninth-grade course in civics, integrated service learning across the curriculum, and the restructuring of…

At the same time as youth crime in the UK is falling, there has been an increase in the numbers of young people in custody together with an explosion of social policy initiatives aimed at young people deemed to be "at risk" of becoming criminal and focused upon the prevention of future offending and inclusion in mainstream society. This…

The human capabilities approach developed by the economist Amartya Sen links development, quality of life and freedom. This article explores the key ideas in the capability approach of: capability, functioning, agency, human diversity and public participation in generating valued capabilities. It then considers how these ideas relate specifically…

This study evaluated the impact of an environmental education program on students, parents, and the community. The program, in place for 5 years in 5th and 6th grade classes, was designed to help learners take an in-depth look at environmental issues in their community, make data-based decisions about those issues, and participate in resolving…

Citizen involvement in education has increased in the last two decades as schools have sought to involve their communities in school matters. An increasing number of schools have formed partnerships with citizens and local businesses to provide volunteers, funding, and expertise to benefit students. Developing partnerships with local citizens and…

It has often been said that the Inuit have many words to describe snow because one would be wholly inadequate to capture accurately the variety of frozen precipitation. Like snow, patriotism is a more nuanced idea than is immediately apparent. Political scientists, sociologists, and educators would do well to expand the roster of words used to…

A primary teaching function calls for facilitating learning by matching student needs and content with effective learning experiences. In many cases, students' most meaningful learning experiences are community based and involve their addressing real-world problems or performing a service for others. In some cases, communities consist of groups of…

International environmental agreements are a primary mechanism of global environmental governance. Increasingly, international environmental agreements recognise the importance of public participation through education. Yet, despite the prominence of international environmental agreements on the international agenda, and the stated commitment to…

An institution that is commonly taught about in middle and high schools is the U.S. Supreme Court. Many people--adults and young people alike--hold misconceptions about how it works. Interestingly, however, this lack of knowledge does not stop people from having a generally positive opinion of the Court--especially relative to the other two…

In this article, the authors discuss how educators from Meredith College help college students gain a global awareness and take steps to be responsible global citizens. This is done by requiring all students to take a course that enables them to address a problem that has both global and local significance while using multiple disciplines and…

Eighteen months after soundly criticizing a new Harvard general education that proposed to abandon the concept of a structured general education, substituting a minimum distribution requirement under which students could choose a few courses from hundreds offered by the faculty, the writer applauds the shift, encouraged by interim president Derek…

While the high cost of education draws headlines, the cost of not educating America's children goes largely ignored. "The Price We Pay" remedies this oversight by highlighting the private and public costs of inadequate education. In this volume, leading scholars from a broad range of fields--including economics, education, demography,…

What distinguishes adolescents who are active in community and political life from those who are not? In an attempt to answer this question, students in their last years of secondary school completed a measure of community and political activities, along with measures of parent and peer interactions, identity development, and adjustment. Cluster…

In his book entitled "Teaching Defiance: Stories and strategies for activist educators," this author asserted that, although his book was not a discussion of the Iraq war, it was concerned with the way the war has been "waged" in the countries of the three invaders: the USA, the UK and Australia. For him, the fact that each…