Preparing Citizens for Multicultural Democracy in a U.S. History Class

Abstract

The authors extend the literature on multicultural democratic citizenship education (Marri, 2005) with a case study about how a highly esteemed high school teacher involved a heterogeneous group of students in a rigorous, engaging, critical study of U.S. History. Mr. Scott's teaching was noteworthy in its community building, thorough disciplinary content and deliberative pedagogies, yet obstacles to student engagement persisted. This study illustrates powerful pedagogical practice that informs research and practice and reveals ongoing challenges in high school teaching, even in a supportive environment. It adds to the research on teaching for multicultural citizenship and provides descriptive examples of how powerful pedagogical practice (Shulman, 1987) can be combined with multicultural democratic citizenship education (Banks, 1993; Parker, 1996).