Building Civic Capacity: The Politics of Reforming Urban Schools. Studies in Government and Public Policy., 2001. This book examines civic capacity and urban education politics in 11 large cities, highlighting change at the citywide level. Chapter 1, "The Scope of the Problem," introduces the subject. Chapter 2, "The Challenge of Change in Complex Policy Subsystems," suggests that education may be a "high-reverberation" policy subsystem, in which institutionalizing change is difficult. Chapter 3, "The Urban Context: A First Look at the Case Cities," describes the cities (population, race, income, parent's education, city versus suburb, fiscal context, and demographic contributors to weakened public school constituencies). Chapter 4, "Civic Mobilization in Eleven Cities," discusses open collaboration and collective engagement, noting underlying sources of civic mobilization and local history as a conditioning force. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66049 (paperback: ISBN-0-7006-1118-5, $16.95; hardcover: ISBN-0-7006-1117-1, $35).
Neutrality, Pluralism, and Education: Civic Education as Learning About the Other. Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique - The Political Socialization of Adolescents in Canada: Differential Effects of Civic Education on Visible Minorities. Research Article The Political Socialization of Adolescents in Canada: Differential Effects of Civic Education on Visible Minorities Ellen Claesa1 c1, Marc Hooghea1 c2 and Dietlind Stollea2 c3 a1 Catholic University of Leuven a2 McGill University Montreal Abstract Abstract.
It is assumed that civic education has persistent effects on political attitudes and behaviours of young citizens. Résumé. Correspondence: c1 Ellen Claes, Department of Political Science, Catholic University of Leuven, Parkstraat 45, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Ellen.Claes@soc.kuleuven.be. c2 Marc Hooghe, Department of Political Science, Catholic University of Leuven, Parkstraat 45, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium, Marc.Hooghe@soc.kuleuven.be. c3 Dietlind Stolle, Department of Political Science, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T7, Canada, Dietlind.Stolle@mcgill.ca. From the Achievement Gap to the Education Debt: Understanding Achievement in U.S. Schools. Overcoming “Doom and Gloom”: Empowering Students in Courses on Social Problems, Injustice, and Inequality. Brett Johnson1 + Author Affiliations Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, Luther College, Decorah, IA 52101; e-mail: johnbr02@luther.edu.
In this paper, I use principles of civic education and social psychology to identify four main classroom contributors to students' pessimistic appraisals of their ability to improve social problems: authoritarian teaching methods, a culture of “doom and gloom,” little attention to solutions to social problems, and no linkage of social problems to individual behavior. I then propose a five-step process to effectively teach about social problems while empowering students to help solve these problems: (1) identify the process through which social problems are constructed, (2) identify existence of the social problem, (3) identify core causes of the social problem, (4) identify structural solutions to the social problem, and (5) identify individual actions that contribute to structural solutions. © 2005 American Sociological Association.
Testing the Promise of the Churches: Income Inequality in the Opportunity to Learn Civic Skills in Christian Congregations - Schwadel - 2002 - Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Losing Our Language: How Multiculturalism Undermines Our Children's Ability To Read, Write & Reason., 1999. This book argues that it is the incorporation of a multicultural agenda into basal readers, the primary tool for teaching reading in elementary schools, that has stunted American children's ability to read. The book shows how basal readers have been systematically "dumbed down" in an effort to raise minority students'"self esteem. " It contends that while elementary readers of the past featured excerpts from classic stories such as "Arabian Nights" and "Robinson Crusoe," with a complex vocabulary and sentence structure able to challenge the imagination and build reading skills, today's basal readers present students with politically and ethnically correct stories whose language is virtually foreign and unable to engage students.
According to the book, drawing words from Swahili, Spanglish, and other "trendy" dialects to teach students with a shrinking English vocabulary is a symptom of this intellectual and cultural disorder. Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy - Stephen MACEDO, Stephen Macedo. What should the aims of education policy be in the United States and other culturally diverse democracies? Should the foremost aim be to allow the flourishing of social and religious diversity? Or is it more important to foster shared political values and civic virtues? Stephen Macedo believes that diversity should usually, but not always, be highly valued. We must remember, he insists, that many forms of social and religious diversity are at odds with basic commitments to liberty, equality, and civic flourishing. Liberalism has an important but neglected civic dimension, he argues, and liberal democrats must take care to promote not only well-ordered institutions but also well-ordered citizens.
Macedo's tough-minded liberal agenda for civic education offers a fundamental challenge to free market libertarians, the religious right, parental rights activists, postmodernists, and many of those who call themselves multiculturalists.