Educating Citizens

Educating Citizens reports on how some American colleges and universities are preparing thoughtful, committed, and socially responsible graduates. Many institutions assert these ambitions, but too few act on them. The authors demonstrate the fundamental importance of moral and civic education, describe how the historical and contemporary landscapes of higher education have shaped it, and explain the educational and developmental goals and processes involved in educating citizens. They examine the challenges colleges and universities face when they dedicate themselves to this vital task and present concrete ways to overcome those challenges.

How can schools teach the skills required for a strong democracy to flourish? What Kind of Citizen? asks readers to imagine the kind of society they would like to live in—and then shows the ways in which schools can be used to make that vision a reality. Westheimer draws on groundbreaking research on school programs and policies to sharply critique the current direction of school reform. He points to the many varied and powerful ways to teach children and young adults to engage critically, to think about social issues, and to participate in authentic debate that acknowledges that intelligent adults can have different opinions. But today’s teachers are being forced to abandon these practices in favor of test-preparation in only a very narrow set of academic subjects. How did this happen? What can we do to set schools back on the right track? How can we realign school goals with what research shows parents, children, and teachers actually care about? How can we save our schools from today’s myopic interpretation of what constitutes an education? Westheimer answers these questions and makes a powerful call for schools to become more engaging, more democratic, and more educative. “Among the many casualties of a preoccupation with rigor and accountability is the prospect of education for meaningful democratic citizenship. In this refreshingly accessible book, Westheimer not only makes that point but explains the importance of helping students to think critically and question tradition. He issues a welcome invitation to connect our conception of the ideal school to its impact on our broader society.” —Alfie Kohn, bestselling author “What does it mean to be a democratic citizen? And what kind of education produces one? For the past 2 decades, Joel Westheimer has been one of North America's most knowledgeable and able guides to these critical issues. Along the way, he has forced us to reconsider the larger goals and purposes of our public schools. His book will provide an invaluable roadmap for anyone who asks the big questions, no matter what they think of his answers.” —Jonathan Zimmerman, New York University “In this highly readable, persuasive book, Joel Westheimer reminds us that, in our zeal for higher test scores, we seem to have forgotten the highest aim of education—to produce better people, more thoughtful citizens.” —Nel Noddings, Stanford University

The United States is in the midst of historic experiments with publicly funded choice in K-12 education, experiments that recently received a "green light" from the Supreme Court. Other nations have long experience with the funding and regulation of nonpublic schools, including religious schools. This book asks what U.S. policymakers, public officials, and citizens can learn from these experiences. In particular, how do other countries regulate or structure publicly funded educational choice with an eye toward civic values —looking not only for improvements in test scores, but also in tolerance, civic cohesion, and democratic values such as integration across the lines of class, religion, and race? The experience of Europe and Canada with school choice is both extensive and varied. In England and Wales, public school choice is widespread, as parents play a significant role in selecting the school their children will attend. In the Netherlands and much of Belgium, a majority of students attend religious schools at government expense. In Canada, France, and Germany, state-financed school choice is limited to circumstances that serve particular social and governmental needs. In Italy, school choice has just recently arrived on the policy agenda. In spite of the diversity of national experiences, in all of these countries choice is regulated by the government in significant and varied ways to promote civic values. In several of these countries, school choice policy itself appears to have played an important role in promoting social cohesion and integration. This book presents a wealth of experience designed to aid policymakers and citizens as they consider historic changes in American public education policy.

Educating students about their roles as global citizens is a challenge that has taken on increasing importance in recent years. In this volume, prominent educators join Nel Noddings to address the issue of global citizenship, what this means, and how it should shape curriculum and teaching in K-12 classrooms. Features: frameworks for educating global citizens, including building community and mutual respect, creating social responsibility, instilling an appreciation for diversity, promoting emotional literacy, and managing and resolving conflict: practical suggestions to help teachers enrich their classrooms with global content; advice for teaching better global attitudes throughout the curriculum, including social studies, science, literature, and math classes; and diverse perspectives by leading educators and scholars on global citizenship and its value to education and community.

This edited collection brings together researchers from education, human geography, sociology, social policy and political theory in order to consider the idea of the ‘pedagogical state’ as a means of understanding the strategies employed to re-educate citizens. The book aims to critically interrogate the cultural practices of governing citizens in contemporary liberal societies. Governing through pedagogy can be identified as an emerging tactic by which both state agencies and other non-state actors manage, administer, discipline, shape, care for and enable liberal citizens. Hence, discourses of ‘active citizenship’, ‘participatory democracy’, ‘community empowerment’, ‘personalised responsibility’, ‘behaviour change’ and ‘community cohesion’ are productively viewed through the conceptual lens of the pedagogical state. Chapters consider the spaces of schools, universities, the voluntary sector, civil society organisations, parenting initiatives, the media, government departments and state agencies as fruitful empirical sites through which pedagogy is worked and re-worked. This book was originally published as a special issue of Citizenship Studies.

"[This volume] makes the statement that democracy matters, that engagement in the community is essential to maintain our democratic values, and that civic engagement plays a significant role in educating our citizens." -- Sharon Hamilton and Robert Orr, Directors, Indiana University Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) Quick Hits for Educating Citizens presents university faculty and administrators with ideas and strategies for integrating civic education into university curricula. Fifty-eight succinct essays from across the disciplines offer successful models of curriculum-based civic education activities and strategies for engaging students outside the classroom. Reflecting best practices as well as individual approaches to educating students for citizenship, this is an outstanding resource for university faculty in every discipline, as well as administrators and students in schools of education.

This book addresses the politically charged issue of citizenship and English language learning among adult migrants in the UK. Whilst citizenship learning is inherent in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), the book argues that top-down approaches and externally-designed curricula are not a productive or useful approach. Meaningful citizenship education in adult ESOL is possible, however, if it brings social and political content centre-stage alongside pedagogy which develops the capabilities for active, grassroots, participatory citizenship. The chapters deliver a detailed examination of citizenship and ESOL in the UK. They address a range of community and college-based settings and the needs and circumstances of different groups of ESOL students, including refugees, migrant mothers, job seekers and students with mental health needs. The book draws attention to the crucial role of ESOL teachers as ‘brokers of citizenship’ mediating between national policy and the experiences and needs of adult migrant students. The book links together language pedagogy and citizenship theory with the practical concerns of ESOL teachers and students.

Mindfulness and Educating Citizens for Everyday Life invites readers to explore the role mindfulness can play in mediating how we enact social life in today’s increasingly challenging and challenged world. The educators and researchers who have contributed to this book use mindfulness as a lens to address and untangle what is becoming a profoundly complicated way of being within the reality of global capitalism. Education is framed broadly – the research transcends the walls of classrooms and includes museums, nursing homes, hospitals, AA meetings, and homes. Hence, the chapters feature participants occupying varied social positions and spaces that may be situated in different parts of the globe. The authors address two overarching and dialectically related themes of mindfulness and wellness and collectively the chapters expand possibilities for readers to act mindfully in a world in which wellness and wellbeing are pervasive concerns as a fragile Earth adapts to a dynamic flux of human-led changes that threaten the future of lifeworlds that support humanity and myriad species that face extinction. The authors do not offer oversimplified solutions to dramatically switch direction and preserve life, as we have known it. Instead, the ideas that emerge from the research presented in this volume expand possibilities for informed conduct, self-help, and educating citizens with a goal of individuals and collectives transforming lifeworlds by embracing mindfulness-saturated ontologies.