Description
Book SynopsisIn Democracy at the Crossroads, the editors argue that there have been too few scholarly attempts to provide a comprehensive critique of the assumptions behind citizenship education. In particular, they ask the distinguished contributors to this volume to address difficult but essential questions that are often avoided or intentionally overlooked: What do all-embracing terms like ''global citizenship'' really mean? What does democracy mean internationally? A timely work, Democracy at the Crossroads provides a necessary examination and re-interpretation of international perspectives on democracy and global citizenship as they apply to social education.
Trade ReviewDemocracy at the Crossroads plumbs the core issues of citizenship education, namely, what constitutes the “good citizen” in today’s globalized society and how individuals come to understand and act on their world. White, Openshaw, and Keller have brought together an impressive group of scholars from around the world in their efforts to unpack the history, assumptions, and practices of citizenship education while critically examining influence of globalization and neoliberalism on the curriculum and aims of social studies education in the 21st century. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested moving beyond the platitudes and passivity that have hitherto marked the dominant strains of education for democracy. -- E. Wayne Ross, University of British Columbia
Democracy at the Crossroads will serve as a global benchmark for citizenship education in the early 21st century. -- Merry M. Merryfield, Ohio State University
From a variety of theoretical and national perspectives, this collection provides an interrogation of unexamined meanings, assumptions, and socio-political dynamics implicated in the programs and rhetorics promoting education for "global citizenship." The need for such work in our world today could hardly be more critical! -- Tony Whitson, University of Delaware
Table of Contents1 Preface 2 Part I: Tensions 3 Democracy at the Crossroads? 4 Neoliberalism, Democracy, and Education for Citizenship in New Zealand 5 Freedom or French Fries: Packaged Democracy for World Consumption 6 Towards a Model of Citizenship Education: Coping with Differences in Definition 7 Critical Democratic Education for Social Efficacy 8 Entwined Ideals: Connecting Democracy to Peace 9 Part II: Unpacking Approaches 10 Developing a Global Dimension in Dutch Education 11 The Social Construction of a Curriculum for Citizenship Education in the United Kingdom 12 Reexamining Competing Views of Citizenship Education and Their Influence On Social Studies 13 Developing Global Citizens: The Rhetoric and the Reality in the New Zealand Curriculum 14 Citizenship Education and the Crick Report in England and Wales 15 Part III: National Exemplars 16 Suffering from Enthusiasts? Some Relevant National Case Studies for Global Citizenship Advocates 17 Perceptions of Citizenship in Australia 18 Whose Civics, Whose Citizen: Reconceptualizing U.S. Democracy In the Post Industrial Era 19 Locating Democracy: Meanings and Intersections in the Czech Republic 20 Part IV: School-Based Studies 21 Dealing with Discourses: U.S. Teaching about the Pacific War and Shifting Locations of "American" Identities 22 Jefferson County Open School: Voices of Global Citizenship
