Civic Engagement in Communities of Color: Pedagogy for Learning and Life in a More Expansive Democracy

Situated at the intersection of race and civics, this volume discusses how communities of color interpret and enact civics both within and beyond the classroom. Chapters focus on historical and contemporary topics ranging from issues facing Asian immigrant communities to the Black Lives Matter at School curriculum. Civic Engagement in Communities of Color will help classroom teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher educators identify where whitewashed civics curricula fail students of color and begin to understand how marginalized communities conceive and enact civics without the deficit lens. It will also help education researchers understand the various frameworks that communities of color use to approach civics and civic education. Chapter authors include established and emerging civic education scholars, including Leilani Sabzalian, ArCasia D. James-Gallaway, Jesús Tirado, and Brittany Jones.

Book Features:

• Reimagines civics teaching and learning in communities of color, expanding current frameworks for what civic education is and can be.
• Disrupts the idea that civics is a singular notion that should only be viewed through one specific lens.
• Provides specific examples showing how racially marginalized people have created their own civic spaces.
• Includes chapters on Black, Indigenous, Arab, Immigrant, South Asian American, and Southeast Asian American communities.

Kristen E. Duncan is an assistant professor at Clemson University, a former middle school social studies teacher, and a former elementary school instructional coach. Kristen was awarded the Kipchoge Neftali Kirkland Social Justice Award in 2020 from the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies.