The SAGE Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Democracy brings together new work by some of the leading authorities on citizenship education, and is divided into five sections. The first section deals with key ideas about citizenship education including democracy, rights, globalization and equity. Section two contains a wide range of national case studies of citizenship education including African, Asian, Australian, European and North and South American examples. The third section focuses on perspectives about citizenship education with discussions about key areas such as sustainable development, anti-racism, and gender. Section four provides insights into different characterizations of citizenship education with illustrations of democratic schools, peace and conflict education, global education, human rights education etc. The final section provides a series of chapters on the pedagogy of citizenship education with discussions about curriculum, teaching, learning and assessment.

Discussion of Controversial Issues as a Form and Goal of Democratic Education

Discussion of Controversial Issues as a Form and Goal of Democratic Education

Discussion of controversial issues as a form and goal of democratic education
DianaHess and Patricia G.Avery

In democratic societies, discussion in schools is viewed as a critical component of citizenship education. This should not be surprising given both the theoretical and practical links between discussion and democracy and the tremendous growth of democracy in the past 20 years. A larger percentage of the world's people live in democratic nations now than during any previous time in history (Puddington, 2007).

Support for engaging young people in classroom discussions as part of democratic education comes from various quarters. The governments of France, Northern Ireland, and Britain, for example, have adopted formal curriculum documents that promote discussions of political ...

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