Promoting Active Citizenship

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book analyses the considerable variation in the shares of private provision for core services in education, health and social services, in the Scandinavian countries. The chapters compare countries, service areas, and the for-profit, non-profit and public sectors. Each focuses on different levels of change: the mix of welfare providers, national laws and regulations, governance in municipalities, nursing homes and schools, and finally, the consequences experienced by the users of the services. The authors ask which combinations of governance structures, service sector providers, and user choice give the best results for active citizenship. Promoting Active Citizenship will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including Public Administration and Management, Non-Profit Management, Social Policy, Innovation in Public Service, Social Care and Education and School Research.

The profound changes that we are experiencing at the political, environmental, economic, social, and cultural levels of our “postmodern” society pose immense challenges to education. In order to empower students to analyze, reflect, and take action for a sustainable world, the learning and educational process must be experienced in the context of citizenship; that is, it must be designed, planned, and implemented having global sustainability as a framework, thus developing societal awareness, values, and principles. Teaching and Learning Practices That Promote Sustainable Development and Active Citizenship is an essential research book that provides comprehensive research on education as a fundamental factor in empowering citizens to understand and act on the multiple risks and challenges to the sustainability of our society and world. Highlighting a range of critical learning strategies such as global and critical education, development education, and transformational education, among others, this book is ideal for academicians, education professionals, researchers, policymakers, and students.

This book analyses the considerable variation in the shares of private provision for core services in education, health and social services, in the Scandinavian countries.The chapters compare countries, service areas, and the for-profit, non-profit and public sectors. Each focuses on different levels of change: the mix of welfare providers, national laws and regulations, governance in municipalities, nursing homes and schools, and finally, the consequences experienced by the users of the services. The authors ask which combinations of governance structures, service sector providers, and user choice give the best results for active citizenship. Promoting Active Citizenship will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including Public Administration and Management, Non-Profit Management, Social Policy, Innovation in Public Service, Social Care and Education and School Research. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Migration movements have been a constant in the societies of the past, as well as in postmodern society. However, in the past ten years, the increase in political, economic, and religious conflict amongst nations; the increase of the poverty index; and many and various natural disasters have duplicated the forced displacement of millions of people across the seven continents of the planet. This situation brings important challenges in terms of the vulnerability, inequity, and discrimination that certain peoples suffer. Professionals from the fields of the social sciences, education, psychology, and international law share the fact that education represents an opportunity for children and young migrants to become members with full rights in the societies they arrive in. Empirical studies show that that the implementation of the right to education for migrants presents some challenges and dilemmas to the governments of host countries and more specifically to the education centers, NGOs, universities, and the professionals working in them, hence the need for more research on these issues of immigration, refugees, social justice, and intercultural education. The Handbook of Research on Promoting Social Justice for Immigrants and Refugees Through Active Citizenship and Intercultural Education provides visibility to issues such as the increase in migration and displacement and the difficulties in political agreements, educational contexts, and in cultural issues, stigmatization, vulnerability, social exclusion, racism, and hatred amongst host communities. This book gives possible solutions to this current complex situation and helps foster and promote sensitivity, perspective, and critical thinking for a respectful and tolerant coexistence and promotion of equity and social justice. The chapters promote cultural diversity and inclusion in classrooms by offering knowledge, strategies, and research on organizational development for educational institutions and multicultural environments. This book is essential for administrators, policymakers, leaders, teachers, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the promotion of social justice in education for immigrants and refugees.

A global citizen is an individual who believes in a public responsibility for their local community to grow and interconnect amongst the world’s diverse people and things. Global citizenship education is a fast-moving process that continues to intertwine communities all over the world. As we move toward a more global world, the improvement in education, health, poverty rates, and standard of living should come with it. This global world must be a place where people are aware of what is going on and can have an impact as well. The Handbook of Research on Promoting Global Citizenship Education explores various ways to empower educators to design and implement a curriculum that incorporates global citizen education. Covering a range of topics such as global issues and academic migration, this major reference work is ideal for academicians, industry professionals, policymakers, researchers, scholars, instructors, and students.

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