Edited by: Elizabeth C. Matto, Alison Rios Millett McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, Alasdair Blair, Taiyi Sun, Dawn Whitehead
Published by: American Political Science Association
A thriving and peaceful democracy requires an informed and engaged citizenry, but such citizenship must be learned. Declining rates of civic and political knowledge and engagement among young adults across the world have sparked calls to action in the last twenty years or so as well as a strengthening commitment to teaching the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to sustain a democracy. Educators around the globe are faced with challenges in teaching politics in an era in which populist values are on the rise, authoritarian governance is legitimized, and core democratic tenets are regularly questioned and undermined by leaders and citizens alike. To combat anti-democratic outcomes and citizens’ apathy, educators need a wider range of pedagogical tools to help the current generation learn to effectively navigate and lead debates and changes in local, national, and global political issues, policies, and systems.
The American Political Science Association has advanced the scholarship of civic engagement education with the publication of two edited volumes in recent years, Teaching Civic Engagement: From Student to Active Citizen (2013) and Teaching Civic Engagement Across the Disciplines (2017). The forthcoming publication Teaching Civic Engagement Globally will address concerns and challenges facing educators worldwide about the state of education for democracy, connecting teacher-scholars around the world to expand our options for and understanding of how we can build effective civic engagement education and help established and establishing democracies flourish.
The book will include four sections. Together, these sections will outline the key theoretical discussions and challenges regarding global civic engagement education, contribute successful evidence-based pedagogical approaches, demonstrate effective programmatic ways to reach across disciplines and throughout the global educational community, and provide tangible steps to link democratic educational research with action that reflects contemporary global circumstances.
Section I – Global Civic Engagement Education: Ideas, Directions, Collaborations
In this section, we seek chapters that review the overall situation of civic engagement education across disciplines around the world, including shared and unique challenges. We also seek chapters that discuss collaborations between educators and national and international educational organizations and intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations. The intended approach of this text is to look at civic engagement in established democracies as well as establishing democracies and encourage consideration of civic engagement education in each setting.
Section II – Civic Engagement Pedagogy Across the Globe
In this section, we seek chapters that include examples of civic engagement courses around the world – successes, failures, and paths for improvement. Contributions from all regions of the globe and a variety of disciplines are encouraged.
Section III – Developing Civic Engagement Education Institutions
We seek chapters that explore ways that higher education institutions can create institutional programs to strengthen civic engagement education inside and outside of the classroom and provide successful examples of interdisciplinary civic engagement centers, study abroad programs, minors/certificates in civic engagement, and co-curricular options. Again, contributors from across the globe and across disciplines are encouraged.
Section IV – A Call to Global Action
For this section, we seek contributions that offer readers tangible steps they can take on their campus to advance the teaching and learning of democracy. This section offers an opportunity to offer comments on the impact of upcoming critical elections across the world as well as the global health crisis with COVID-19 on teaching civic engagement around the world. We also seek contributions that discuss steps to connect civic engagement educators and move civic engagement education forward to maintain and improve democracies worldwide.
Submitting a Proposal: Information and Expectations
This book will be published as an E-Pub book, formatted as a PDF e-book, and a print-on-demand hard copy book. The format of an e-book will open a host of opportunities for authors such as including video and the possibility for greater dissemination.
Interested parties should send a one-two page abstract of their proposed chapter that includes: chapter goals, how the proposed submission moves civic engagement literature and civic engagement education forward in political science and beyond, relevance to the book’s goals, description of research data (as relevant) and methodology, and organizational plan. Abstracts must be submitted by June 15, 2020 to Elizabeth Matto at ematto@eagleton.rutgers.edu. Authors whose abstracts are accepted for consideration as full chapter submissions will be subject to the guidelines below, will receive more specific guidelines regarding e-pubs, and must agree to submit first drafts for review by the editors by September 21, 2020. Chapters considered by the editors are not guaranteed inclusion in the final book unless accepted in the peer review process conducted by the editors beginning in September.
If accepted for consideration, overview of submission requirements:
- All chapters will be due December 14, 2020 to Elizabeth Matto at ematto@eagleton.rutgers.edu.
- All submissions must include a separate one-two page literature review as relevant to its specific subject. The chapter should stand alone without the literature review, though some parts of the review may be used to develop the online supplement to the book. Literature reviews should not be included in the chapter itself, and relevant citations are expected per scholarly standards for attribution of others’ ideas and data.
- All submissions must include a one-paragraph abstract (not part of page limit).
- Chapters must use endnotes and adhere to the APSA Style Manual (2018).
- Chapters must be no more than 25 pages double-spaced including charts, graphs and data, using 12-point Times New Roman font.
- All chapters must be submitted in MS Word.
- Any supplemental material used for teaching, such as syllabi, rubrics, and project instructions, must be submitted separately in MS Word for posting on the book microsite.
- Any research data using human participants must be approved or exempted by the author(s) home Institutional Review Board.
- For submissions for Sections II and III, some empirical evidence is expected.
Timetable
- April 2020: call for contributors issued
- June 15, 2020: deadline to submit abstracts
- July 2020: editors respond to authors with acceptance/decline
- September 21, 2020: first draft of chapters due to editors
- October 2020: workshop at Eagleton Institute of Politics to address drafts of chapters (tentative)
- December 14, 2020: second drafts of chapters due
- January/February 2021: final revisions of chapters
- Spring/Summer 2021: book production
- APSA 2021: book release/launch