Law as Civic Education : Reimagining a K-12 Curriculum for Democratic Citizenship and Individual Character

If civic education is an essential foundation for a functioning, discursive democracy, how should it be taught? This book offers an innovative solution, arguing that—far from abandoning the oft-emphasized, but little realized promise of civic education as a means of cultivating critical thinking skills and democratic character—we should embrace it, proposing a reimagined civic education founded in teaching students in primary and secondary school law and legal reasoning.

Drawing on a range of theoretical disciplines—law, philosophy, ethics, sociology, psychology, and moral educational and child development theory—this monograph justifies the benefits of law learning as a form of character and civic education and offers historical and comparative educational examples to show what is possible. It argues that such training can be transformative, guiding students to become citizens capable of meeting the demands of democracy: citizens with stronger reasoning skills, a motivation to self-examine their values and beliefs and bring them into conversation with social values, and an ability to effectively navigate political institutions and participate in public discourse.

This compelling and deeply original work will be of interest to scholars and educators in the fields of civic education, democracy studies, character and virtue education, law and legal studies, and philosophy of education.