Making Citizens

Book excerpt: Can social studies classrooms be effective "makers" of citizens if much of what occurs in these classrooms does little to prepare young people to participate in the civic and political life of our democracy? Making Citizens illustrates how social studies can recapture its civic purpose through an approach that incorporates meaningful civic learning into middle and high school classrooms. The book explains why social studies teachers, particularly those working in diverse and urban areas, should infuse civic education into their teaching, and outlines how this can be done effectively. Directed at both pre-service and in-service social studies teachers and designed for easy integration into social studies methods courses, this book follows students and teachers in social studies classrooms as they experience a new approach to the traditional, history-oriented social studies curriculum, using themes, essential questions, discussion, writing, current events and action research to explore enduring civic questions. Following the experiences of three teachers working at three diverse high schools, Beth C. Rubin considers how social studies classrooms might become places where young people study, ponder, discuss and write about relevant civic questions while they learn history. She draws upon the latest sociocultural theories on youth civic identity development to describe a field-tested approach to civic education that takes into consideration the classroom and curricular constraints faced by new teachers.