Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life (Multicultural Education Series)

In Teaching Democracy, Walter Parker makes a unique and thoughtful contribution to the hot debate between proponents of multicultural education and those who favor a cultural literacy approach. Parker conclusively demonstrates that educating for democratic citizenship in a multicultural society includes a fundamental respect for diversity.

This scholarly yet accessible work:

• Bridges the widening gap between multicultural education and civic education.
• Provides powerful teaching strategies that educators can use to draw children creatively and productively into a way of life that protects and nurtures cultural pluralism and racial equity.
• Explains the unity–diversity confusion that is found in popular media as well as in multicultural- and citizenship-education initiatives.
• Defines deliberative discussion and explores its promise as the centerpiece of democratic education in schools, both elementary and secondary.

Walter C. Parker is Professor of Education and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington, Seattle.