The co-editors of a forthcoming edited collection in the APSA-De Gruyter Teaching Civic Engagement Series invite authors to submit chapter proposals for a new volume, Teaching Civic Engagement in Challenging Times: Global Perspectives on Democratic Education for All.
We seek contributions from teacher-scholars representing a wide variety of nations/regions, institutional types, and careers. Chapters may focus on theoretical arguments grounded in scholarly literature, assessment of curricular and cocurricular approaches, or detailed instructional designs. Review the proposed table of contents here.
Those interested should submit two attached files — an abstract (+/- 500 words) and a brief bio (+/- 500 words) — to democratic.education.for.all@gmail.com by April 15, 2025.
Notice of acceptance will be sent by June 1, 2025, with first drafts due to the co-editors by August 31, 2025.
Co-Editors
The co-editors for this volume – the fourth in the now well-established Teaching Civic Engagement Series – include:
- Cherie Strachan, The University of Akron, jcw39@uakron.edu
- Alison Rios Millett McCartney, Towson University, amccartney@towson.edu
- Euiyoung Kim, Seoul National University, euiyoungkim@snu.ac.kr
- Christopher Isike, University of Pretoria, South Africa, christopher.isike@up.ac.za
- John Ishiyama, University of North Texas, John.Ishiyama@unt.edu
Overview
Teacher-scholars, staff, and administrators at colleges and universities across the globe are increasingly called upon to step to the forefront of education for democracy. Our collective efforts to craft dynamic civic engagement pedagogies capable of cultivating students with not only the knowledge, but also the civic skills, experiences, and dispositions characteristic of public-spirited participation, has never been more important. This volume – the fourth in a well-established APSA series on Teaching Civic Engagement and now published in partnership with De Gruyter — is distinct because the next wave of teaching for civic engagement must advance these outcomes in political environments increasingly characterized by intense partisan polarization and rising authoritarianism, along with misinformation, political propaganda, and political violence.
Moreover, this volume will highlight that resilient democracies are most capable of countering such challenges when all segments of society participate in and feel represented by the political process. Yet until recently, teacher-scholars dedicated to civic engagement pedagogy focused on identifying universal best practices that if implemented uniformly across college campuses – both at home and abroad – would produce the public-spirited participants which democracies and republican forms of government require. This monolithic strategy overlooks longstanding research in political behavior indicating that lived experiences shape responses to political stimuli – which includes classroom and campus civic engagement interventions.
In short, the civic engagement pedagogy and teaching strategies that were proven to be effective primarily on US college and university campuses, especially when US campuses student bodies were largely comprised of traditional college-aged students are no longer enough. Our renewed efforts to fulfil higher education’s civic mission must focus on a new array of civic skills that will allow citizens to respond to a drastically altered political environment. Yet these efforts must also be more complete as we tailor our approaches to prepare everyone, especially those who have been historically disenfranchised and those who currently feel excluded from the political process, to participate in more representative – and therefore more stable – democracies at home and abroad. As such, chapters in this volume will feature well-designed, evidence-based, vetted classroom, campus, and community activities, learning modules, events, and assessment designs that provide robust political learning and promote democratic resiliency by incorporating emphases on:
- Students from a wide array of social groups,
- In numerous national and regional contexts, and
- Attending varying types of colleges, universities, and post-secondary institutions.