Course Description In this course, we will explore the question of the actual and potential connections between democracy and education. Our focus of attention will be placed on a critical examination of democratic theory and its implications for the civic education roles and contributions of teachers, adult educators, community development practitioners, and community organizers. We will survey and deal critically with a range of competing conceptions of democracy, variously described as classical, republican, liberal, radical, marxist, neomarxist, pragmatist, feminist, populist, pluralist, postmodern, and/or participatory. Using narrative inquiry as a means for illuminating and interpreting contemporary practice, we will analyze the implications of different conceptions of democracy for the practical work of civic education.

Democracy and education.

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1994, Vol 39(2), 225. Reviews the book, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John Zaller (1992). The author's commendable effort to specify a model of mass opinion formation offers readers an introduction to the prevailing vi

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

What is youth participation

Where’s the Learning in Service-Learning

Political Character of Adolescence

Alan R. Gitelson is professor of political science at Loyola University, Chicago. His most recentpublications include American Government, 7th Edition Iwith Robert L Dudley and Melvin DubnickJ, andAmerican Elections: The Rules Matter {with Robert L. DudleyJ. He serves as a member of the American PoNitical Science Association Standing Commiffee on Education and Professional Development. He can be reached at agitels@luc.edu. In one of her first acts as president of the American Political Science Association in 1996, Elinor Ostrom created the "Task Force on Civic Education for the Next Century." Ostrom pointed to the need to address contemporary, "deep concerns about the viability of democracy in America. . .," concerns rooted in the perceived "decline in civic engagement, political efficacy, and in the capacity of citizens to organize themselves...." Ostrom went on to argue for a number of remedies to deal with the need for greater civic education and civic engagement in the United States (1996, 755-58). The discussion that Ostrom opened, led to the establishment, in 2002, of an APSA standing committee on Civic Education and Engagement. Of course, the roots of this discussion are far deeper than recent APSA initiatives. Theorizing on the conditions necessary to sustain civic responsibility in a political regime can be traced back to ancient political theory. Similarly, the role, status, and evolution of civic education and engagement, particularly among American youth, preoccupied much of the work of Progressives (e.g., Dewey 1900, 1916). Indeed, many of the Progressive reformers devoted considerable attention to the link between education and citizenship. Post World War II political scientists reentered this discussion with the creation of a distinct field known as political socialization. 1967; Hess and Torney 1967) and their sense of nationality (Davies 1968) proliferated in the 1960s and 1970s. So prodigious were students of political socialization that by the end of the 1960s Greenstein declared, "Political socialization is a growth stock" (1970, 969). Political socialization research may have been a growth stock in 1970 but by 1985 Timothy Cook (1985) was pointing out that the bull market had turned decidedly bearish. The number of publications in political socialization between 1977 and 1982 markedly declined and more importantly the number of articles dealing with those younger than high school seniors all but disappeared from political science journals. As Cook (1985, 1080) noted, "childhood . . . disappeared in political science." This rapid decline is often attributed to methodological quarrels centering on the use of survey instruments. Many researchers began to doubt the validity of administering survey instruments to children. Indeed, to some, the responses gleamed from surveys were simply nonattitudes, susceptible to instability and produced by the children's willingness to provide socially correct answers, further contaminated by response set bias (Kolson and Green 1970; Connel 1972; Vaillancourt 1973). But methodological qualms alone cannot explain the fall from favor that political socialization research experienced. Although survey research was the dominant methodology, inventive researchers found other ways to address the questions. Greenstein (1975), for instance, used semi-projective tests and Merelman (1971) used hypothetical dilemmas. For Cook, the decline of political socialization research in the late 1970s is attributable to the failure to take into account psychological models of development. The field's focus on the attitudes of children lead researchers to ignore, sometimes unintentionally, other times quite intentionally (see Greenstein 1970), the fundamental questions of cognition.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B68F4FC186781E0A91F482F4867C9145/S1049096503002191a.pdf/div-class-title-civic-education-civic-engagement-and-youth-civic-development-div.pdf

Civic Education, Civic Engagement, and Youth Civic Development

1. Defining the Electorate. Expanding the Franchise. Property and the Vote. Race and the Vote. Women and the Vote. A Uniform Voting Age. Registration. Remaining Differences. Apportionment and Districting. Apportioning Seats. Magnitude. Designing Districts. At-large Elections: The Local Alternative. 2. Getting on the Ballot. The Nomination. A Brief History. The View from the Top: Reforming the Nomination System. The Primaries. The Caucus. The Convention. Term Limits. Applying the Rules to Minor Parties and Independent Candidates. 3. The Money Constituency. Campaign Contributions at the Federal Level. The Federal Election Act. Public Funding in Presidential Elections. Soft Money: the Big Loophole. Campaign Contributions at the State level. Campaign Contributions at the Local Level. 4. Campaigning to Election Day. The Election Calendar. Reporting and Spending the Money. Reporting Requirements. Spending Limits. Campaigns and the Media. 5. Casting and Counting the Ballots. Casting the Ballot. The Australian Ballot. Ballot position. Opening and Closing the Polls. Ballot Medium. Election Night and Beyond. Counting the Votes. Recounting the Votes. 6. A Special Case Study: Campaigning and the Electoral College. Introduction: Electoral College in American History. The Selection of Electors. The Election. Who Benefits? Who Loses? Campaigning Under the Electoral College. Reform of the Electoral College. Conclusion.

American Elections: The Rules Matter

In this brief historical overview of the study of the political socialization process and the acquisition of political knowledge, the authors maintain that the study of youth, political literacy, and civic activism is both a complex undertaking and normatively loaded. The research demands not only rigor in design but the exploration of new venues for a better understanding of those agents, activities, and interactions that shape young people's visions of the political world and their choice to participate or not participate in it. There is a need for a clearer understanding of what we know about politics and how we can link that knowledge to civic engagement. An important key to this understanding is greater awareness of and attention paid by political scientists to developmental psychology and theories of the learning processes. Only then can we make informed decisions about appropriate standards of civic education and civic engagement for our youth and throughout the life cycle.

Political Literacy, Civic Education, and Civic Engagement: A Return to Political Socialization?

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Civic Education, Civic Engagement, and Youth Civic Development

American Elections: The Rules Matter

Political Literacy, Civic Education, and Civic Engagement: A Return to Political Socialization?