A new book co-edited by NC State College of Education Associate Professor Chad Hoggan examines the role civic education plays in different communities and how transformative education can help learners become co-shapers of their worlds.
Featuring chapters authored by scholars from around the world, Transformative Civic Education in Democratic Societies reflects on adult civic education, examining approaches, paradigms and concepts that help people to act in culturally, ethnically, linguistically and religiously diverse societies. Examples shared in chapters include stories of promoting postcolonial peace education through English composition classes in Lebanon, teaching democratic capabilities through university professors’ professional development in the United States and addressing issues related to voting through civic education in Nigeria.
“From this book, I hope people walk away with the realization that democracy is fragile. In order to survive and function, it needs people who support its ideals and who are adequately prepared to enact those ideals in real life,” Hoggan said. “Civic education cannot be limited to a few classes in high school or college; it must be a lifelong learning process.”
Hoggan – who is the co-founder of the Civic Reconstruction Project and the co-director of the Institute for Civic Studies and Learning for Democracy – studies transformative learning, which are the learning processes involved during major personal change.
Hoggan’s previous research has addressed transitional struggles faced by specific populations, including veterans, cancer survivors and college students. Although the focus of Transformative Civic Education in Democratic Societies is a departure from this, he said he believes this latest book will help scholars and practitioners “examine possibilities for all adult learners to engage in meaningful, and possibly transformative, civic learning.”
- Categories:
