This book chronicles the progression of civic education advocacy since the early 2000s. It identifies the main actors that called for civic education reform, describes their motivations and policy platforms, and documents the path taken to capture state policy agendas. It argues that No Child Left Behind incentivized civic education advocates to mobilize a "call to action" to restore emphasis on civics that materialized into national policy reform proposals that successfully captured the agendas of state legislatures and bureaucracies. This book analyzes the implementation and sustainability of these civic education policy reforms by undertaking a comparative case study analysis of school districts in Utah and Connecticut. Through the voices of teachers and district administrators, the book tells the story of what happened when these state policy reforms inspired by national initiatives hit the local level where the rubber meets the road. As ideological debates about schools and democracy unfold across the country, as civic education advocates and proposals proliferate, this book treats civic education not as panacea but as a concrete policy area to be analyzed and understood. It contextualizes the current debate and offers a critical assessment of the most recent, comprehensive state-level civic education policy reform. It argues that while questions linger about what type of civic-inspired educational interventions remains most effective for whom, where, and why, the implementation of such interventions are profoundly impacted by local actors and local politics and that future initiatives should take this dimension into consideration.
Eleni M. Mantas-Kourounis is an assistant professor of political science at Sacred Heart University.
"Formerly an afterthought, civic education has recently become the topic of intense controversy. Eleni M. Mantas-Kourounis ably traces the origins and effects of two rival reform efforts, offering insights about how they have influenced or failed to change what students actually experience and learn. Anyone from across a wide range of ideologies who wants to improve civic education will benefit from this book, which is also a fine example of research on policy-implementation." --Peter Levine, Tufts University "In her careful analysis of civic education policy, Eleni Mantas-Kourounis persuasively reminds us that state and local implementation requires more than aspirational rhetoric. She demonstrates that its varied pathways into local schools depends as much on political choices as on administrative and educational decisions. With civic education's increasing prominence as a potential strategy for strengthening our frayed democracy, this book offers a timely and useful perspective." --Lorraine McDonnell, University of California Santa Barbara "In the current political landscape, characterized by hyper-partisanship and polarization, The Politics of Civic Education helps us understand why the passage of national or state policies to strengthen and improve civic education is unlikely to turn the antidemocratic tide. This book is a valuable addition to the literature on policy implementation at the local level and the factors that determine why national and state policies rarely pan out as advocates had planned. Through detailed qualitative case studies, Mantas-Kourounis shows that local actors continue to determine the success of policy initiatives in achieving their goals." --J. Celeste Lay, Tulane University
