This digest highlights the Constitutional and statutory foundations of the United States Supreme Court, discusses the changing role of the Supreme Court, and recommends online resources helpful in teaching and learning about the United States Supreme Court. The digest addresses general concerns of delegates at the Constitutional Convention,…

Although elections are an annual theme in many social studies classrooms, presidential election years prompt increased interest among students in the electoral process and offer an opportunity to teach about a national election as it happens. This ERIC Digest describes the legal requirements and traditions of U.S. presidential elections, processes…

The core mission of the social studies curriculum is education for democratic citizenship. The middle school years are an important time frame in which to fulfill that core mission. Policymakers, educators, community members, and parents need to recognize that civic education at the middle level years is important. One effective method for…

This ERIC digest addresses (1) the constitutional foundations of the U.S. presidency, (2) how the role of chief executive has changed through the years, and (3) Internet resources for teaching about the U.S. presidency. The digest discusses the Philadelphia Convention (1787), dominant issues guiding the creation of the chief executive's role,…

Lists fundamental democratic concepts that make possible the sharing of educational ideas that foster democratic citizenship, and details how they are embodied in two programs: "We the People"...The Citizen and the Constitution, and "We the People"...Project Citizen. Describes how they are structured and have been adapted for curricula outside the…

This ERIC resource is a guide to the array of law-related education (LRE) resources available to teachers. The annotated bibliography offers resources for essential knowledge of the law, innovative teaching methods, and guides to national LRE programs. Included in this collection are abstracts of LRE documents and journal articles, arranged…

This theme issue of "The International Journal of Social Education" contains 11 articles all concerned with efforts to promote civic education in post-communist countries, particularly former Soviet-Bloc nations, including Latvia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Described are international partnerships for civic…

"We the People . . . Project Citizen," an instructional product, involves students in the selection and investigation of important public issues in their community and thus engages students in learning experiences designed to affect positively their civic development, which involves three basic components of democratic citizenship: (1)…

Liberal democracies depend on the knowledge, character, and imagination of their citizens. Three assumptions underlie this collection of essays on democracy and education: (1) democracy is morally superior to autocracy, whether religious or secular, utopian or mundane; (2) democracies are rare historically and inherently fragile; and (3) there can…

The distinguishing characteristics, content and processes, and the variations of essential elements that are exemplified by projects in the United States and abroad in education for democratic citizenship are presented in this book. The volume addresses how international partnerships involving the United States and several post-communist countries…

This collection of essays was derived from a meeting sponsored by the Center for Civic Education (California) and conducted by the Social Studies Development Center (Indiana). The meeting's central theme was education for democratic citizenship of prospective social studies teachers. Following an introduction, essays in the collection are: (1)…

The 2002 R. Freeman Butts Institute on Civic Learning in Teacher Education, which met in Indianapolis, Indiana, from May 17-21, 2002, was the source for this book. The central theme of the meeting was education for democratic citizenship in the college/university-based preparation of prospective teachers. Following an Introduction, twelve papers…