Investigated types of knowledge and beliefs elementary teachers needed to teach a civics/citizenship education unit. Teachers implemented a special unit on childrens' needs, rights, and responsibilities. Data from videotaped lessons and teacher interviews found seven themes, four of which were relevant: knowledge of content and resources,…

Textbooks are major educational tools for students. A United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) project titled "Basic Learning Material" claims that textbooks provide the main resource for teachers, enabling them to animate the curricula and giving life to the subjects taught in the classroom. As Power…

Since the 1980s the mission of the national citizenship education curriculum in Pakistan has been the Islamization of society. The government curriculum guidelines require textbooks to emphasize Islam as the national ideology of the state of Pakistan. Recognizing the deleterious effect of an exclusivist curriculum on the civic unity of the nation,…

National and statewide research indicates that there is a special role for schools in preparing youth to become active, engaged participants in a democratic society. Unlike many of the roles that schools have assumed, this is not a new role; it is a role that was envisioned by the founding fathers. The results of several national studies strongly…

In September 2003, Hudson High School in Hudson, Massachusetts launched two new civic development efforts--clustering and schoolwide governance--and moved into a new building designed to facilitate them. Clustering is designed to achieve a sense of community within a large school by creating small communities of 100 to 150 students. To create…

Presenting U.S. history teachers with a set of 26 lessons, this book is designed to help educators teach about the Bill of Rights and to assist students in understanding important events and concepts related to the Bill of Rights. The book begins with the fundamental concepts of government, law, and historical roots of the Bill of Rights and…

Designed to supplement students' study of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, this text can help them identify the First Amendment as a blueprint for a tolerant society. The introduction explains the purpose of the book and describes its contents. The first chapter discusses events leading to the First Amendment's creation. The chapter…

This teacher's guide is designed to accompany the two-part videotape "For Which It Stands: Flag Burning and the First Amendment." The videotape and teacher's guide should help students to: (1) understand the emotion and significance of the flag-burning issue; (2) examine the free speech aspect of the First Amendment of the Bill of…

This teacher's guide is designed to accompany the two-part videotape "To Keep and Bear Arms: Gun Control and the Second Amendment." The videotape and teacher's guide should help students to: (1) understand the history of the Second Amendment; (2) examine how guns and gun control laws affect people's lives; (3) compare and contrast the…

This teacher's guide is designed to accompany the three-part videotape "Sentenced to Die." The videotape and teacher's guide should help students to: (1) understand the history of the Eighth Amendment; (2) examine the controversy surrounding the death penalty; (3) compare and contrast differing viewpoints on capital punishment; and (4)…

This curriculum, intended to be used in the upper elementary grades, introduces students to the study of constitutional government in the United States. It is designed to help students understand the most important ideas of the constitutional system and how they were developed. Its intent is to provide students with a knowledge of how the…

Ideas and information that can enhance education about the constitutional rights of individuals in U.S. history and the current system of government in the United States are included in this book. The resource guide contains nine distinct parts dealing with aspects of learning and teaching about the Bill of Rights in both elementary and secondary…

Seventeen thousand Marylanders affirmed the importance of specific citizenship competencies as graduation requirements. This was the finding when the Maryland State Department of Education surveyed citizens to answer the question of what competencies should be taught in the public schools. The citizenship competencies were approved as graduation…

An analysis and discussion of regulations in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act focus on policy issues concerning requirements for language proficiency and knowledge of United States history and government for immigrant amnesty. Five specific issues are addressed: 1) the discriminatory effect of requiring only amnesty applicants to…

Demographic analyses and projections provide a reasonably good portrait of the students of the 21st century and should be considered when planning for their education. Melding U.S. fertility and immigration data, it is clear that the future of the United States will be steadily more minority and less white. Shortly after the turn of the century,…