ABSTRACT
Critical Democratic Literacy (CDL) in the classroom relies on teacher knowledge. This chapter provides the four guiding civic concepts for CDL. The concepts are: civic virtue, civic engagement, civil discourse, and civil disobedience are essential in the education of citizens who are critically and democratically literate. Civic virtue consists of the personal qualities necessary to commit to live life as a good citizen for one's own benefit, and, just as importantly, the good of the community. Civic engagement is the individual or collective actions that people take to make their communities better. Civil discourse is defined as learning through discussing. It requires citizens are well informed and rational participate in thoughtful and meaningful conversations with one another to more deeply understand public issues and often to make decisions that affect community. Civil disobedience is defined as the public, nonviolent, and conscious violation of the law, specifically for the purpose of showing one's opposition to the law.
