Argues that, with the increasing diversity of the U.S. population, education needs to respond by figuring out a meaningful way to embrace values of civic unity and cultural diversity at the same time. Discusses problems encountered in addressing diversity within civic education and means to bridge the gap. (DSK)

Examines research and literature on race and ethnic groups published between 1911-2000, documenting how knowledge created by social scientists, historians, and intellectuals reflects social and cultural contexts and political and economic interests. Notes the competing paradigms and explanations developed in each historical period, explaining that…

Explains fundamental shifts dominating education's transition at technical, managerial, and institutional levels. Since the first edition of the "Handbook of Research on Educational Administration," school administration has been reconfigured and recultured. Social justice, democratic community, and school improvement comprise major…

The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) standards identify the primary purpose of the social studies as helping "young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world." To sustain and improve our democracy, future…

In democratic societies schools play a large role in helping students learn the values and skills necessary for adult participation in a free and open society. This article is a case study of a group of students who started a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) at a private American school in Mexico City. The students' struggle to form and keep their GSA,…

This paper focuses on college students' views of the American class system and the extent to which they see it as an open system of contest mobility, in which individual effort and ability determine achievement and social standing, or as a system of sponsorship, in which family connections determine class position. The effects of family class…

The founder of Penn State's Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy and chair of Penn State's Public Scholarship Associates establishes public scholarship's connections with democracy by distinguishing public scholarship from service, outlining a curriculum of consequence, and suggesting the constitutional roots of public scholarship.

Informed by an interdisciplinary body of scholarship yet focusing on developmental challenges and competencies of the young adult years, this chapter argues that public scholarship is the best form of education for young adults in democracies.

To those who would claim that the study of literature is impractical, Probst would respond vehemently, "No, it is essential." The habit of thoughtful reading, insightful questioning, and critical evaluation are learned in English language arts classes where a variety of genres, characters, and situations push students to analyze and debate and…

Given the roots of critical theory in Marxist analysis of class and economy, it is essential that critical educators not lose sight of the importance of these factors to everyday practices.

This study explores the role of children's news media in establishing meanings of critical situations and promoting notions of active citizenship. A content analysis of three Israeli children's magazines' coverage of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin is conducted. Findings suggest differences between religious media and secular media in terms of…

Two high school teachers advocate teaching high school students to investigate and transform their worlds with the help of the American literature. "Behind the Veil: American Literature and Culture of the 1950s" and "The Visible and the Invisible: Literary and Cultural Representations of the Native American", are the two literature units used to…

In this opinion piece, the author views several major problems facing those who care about students labeled has having learning disabilities (LD). He believes that while there are technical problems that educators should be able to fix (definition of LD, best instructional practices for students so identified, powerful secondary programs that…

Content analysis of the curriculum and textbooks for the last four grades of compulsory education used in Bosnia and Herzegovina are presented. The major aim in this research has been to identify how issues related to democracy and human rights are presented.--Do the curriculum and textbooks support the ideas and behaviours recognized as…

This article examines how the democratic practices of a teamed model of student teaching affect the student teachers' susceptibility to be "summoned" by cultural myths of teaching as described by Britzman. Development and implementation of the teamed model was the basis for a case study of the mediation of power within the context of a student…