Education for Sustainable Democracy

In today’s environment, how should teachers help students understand immigration? How can they create a classroom culture in which students can discuss these kinds of highly sensitive and personal controversial issues? And why is it important that we give students the chance to talk about these issues? To examine these issues, Brett speaks to Zorielle Rodriguez-Alcazar, a veteran high school teach...

How can technology enhance students' engagement in classroom learning? When are technologies helpful, and when are they harmful?  In this episode, I talk to Dr. Dan Krutka, associate professor of social studies education at the University of North Texas. Dan's research sits at the intersection of technology, education, and democracy.  We discuss how teachers can decide which technologies...

In classrooms around the country and beyond, teachers and students are navigating how to discuss the quick and often surprising actions of our current federal administration. How can and how should teachers help students understand and think critically about these issues? In this episode, Brett speaks with Kyle Dalton, a veteran teacher at Lansingburgh High School in Troy, New York. Kyle is a high...

How can educators create more holistic learning experiences for students? How can higher education better prepare students to become active civic participants? In this episode, Brett speaks with two educational leaders and innovators from Prescott College, based in Arizona. Emily Affolter is the director of Prescott’s doctoral program in sustainability education and an expert in culturally respons...

We all know that we could be doing a better job preparing young people for civic participation – and government officials and the public largely agree, but few organizations focus primarily on addressing this problem. Democracy Ready New York is one of the groups that’s taking action on this issue – advocating for government policies to better support civic education and broadening public engageme...

Educators around the country have been increasingly interested in expanding the teaching of African-American history, and many resources have been created to help. At the same time, scholars have begun to explore how African-American history is represented in these resources, in standards, in popular textbooks, and beyond. One emerging scholar in this area is Brittany Jones, an assistant professor...

How can we teach about elections in ways that support students' political engagement and also strengthen their willingness to consider diverse perspectives? In this episode, Brett draws on his own research to address this question, offering practical tips for the classroom. Related Resources Teaching Elections Site Education for Sustainable Democracy Homepage Brett Levy's Open-Access Res...

This is a rebroadcast of an interview with Professor Wayne Journell about teaching elections, recorded in 2020. How should educators teach about elections? How can they maximize student learning, foster engagement, and minimize overly heated exchanges among students? Professor Wayne Journell from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, has conducted research on how high school teachers help...

How should secondary school teachers help their student learn about the election during this heated political moment? In this episode, Brett speaks to Dan Hornick, who teaches high school government in a politically diverse district in upstate New York. Dan shares his insights, experiences, and suggestions on teaching about elections in the current era. He also explains how to get students to deve...

As the central adults in children’s lives, what should be the role of parents in creating well-informed and active civic participants? This episode's guest wrote a book to help answer that question. Lindsay Cormack is an associate professor of political science at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, and this month, she released a new book entitled, “How to Raise a Citizen (and why...

How can young people living in vastly different communities learn to understand each others' political perspectives? The Youth Civic Connections Project aims to answer that question. This episode explores the origins of this project and how it will expand this fall. More on the Youth Civic Connections Project Project Overview on Carnegie Site ESD Podcast Resources Education for Sustainable De...

How can educators create inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ youth? To explore this question, Brett speaks to a veteran middle school social studies teacher in Massachusetts, Marc Lewis, who has been enacting and experimenting with strategies and curricula to help all of his students feel welcome in his classroom – and to help them understand the complexity and truth of our world and its history. In...

How do we ensure that elections are free and fair? For the past few years, we’ve heard more and more false claims about stolen elections, but the truth is that our election systems are very well-managed. Yes, there are areas where systems can be improved, but among the biggest problems in our election system now are misinformation about the elections and the skepticism that this creates. In this e...

What if a school made preparation for democracy its central goal? That’s what Democracy Prep tries to do - not in just one school but in many. This charter school network includes 24 schools in five states, with schools at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. In this episode, Brett talks to Rashid Duroseau, the Civics Program Director at Democracy Prep. Rashid describes the civic partic...

This is a rebroadcast of an interview with Professor Wayne Journell about teaching elections, recorded in 2020. How should educators teach about elections? How can they maximize student learning, foster engagement, and minimize overly heated exchanges among students? Professor Wayne Journell from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, has conducted research on how high school teachers help...

We have millions of young people in school every year who become eligible to register during their time in school, but there are few mechanisms in place to get them registered. Laura Brill is starting to change that. Through her new organization, the Civics Center, she’s trying to make voter registration drives a regular feature of high schools around the country. We discuss why she started the or...

In today’s media environment, there’s no shortage of information and disinformation – so how do we know if we’re being misled? How can young people know? The ability to tell fact from fiction is vital for maintaining a healthy civil society, and researchers are exploring how to teach these skills.  On this episode, Brett speaks with Sarah McGrew, a cutting-edge researcher in this area. After earni...

What do students learn when they discuss controversial political issues? What are the benefits and limitations? How can teachers guide these discussions and maintain a positive classroom environment? In this episode - published originally in late 2020, renowned social studies education scholar Diana Hess explores these questions, drawing on her two decades of research in classrooms. Hess is profes...

How should educators prepare youth for democratic participation at a moment when democracy itself seems so fragile? For ESD's third anniversary episode, Walter Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Washington - Seattle, explores the answer to this question by sharing ideas from his new book,  Education for Liberal Democracy: Using Classroom Discussion to Build Knowledge and Voice. W...

How can literacy learning support civic engagement? How can educators best support the literacy learning of young African-American males? On this episode, Brett speaks with Kewsi Burgess, a veteran middle school teacher in the City School District of Albany. Dr. Burgess recently earned his doctoral degree at the University at Albany, and his dissertation  closely examined how one seasoned African-...

How can we help young people learn to care for their local communities and their natural environments?  Ethan Lowenstein believes that a big part of the answer is place-based education - a method that enables youth to explore, analyze, and begin to address local challenges.  Lowenstein is a professor at Eastern Michigan University and the director of the Southeast Michigan Stewardship (SEMIS) Coal...

This is a re-broadcast of one of ESD's most popular episodes.  Amber Joseph, a public school social studies teacher in New York City,  discusses how teachers can create safe spaces for discussing controversial public issues and how they can guide students to explore potentially emotion-laden current events, such as police shootings. We also consider how history teachers can integrate current...

How can state laws improve civic education, and how can research-practice partnerships support the enactment of these state laws?  This episode explores how an ambitious Illinois civic education law, passed in 2015, is being enacted with the help of a research-practice partnership.  I speak with Kei Kawashima-Ginsburg and Mary Ellen Daneels, who are leading this partnership, which has helped tens...

How can high school courses help adolescents learn to carefully analyze public policies and summarize their analyses in writing? In this episode, veteran teacher Tim Northrop explains how his public policy courses foster these important skills. He also discusses how these courses support students' capacities in media literacy and civil discourse - and how these skills could be integrated into...

In this episode, Brett Levy summarizes how concepts of intrinsic motivation, civically engaging pedagogy, and inquiry-based learning can help to strengthen civic and social studies education. Episode Resources Brett's Article on Civic Science Education Brett's Article on Inquiry-Based Learning New York State Council for the Social Studies Site ESD Podcast Resources Brett Levy's Open...