Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life

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.

“At a moment in time when our connection to the nation seems superficial and jingoistic, Walter Parker offers us a vehicle to reach our ideal of deliberative, committed civic participation for every citizen. This book explores the hard work of citizen-making in a diverse and complex society where individual and group interests often are in conflict. Parker makes us realize that in a democracy ‘public’ is not a dirty word and schooling should not be punishment.”
—Gloria Ladson–Billings, University of Wisconsin, Madison

“This book deals in an engaging and thought-provoking way with both social realities and democratic possibilities—exactly what I try to do in my classroom.”
—Wendy Ewbank, teacher, Seattle Girls’ School