This response to Peterson's (2014) "Nonviolent Action as a Necessary Component in Educating for Democracy" enlarges the discussion of the role of the teacher/educator in deciding whether or when it is responsible to facilitate the engagement of students in acts of nonviolent dissent. Ultimately it would seem that the most important of…

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one's discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, "Word Generation" is a cross-content…

Michigan State University embarked upon an initiative to explore deliberative dialogue as a tool for addressing community-based contested issues in agriculture and natural resources. Our goal is to assess the extent to which deliberative dialogue can help "bridge the divides" among citizens and professionals and fulfill the land-grant…

The information presented in this booklet is for group leaders, facilitators, and members, and outlines some typical barriers or problem situations groups encounter. These are (1) reluctance to assume responsibility for tasks, (2) a decline in attendance, (3) unproductive, time-consuming meetings, (4) lack of followup on decisions, (5) discussions…

Examines the problems inherent in working with citizen advisory committees and offers advice to boards and administrators on meeting or preventing conflict with these groups. (WD)

The landmark Civic Mission of Schools report of 2003 laid out an argument for the role of schools in promoting youth civic engagement and presented a range of promising ideas and practices to accomplish that. In this study we describe the civic engagement outcomes that Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in Louisville, KY, has chosen to promote…

This booklet is for individuals who are interested in learning more about the process of problem-solving. It provides information and sample tools, charts, and suggestions to assist in problem-solving efforts. The first section is about the nature of the problem-solving process. Then the five steps of problem-solving--(1) focusing on the problem,…

This report describes a program for building and reinforcing character development in order to increase appropriate student-to-student and student-to-teacher behaviors. The targeted population consists of primary and intermediate elementary students in a growing middle class community in Elk Grove, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The problems of…

This publication is intended to serve as a resource for K-12 social studies teachers charged with the major responsibility of making peace and law-relaed concepts meaningful to students. The purpose of this resource book is to empower teachers and students in Hawaii with the concepts of peace and law. It seeks to foster dialogue between and among…

Intended for agency field personnel who assist in local community development (CD) efforts, this publication is the second of three making up an intensive training manual for community development. Using an inservice training approach, this part of the manual contains four instructional units: rationale for CD training, what CD is (CD as process,…

This paper analyzes a study designed to determine if students understand the concept of democracy and can apply democratic principles. It also compares the study with related investigations conducted in Europe and calls for improved teaching to make the concept of democracy comprehensible. In 1974, 1,000 high school seniors in Pennsylvania…