LAUSR

In November 2016, the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) and Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) cofacilitated an Education Summit with eminent scholars to develop a shared plan of action committed to “The Multicultural Lens of Equity for ALL.” Through the leadership of H. Prentice Baptiste, former president of NAME, and Faye Snodgrass, executive director of KDP, they pooled their collective assets to challenge oppressive educational practices and establish an alliance focused on preparing and supporting critically conscious, sustainability literate, and equity-minded educators. Kappa Delta Pi, founded in 1911, advances quality education by inspiring teachers to prepare all children and youth for future challenges. Founded in 1990, NAME promotes cultural pluralism and social justice through multicultural education. The complementarity of the organizational missions included a commitment to contribute to a research literature base, and in 2017 NAME and KDP collaborated on a special issue of the Kappa Delta Pi Record, featuring contributions from multicultural educators and leaders in teacher preparation education on the topic of “Sustaining a Quality Education for All Students.” The continuation of this partnership is reflected in this special issue of Multicultural Perspectives, which focuses on the theme of “Disrupting Perspectives on Civic Education for Children and Youth in a Multicultural Society.” In these tumultuous times, increasing polarization has drawn attention to the concept of citizenship and its role in promoting an inclusive society. Although normative frameworks of citizenship typically emphasize rights and duties granted or mediated by the nation, the intensifying political discourse has revealed the flawed assumption that all individuals are all equally positioned to engage in the public sphere. Although public schools in the United States were conceived in part to provide civic education and are uniquely positioned to strengthen civic culture, educators have faced challenges in preparing children to assume their roles as the change agents for the future. In this special issue contributors critically examine frequently overlooked questions concerning the differential access to social, economic, and cultural resources that structurally exclude children and youth and result in an unfilled goal of civic education. The articles in this special issue disrupt traditional perspectives on citizenship by exploring research and exemplars of practice that elevate children’s agency as participatory citizens in a multicultural society and suggest strategies to empower individuals who are often marginalized. By expanding upon civic education as an emancipatory experience in which children learn to actively negotiate their identity and sense of belonging, educators may reimagine the possibilities for more viable and transformative approaches that accommodate inclusion within our pluralistic society.