Early childhood education and care has been a political priority in England since 1997, when government finally turned its attention to this long-neglected area. Public funding has increased, policy initiatives have proliferated and at each general election political parties aim to outbid each other in their offer to families. "Transforming…

"The Oxford Encyclopedia of Educational Administration" is a first-of-its-kind transnational survey of the field of educational administration and leadership. "The Encyclopedia's" 125+ overview articles, written and reviewed by recognized scholars from around the world, are intended for professors, practitioners, and…

Developments in the education field are affected by numerous, and often conflicting, social, cultural, and economic factors. With the increasing corporatization of education, teaching and learning paradigms are continuously altered. "Deconstructing the Education-Industrial Complex in the Digital Age" is an authoritative reference source…

Developments during the decade and a half following the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe indicate broad advancement in civic education for democracy. This digest notes the rising trend in civic education competency in Central and Eastern Europe, describes an increasingly accepted and used framework for civic education, and…

This digest argues that free, public libraries foster and fortify democracy and democratic citizenship. Because libraries offer services and materials representing many points of view, they allow citizens to fulfill their civic and personal responsibilities and to exercise their liberties. Particularly for former communist countries, libraries can…

Argues that a social action model of citizenship education is mandated by two principles of democracy: consent of the governed and equal opportunity for participation in governance. Emphasizes the importance of a sense of political efficacy. Argues that wealthier children learn this at home, but children from poorer families need this experience…

The secularization of religion is discussed. It is now conventional wisdom that the industrialized world is a secular world that sees scientific methodology as the sole reliable approach to solving problems. Religion is seen as making no greater contribution to society than any other social or economic group. (RM)

In this updated resource book, for the Elementary Social Studies Curriculum in Canada, civics education is integrated with all other components of social studies. In its broadest sense, civics involves both learning about government and the political process, and acquiring the knowledge and developing the attitudes and skills that enable effective…

During the past 30 years, there has been a global surge of democracy. For most people of the world today, democracy is the prevailing source of political legitimacy. In 2002, 121 of the world's 192 sovereign states could be recognized as democracies in terms of the minimal global standard for an electoral democracy. This digest discusses: (1) the…

This user guide covers "Teaching in a Multicultural Society," one part of the 12-unit series "My America: Building a Democracy." The focus of the guide is to raise a generation of children who appreciate the value of a wide range of human experience including those distinctly different from their own. Goals of this program are to help children…

This book is a guide to creating a democratic classroom management style that serves as a real-life model for the same system of rules and responsibilities under which students will live when they leave school. The ideas are based on ethical, educational, and legal perspectives for school rules and decisions based on a democratic form of…

The essays in this collection, rewritten and expanded especially for this volume, originated as papers that were presented at a 1993 conference on Education for Democracy sponsored by the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. The contributors from the United States, South Africa, Germany, and Russia, are experts in civic education, problems…

"We the People...The Citizen and the Constitution" is a national civic education program that aims to help elementary and secondary students understand the history and principles of constitutional government. The program focuses on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and fosters civic competence and responsibility among students in…

This document, a curriculum guide, grew out of a symposium on the role of secrecy in U.S. foreign policy. The curriculum examines ways in which citizens get information about the government and how government secrecy influences that information. Students analyze covert U.S. involvement in such places as Iran, Guatemala, and Cuba, and consider the…

This document discusses the movement to bring original historical sources into the classroom. Because students of history need access to sources of information that provide direct or primary evidence about reality, teachers must show that realistic alternatives to the traditional history text exist. In the first section of this paper, efforts to…