The state of democracy facing expanding political division and pervasive racial and social inequalities. Discussing and deliberating controversial social and political issues functions help foster students' civic contribution. I conducted a qualitative case study and recruited 14 participants, with whom I conducted interviews, self-reflection,…

As Social Studies teachers with decades of combined experience and as teacher educators at a predominantly white midwestern university, the authors center their curriculum around teaching challenging and whole histories, analyzing primary sources, and creating classroom community spaces where difficult dialogues can safely happen. While the…

Quality civic education is often understood as involving discussions of controversial social and political issues, a task made more difficult for teachers amidst the kind of political polarization that characterizes the current political climate. This study explores high school social studies teachers' thinking and sensemaking related to…

While antiracist, problem-posing, and culturally relevant curriculum are effective in teaching students how to deconstruct the world, in practice, social justice education often falls short of helping students reconstruct those instances. In response, researchers in this study implemented a social justice action project for high school students…

This article argues that in divided societies, civic education fails to fulfill one of its most important social role: creating a more inclusive society that allows a democratic dialogue to flow across different ideological, religious, and cultural communities. This failure is grounded in two main reasons. First, civics teachers are socially and…

Two aspects of the place of controversy in the secondary school social studies curricula are considered in this study. First, students' attitudes and descriptions concerning the introduction of controversial course material into the social studies curricula are investigated; and, secondly, the possible consequences of such material are examined.…

Designed as a resource for community program planners and teachers, this publication reports the highlights of a national conference on civic values in the technological age and provides guidelines for planning community discussions on the topic. Following an introduction, four sections of conference highlights are presented in a uniform format:…

Twenty-four eleventh grade students attending a month-long, summer civic-leadership institute in a Pacific Northwest city participated in a study that examined their dialectical reasoning on civic issues. This reasoning was elicited through written scaffolding, with students guided explicitly to compose essays arguing for or against a position on…

The "ISSS Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. (Individual papers contain references.) [For the 2009 proceedings, see ED504973.]