scholarly journals The Challenges Facing Civic Education in the 21st Century

Daedalus ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 142 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
21St Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Civics Education ◽  
Social Studies Textbooks ◽  
Civic Skills

This essay explores the value and state of civics education in the United States and identifies five challenges facing those seeking to improve its quality and accessibility: 1) ensuring that the quality of civics education is high is not a state or federal priority; 2) social studies textbooks do not facilitate the development of needed civic skills; 3) upper-income students are better served by our schools than are lower-income individuals; 4) cutbacks in funds available to schools make implementing changes in civics education difficult; and 5) reform efforts are complicated by the fact that civics education has become a pawn in a polarized debate among partisans.

scholarly journals Reconceptualizing civic education for young children: Recognizing embodied civic action

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-46
Author(s):  
Katherina A. Payne ◽  
Jennifer Keys Adair ◽  
Kiyomi Sanchez Suzuki Colegrove ◽  
Sunmin Lee ◽  
Anna Falkner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Head Start ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Civic Action ◽  
Civic Skills ◽  
Early Childhood Settings

Traditional conceptions of civic education for young children in the United States tend to focus on student acquisition of patriotic knowledge, that is, identifying flags and leaders, and practicing basic civic skills like voting as decision-making. The Civic Action and Young Children study sought to look beyond this narrow vision of civic education by observing, documenting, and contextualizing how young children acted on behalf of and with other people in their everyday early childhood settings. In the following paper, we offer examples from three Head Start classrooms to demonstrate multiple ways that young children act civically in everyday ways. When classrooms and teachers afford young children more agency, children’s civic capabilities expand, and they are able to act on behalf of and with their community. Rather than teaching children about democracy and citizenship, we argue for an embodied, lived experience for young children.

The comparison of social studies textbooks in Turkey, the United States and France based on values education

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 630-640
Author(s):  
Tuğba Kafadar ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Values Education ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Social Studies Textbooks ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Self Transcendence

The present study aimed to compare social studies or equivalent course textbooks in Turkey, the United States, and France (ethics-citizenship education) based on values education content. The study was designed with the holistic multi-case method, a qualitative research approach, and the study data were collected with document analysis. The study group was assigned with criterion sampling, a purposive sampling method. The study data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. The study findings were as follows: Value dimensions in the textbooks employed in the three countries were similar in the self-transcendence value dimension in Turkey and France, while self-enhancement value dimension was identified in the US (New York) textbooks. Analysis of the value types identified in the textbooks of the three countries demonstrated that the achievement category was prominent in Turkish and American (New York) textbooks, while universalism-concern value type was observed in France. Modesty value type was observed the least in the USA (New York) and France textbooks. However, the least frequent category was prestige in Turkish textbooks. The instruction approaches that were frequently observed in the textbook learning-instruction processes in the three countries were similar and the value explanation approach was adopted in Turkish and American (New York) social studies and French ethics-citizenship textbooks. The least frequent value instruction approaches in the textbooks were value instruction by observation in Turkish and French textbooks and moral reasoning method in the American (New York) social studies textbooks. Furthermore, American (New York) textbooks did not employ the value instruction by observation approach.

Maoism and Postmodernism

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-272
Author(s):  
Alfred Hornung
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Image Quality ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Cultural Revolution ◽  
Final Stage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Barack Obama ◽  
The West

In this essay I discuss the emergence of the Mao cult during the Cultural Revolution in China and its appropriation in cultural revolutions in Europe and the United States to show how this image resonated with similar cults of popular icons in the West and lent itself to the formulation of theories and practices of postmodernism. The image quality of these cults facilitated the rise of the Mao-craze in the late 1980s and 1990s when political pop productions of Mao by Chinese artists emerged in New York and were then transplanted to China where they met with transfigurations of Mao’s legacy in the People’s Republic. The final stage of postmodern variations of Mao is reached with the presidency of Barack Obama in 2009 and the merging of the two leaders into Chairman Obamao or Comrade Maobama, which can be read as the end of ideological contrast between the two countries for the sake of creating a system of political interdependence for the 21st century, a postmodern prefiguration of a coming ChinAmerica.

scholarly journals Differences in Diet Quality between School Lunch Participants and Nonparticipants in the United States by Income and Race

Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 3891
Author(s):  
Elizabeth C. Gearan ◽  
Kelley Monzella ◽  
Leah Jennings ◽  
Mary Kay Fox
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Diet Quality ◽  
School Lunch ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Nutrition ◽  
Healthy Eating Index ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Cost Study ◽  
Hispanic White

Prior research has shown that participation in the United States’ National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is associated with consuming higher-quality lunches and diets overall, but little is known about differences by income and race/ethnicity. This analysis used 24 h dietary recall data from the School Nutrition and Meal Cost Study to examine how NSLP participation affects the diet quality of students in different income and racial/ethnic subgroups. Diet quality at lunch and over 24 h was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2010, where higher scores indicate higher-quality intakes. HEI-2010 scores for NSLP participants and nonparticipants in each subgroup were estimated, and two-tailed t-tests were conducted to determine whether participant–nonparticipant differences in scores within each subgroup were statistically significant. NSLP participants’ lunches received significantly higher total HEI-2010 scores than those of nonparticipants for lower-income, higher-income, non-Hispanic White, and non-Hispanic Black students, suggesting that participating in the NSLP helps most students consume healthier lunches. These significantly higher total scores for participants’ lunch intakes persisted over 24 h for higher-income students and non-Hispanic White students but not for lower-income students or students of other races/ethnicities. For NSLP participants in all subgroups, the nutritional quality of their 24 h intakes was much lower than at lunch, suggesting that the positive influence of the NSLP on their overall diet quality was negatively influenced by foods consumed the rest of the day (outside of lunch).

A New Childhood Social Studies Curriculum for a New Generation of Citizenship

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinthya Saavedra ◽  
Steven Camicia
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Studies ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Democratic Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Social Studies Curriculum ◽  
Transnational Students ◽  
New Generation

AbstractTraditional concepts of civic education in the United States and the expanding horizons curriculum scope and sequence are challenged by globalization and transnationality because new understandings of citizenship are emerging. In our conceptual analysis, we reconceptualize social studies curriculum for childhood to meet these changes. First, we propose a theoretical framework synthesizing literature in the areas of multicultural, global, and democratic education. Second, we propose opening curriculum and research to the voices of students, especially transnational students. Such reconceptualizations have important implications for a social studies curriculum for childhood that is socially just and responsive to the changing sizes, types, and qualities of the communities with which students engage.

“I Really Want to Do Something”: How Civic Education Activities Promote Thinking Toward Civic Purpose Among Early Adolescents

2021 ◽  
pp. 074355842110067
Author(s):  
Michelle Bauml ◽  
Brandy P. Quinn ◽  
Brooke Blevins ◽  
Kevin R. Magill ◽  
Karon LeCompte
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Young Adolescents ◽  
Marginalized Youth ◽  
Civic Development ◽  
Civics Education

Research has shown that youth and their communities benefit from civics education, with its aim to prepare citizens for democracy. However, civics education for adolescents in the United States is not equitable, and determining how to best measure aspects of civic development in younger adolescents is a challenge. In this qualitative study, we explored how the constructs of action civics and civic purpose might inform teachers, other practitioners, and researchers who are interested in understanding the kinds of educational opportunities that promote civic development in young adolescents. Specifically, we examined how activities characteristic of an action civics approach to civic education in the context of a week-long summer civics camp would influence young adolescents’ thinking across the dimensions of civic purpose. We conducted focus groups with 49 young adolescents (entering 5th-9th grades) as they participated in the civics camp, and we analyzed transcripts using qualitative content analysis. Our findings reveal four key considerations for promoting civic purpose development in young adolescents: the importance of adult guides, the significance of developmentally matched activities, opportunities for growth in educating diverse and marginalized youth in the civics camp setting, and action civics as a curricular mechanism for promoting civic purpose.

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