'Lazere's [book] is heaven-sent and will provide a crucial link in the chain of understanding how conflicts are structured and, most importantly, how they can be rationally addressed - a healthy antidote to the scepticism that has become so pervasive in academic life.' Alan Hausman, Hunter College This innovative book addresses the need for college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defence in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. In a groundbreaking reconception of composition theory, it presents a comprehensive critical perspective on American public discourse and practical methods for its analysis. Exercises following the text sections and readings help students understand the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns that underlie opposing viewpoints in current controversies - such as the growing inequality of wealth in America and its impact on the finances of college students - as expressed in paired sets of readings from the political left and right. Widely debated issues of whether objectivity is possible and whether there is a liberal or conservative bias in news and entertainment media, as well as in education itself, are foregrounded as topics for rhetorical analysis.

This practical resource shows teachers how to enact robust forms of civic education in today's schools. Both instructive and thought-provoking, it will inspire teachers to craft curricula addressing a wide range of genuine civic problems such as those related to racial discrimination, environmental damage, and community health. Dividing civic literacy projects into three key phases--problem identification, problem exploration, and action--the author provides concrete examples from upper-elementary, middle, and high school classrooms to illustrate and analyze how each phase can unfold. The projects ultimately provide opportunities for youth to participate in civic life while they develop essential literacy skills associated with reading, writing, and speaking. The final chapter outlines a curriculum design process that will result in coherent and meaningful civic literacy projects driven by clear goals. It includes practical tools, such as a sample unit timeline, an assessment chart, and student worksheets that can be modified for immediate use.

This book focuses on multicultural curriculum transformation in social students and civic education subject areas. The discussion of each area outlines critical considerations for multicultural curriculum transformation for the area by grade level and then by eight organizing tools, including content standards, relationships with and among students and their families, and evaluation of student learning and teaching effectiveness. The volume is designed to speak with PK-12 teachers as colleagues in the multicultural curriculum transformation work. Readers are exposed to “things to think about,” but also given curricular examples to work with or from in going about the actual, concrete work of curriculum change. This work supports PK-12 teachers to independently multiculturally adapt existing curriculum, to create new multicultural curriculum differentiated by content areas and grade levels, and by providing ample examples of what such multicultural transformed social studies and civic education curricula looks like in practice.

The Founders of this nation believed that the government they were creating required a civically educated populace. Such an education aimed to cultivate enlightened, informed, and vigilant citizens who could perpetuate and improve the nation. Unfortunately, America's contemporary youth seem to lack adequate opportunities, if not also the ability or will, to critically examine the foundations of this nation. An even larger problem is an increasing ambivalence toward education in general. Stepping into this void is a diverse group of educators, intellectuals, and businesspeople, brought together in Civic Education and the Future of American Citizenship to grapple with the issue of civic illiteracy and its consequences. The essays, edited by Elizabeth Kaufer Busch and Jonathan W. White, force us to not only reexamine the goals of civic education in America but also those of liberal education more broadly.

Democracy is neither inevitable nor guaranteed to last. To survive, democracy needs people adequately prepared to enact it. Such preparation for effective citizenship in a complex and plural world requires an adult civic education, one that goes beyond simple knowledge acquisition. It requires a transformative education to help learners become agents and co-shapers of their worlds. This book offers examples of the roles that civic education has played and can play in different communities. In this collection, scholars from around the world report and reflect on civic adult education, examining approaches, paradigms, and concepts that help us to act in culturally, ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse societies.

Mass migration and globalization are creating new and deep challenges to education systems the world over. In this volume, some of the world’s leading researchers in multicultural education and immigration discuss critical issues related to cultural sustainability, structural inclusion, and social cohesion. The authors consider how global migration is forcing nation-states to reexamine and reinvent the ways in which they socialize and educate diverse groups for citizenship and civic engagement. These chapters also address how schools can help migrant and immigrant groups attain the knowledge, values, and skills required to become fully participating citizens, while retaining important aspects of their home, community, languages, and culture. Case studies from the United States and Israel are used to illustrate how these concepts are manifested in two immigrant nations. Contributors: Tali Aderet-German, Ayman K. Agbaria, James A. Banks, Zvi Bekerman, Miriam Ben-Peretz, Amy K. Marks, Minas Michikyan, John P. Myers, Sonia Nieto, Carola Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Guadalupe Valdés, and Gregory White “An invaluable guide to understanding the multiple complexities and challenges involved in designing a transformative multicultural civic education.” —Robert F. Arnove, Indiana University, Bloomington “This impressive volume offers valuable insights to teachers, teacher educators, and researchers concerned with preparing youth to be participating democratic citizens.” —Carole L. Hahn, Emory University “This important book outlines a set of urgent issues for both scholars and practitioners committed to the fuller expression worldwide of education for democracy.” —Margaret Crocco,Michigan State University “A stellar group of scholars integrates the migration question into issues related to teaching and learning, as well as teacher preparation.” —Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison “This visionary book highlights research, theory, and practices that can be used to help all students become effective and engaged citizens.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Stanford University and President of the Learning Policy Institute

Distinguished by its weaving together of theory and practice, Critical Literacy and Urban Youth offers an interrogation of critical theory developed from the author’s work with young people in classrooms, neighborhoods, and institutions of power.

User-Driven Healthcare: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications provides a global discussion on the practice of user-driven learning in healthcare and connected disciplines and its influence on learning through clinical problem solving. This book brings together different perspectives for researchers and practitioners to develop a comprehensive framework of user-driven healthcare.