Do American students know enough about their civic rights and responsibilities? How can schools ramp up their civics instruction at a time when the American public is politically polarized and deeply distrustful of its own civic institutions? Join us for a live event that will explore current tensions in teaching students about civics and hash out ideas and recommendations for helping educators overcome them.
At this free half-day event at the Humphrey School in Minneapolis, educators and administrators, led by an expert facilitator, will get a chance to deliberate key tensions in the field of civics education and hear from reporters and others who’ve been following civics teaching in Minnesota and across the country. The conference kicks off a series of meetings across the country that are designed to yield recommendations for educators nationwide. Come and make your voice heard.
Agenda: Jan. 25, 2020 | 11:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. Central Time
Lunch and Registration
Welcoming Remarks
What We Learned: Education Week’s Citizen Z Project
The Local Picture With the Star-Tribune
Discussion With MartĂn Carcasson
Table Talks
- How much should civics instruction emphasize hands-on learning?
- Do polarizing policy issues have a place in classroom civics discussions?
- How much should a school (or district) be run as a democratic institution, and what is the role of the students in that institution?
- How can we best evaluate the quality of the civics instruction we deliver to students? Should we?
- What is the role of civics education in helping students learn to discern fake news and guard against selective exposure and confirmation bias in their own news consumption?
