The power of democracy is its adaptability to a changing world. We can envision and work toward a society that is more just than the present. History education is more relevant now than ever. We offer ideas and strategies that can transform the history classroom into a space for understanding the past with the explicit purpose of learning from the…

Researchers pointed at project-based science education encourages students' dialogic practices such as wondering about the scientific phenomenon and asking questions, which may positively affect positively students' democratic practices in the classroom. It is the goal of the present research to verify this issue. Sixty-six Grade 5 students…

This study aims to develop an instrument that measures democratic attitudes levels in primary school students in third and fourth grades. This study involved 591 students (302 for exploratory factor analysis, 289 for confirmatory factor analysis) enrolled in the 3rd and 4th grades. A literature review was conducted to prepare the scale items, and…

In this article, the authors unveil the Trade Book Inquiry Design Model (IDM) blueprint. Anchored in a compelling question inspired by a trade book, the new blueprint is broken into two instructional blocks: "Reading and Comprehension" and "Living Social Studies." The inquiry template is designed to be instructionally efficient…

Widespread global interest and adoption of deliberative democracy approaches to reinvigorate citizenship and policymaking in an era of democratic crisis/decline has been mirrored by increasing interest in deliberation in schools, both as an approach to pedagogy and student empowerment and as a training ground for deliberative citizenship. In…

We focus on how democratic practices occur during the modeling activity "The Candy Bag of Dreams." With democratic practices, we refer to approaches supporting inclusivity and active participation aimed at empowering students. We investigated one group of preservice teachers implementing an optimizing modeling activity during practicum…

Promoting equal access to schools for researchers wishing to conduct educational research was one of the key tasks embedded in the educational transformation mandate of the new government of South Africa when it came to power in 1994. Drawing on data from five different research projects, this paper evaluates progress made by the democratic…

Dialogic pedagogy aims to promote deliberative democratic skills, virtues and practices within an equitable and empowering classroom environment. This article problematizes the practice of setting classroom ground rules in light of dialogic pedagogy's democratic aspirations. Specifically, we explore the space for dissenting voices within the…

The goal of this research is to reveal out the effect of the activities prepared based on the 4MAT teaching method on the academic achievement of the students, with respect to the unit, "The Journey of Democracy", included in social studies curriculum for 6th-graders. In accordance with this goal, the research was conducted using the…

Young learners need to cultivate new democratic skills and dispositions to fully participate in civic dialogues, but many teachers have yet to integrate suitable experiences into their curricula. These new media skills apply established aspects of citizenship like deliberation, pluralism, and participation towards engagement with various forms of…

Student-designed games (SDG) are a student-centred approach that motivates students to work together while designing and playing their own games based on their ability level. The purpose of this study was to investigate students' social interactions during 11 lessons of SDG focused on target games. Participants were 27 fifth-graders. Lessons were…

How do we preserve our civil society and dynamic political system and prepare students to be active citizens in a democratic society? The need for civic education is more essential now than ever before, and students deserve access to powerful civic lessons that actively engage them in learning about our democracy. The ultimate goal would be for…

Education in the United States has a foundational public purpose: to prepare students for effective citizenship. The idea that an educated and engaged citizenry is essential to the health of a democracy motivated the creation of government-run "common schools" in the early decades of the nation and remains an important value in modern…

This article explains why elementary school children need civic education, identifies common obstacles that frustrate efforts, then describes how the Storypath approach can provide all students with opportunities for powerful civic learning. An actual application in a culturally diverse fourth-grade classroom illustrates how children grappled with…

This paper draws on a longitudinal ethnography of nine children's use of texts in and out of school in a multilingual setting in Sweden. The aim of this contribution is to reflect on the ways in which four out of these nine children are able to represent their literacies in school and in that way also represent their experiences and identities.…