As the civic engagement gap widens across lines of race, class, and
ethnicity, educators in today's urban schools must reconsider what it
means to teach for citizenship; however, few resources exist that speak
to their unique contexts. Teaching for Citizenship in Urban Schools
offers lessons and strategies that combines the power of inquiry-driven
teaching with a funds of knowledge approach to capitalize on the lived
civic experiences of urban youth and children.
Teaching for Citizenship in Urban Schools presents six strategies for
making civic and social studies education relevant and engaging: using
photovoice for social change, conducting culturally responsive
investigations of community, defining American Black founders, enacting
hip-hop pedagogy, employing equity literacy to explore immigrant
enclaves, and drawing on young adult fiction to teach about police
violence. Written by some of the leading scholars in the field, each
chapter includes an overview of the strategy and lessons for both
elementary and secondary students. As a whole, these lessons draw on
neighborhood resources, facilitate cultural exchanges among students and
teachers, create community networks, and bridge schools and communities
in a shared mission of building a just and inclusive democracy.
This book is for anyone who values student-centered, inquiry-driven, and
culturally-sustaining pedagogies that foster a deeper understanding of
citizenship within a diverse democracy.
