1st Edition

The Future of Civic Education Rebuilding a Democracy in Ruins

Edited By Elizabeth Yeager Washington, Keith C. Barton Copyright 2025
182 Pages
by Routledge

182 Pages
by Routledge

182 Pages
by Routledge

Speaking to the need to move beyond traditional formulations, this textbook presents radical visions for transforming civic education in the United States. Drawing on the experience of educators and scholars—including those rooted in feminist, queer, abolitionist, global, and race-conscious perspectives—this work offers new, practical ideas for civic education reform. Responding to recent... Read more

1. Replacing civic education Elizabeth Yeager Washington and Keith C. Barton 2. Revealing is healing: toward the development of a history education reconciliation commission LaGarrett J. King and Richard D. Williams 3. “Why don’t you go free Mumia?”: Learning about and from U.S. political prisoners Jillian Ford 4. We all we got: Black teachers helping Black students through civic estrangement Kristen E. Duncan 5. No gods, no masters: practicing freedom through anarchist civics Alexandria Hollett 6. Transcendent civic education: global comparative explorations of hope and wicked problems Li-Ching Ho, Tricia Seow, and Qian Hui Tan 7. A hope for civic education: shared humanity and sustainability as guideposts Kathryn E. Engebretson 8. Renewing democracy: putting empathy first Jennifer Hauver 9. Social studies education in a backsliding democracy: more civics or democratic dreaming? Alexander Cuenca

Biography

Elizabeth Yeager Washington is Professor and Coordinator of Secondary Education and Social Studies Education at The University of Florida. Her research focuses on civic education, democratic citizenship education, and the teaching of difficult history and controversial issues.

Keith C. Barton is Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Indiana University, United States. His research focuses on teaching, learning, and curriculum in history and social studies in the United States and internationally. He is co-author, with Li-Ching Ho, of Curriculum for Justice and Harmony: Deliberation, Knowledge, and Action in Social and Civic Education (Routledge).

"Elizabeth Washington and Keith C. Barton have engaged the collective wisdom of a diverse band of social studies scholars who expose the hypocrisy and multi-layered shortcomings of civic education. Contributing authors challenge scholars, teachers, and the social studies field to actively confront and work against the politics of rage, racial trauma, nationalism, and Black estrangement –among other social ills – while simultaneously envisioning reimagined enactments of civic education that could possibly restore our embattled democracy."
J.B. Mayo, Associate Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Minnesota, USA

"This eclectic collection presents visionary conceptions of civic education and embodies the aims of critical consciousness, truth and reconciliation, global citizenship, empathy, anarchy, racial healing, and future-building. The chapters offer hopeful and transformative ideas for curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom relationships in response to despair over the political crises of our time. To engage with ideas about how the field might be transformed, this is the book to read."
Judy Pace, Professor, School of Education, University of San Francisco, USA