Civic Education in the Age of Mass Migration

Book excerpt: This important book offers a more inclusive approach to preparing students to be responsible participants in a democratic society. Civic education generally operates through the lens of citizenship, where students learn what good citizenship is and what good citizens do. Yet the citizenship lens fails to identify the wide range of school children and their families who participate in economic, political, and social life. Civic Education in the Age of Mass Migration examines the exclusionary aspects of citizenship and offers democratic societies an alternative approach that includes all long-term residents regardless of citizenship and immigration status. Banks reimagines a civic education curriculum that gives students the knowledge and skills they will need to assist the United States in becoming a more perfect union. Book Features: A brief overview of the history of civic education and why citizenship status and immigration status should be explicitly addressed.An examination of the economic, political, and social forces shaping immigration law. A new way to conceptualize membership based on three principles: popular sovereignty, participation, and the jus nexi principle.Classroom activities and discussion questions to help civic educators incorporate the idea of citizenship boundaries into their curriculum.