TEACHING TRANSFORMATIVE CITIZENSHIP IN SCHOOLS: A Pathway to Promoting Equity and Preserving Democracy

This chapter outlines how democracy is under threat and argues that the way civics education has been traditionally taught in K-12 schools often fails students. The authors argue that by teaching civics with a focus on action and using social inquiry, critical multiculturalism, and transformative democratic citizenship practices, civics education can engage students’ agency as social-political actors in the making and remaking of their worlds. This chapter also provides several examples of what transformative democratic citizenship looks like in practice in K-12 education. The authors also address the challenges teachers may face teaching transformative democratic citizenship in the current climate and pose suggestions and solutions to support teachers in this work.