Educating for Democracy: 10 Questions for Today’s Changemakers

How can we educate young people for democracy in today’s troubled climate, across school subjects and learning contexts? Over the last two years, the Democratic Knowledge has co-designed an 8th grade civics curriculum with public school teachers in Massachusetts. This curriculum, rooted in the 10 Questions from the Youth Participatory Politics Project, focuses on the connections between young people’s identities and values and how they can enact change in their local communities, particularly with their media literacy skills. In this workshop, co-presented by Cambridge Public School teachers and Democratic Knowledge Project researchers, participants will engage in activities designed to connect the 10 Questions to everyday challenges and find ways of enacting change with the help of digital media (e.g., Scratch, videos, podcasts, etc.). Through these activities, participants will consider ways to adapt curricular activities based around the 10 Questions to support young people in their contexts to become changemakers.