ABSTRACT
Public schooling in all societies aims to teach students the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to function as citizens. Secondary schools in a democratic society translate these curricular goals into knowledge of the community, nation, and world; skills required to participate effectively in society while promoting and protecting one’s interests; and the democratic dispositions that form the bases for decisions to act on one’s behalf while keeping the common good in mind. Citizenship education is the fundamental premise on which the whole secondary school experience functions. However, a 1916 report from the National Education Association ’s Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education placed this responsibility squarely on the shoulders of the secondary social studies curriculum (Dunn, 1916).
