In the United States the color red has come to represent the Republican party, and blue the Democratic party, in maps of voting patterns. Here we test the hypothesis that voting maps dichotomized into red and blue states leads people to overestimate political polarization compared to maps in which states are represented with continuous gradations…

In a pre-service mathematics methods class I taught, in which we mathematized political districting (first horizontally, then vertically), student questions led to engaging mathematics, in particular, the development of a new number sequence.

The current assessment of the state of political division in the United States is foreboding. Americans are more divided than any time since the Civil War, leaving some to opine that these differences may be irreconcilable. This speculative analysis takes seriously as its point of departure the position of a growing number of American commentators…

This paper describes a lesson centered around a metric for measuring partisan gerrymandering: the efficiency gap. We situate the efficiency gap in the current US political climate, describe the activity itself, and then provide recommendations for readers interested in adapting the lesson for their own classrooms.

Teaching and learning about political boundaries in an effective, engaging manner can be enriched through the use of webGIS mapping tools and spatial data. WebGIS enabled tools bring problem solving, critical thinking, and spatial analysis to education. Teaching with GIS is conducive to a multi-disciplinary, problem-solving learning environment…

For the past two decades, the presidency and both houses of Congress have been hotly contested by the two major political parties. Yet, geographically, the United States seems to be increasingly marked by "red" areas where the Democratic Party lacks any ability to even dream of winning office and "blue" areas where the…

People's conceptual ordering of the universe has traditionally taken the form of dualism, "good and evil" and "us against them." In this age of nuclear weapons, this is highly dangerous thinking. We must rid ourselves of nationalism and commit ourselves to peace in all our dealings. (CS)

Asserts that modern ideas about the nation can be characterized by an emphasis on outer boundaries, and that contemporary Norwegians put questions of units and boundaries into the foreground with particular force. Describes how boundaries are important in Norwegians' everyday lives, most notably in current debates about raising children and about…

Have you voted? Have you sung the national anthem recently? Have you objected to racial or sexual discrimination? Have you worn a political button or participated in a political rally? Have you turned a blind eye? Have you thought about the impact of US sanctions and air patrols on Iraq? Have you decided not to? Whether the answer is yes or no to…

Examines the symbolic oppositions that structure the "Appeal," together with its strategy of crisis taken from Puritan jeremiads. Accounts for Chase's success in pulling together disparate forces of the free North. Explores events which laid the ground for the Republican party and civil war. (RAE)

After a discussion of the circumstances that led to the unification of the two German states, this paper then evaluates the challenges to political education in Germany after unification. Beginning with the focus by the media and politics on the effects of East German political changes on the two German states, the revolution in East Germany and…

A widely held argument is that organizations such as the European Community will only succeed if an identification with these organizations develops; and the EC creates this identification. This, in turn, is supposed to diminish identification with national and sub-national regions. Based on this argument, some testable propositions are suggested…

Aboriginal nations oppose the separation of Quebec from Canada because they favor confederations, multiple international boundaries present jurisdictional nightmares, federal programs might disappear, and Quebec's history of aggression against Aboriginal peoples plus the ethnic nature of its nationalism suggest an independent Quebec is a potential…

Having been schooled in the intellectual tradition of the strict separation of church and state, educational researchers have devoted little scholarly attention to how religion affects education. This paper delineates the ways in which religion and politics intersect to shape society, particularly, the impact of the intersection on education. The…

Explores the unique features of Canadian history and society that influence the conception of Canadian citizenship. These include the historical development of Canada as a frontier crown territory, the search for an elusive national identity, the decentralized political structure, and the proximity to the United States. (MJP)