Conference focuses on democracy education

Although the 2004 election did not end up in the Supreme Court, it was notable for a number of other reasons, including the fact that only 17 percent of eligible voters aged 18-29 turned out to vote.

That’s the same number of young people who voted in the 2000 election, despite the efforts of both parties to activate the youth vote.

A conference on Tuesday, Nov. 30, will examine ways teachers can use the classroom to cultivate a deeper understanding of the democratic process, empowering students to make democracy work for them and their generation.

“Dialogues With Democracy: Improving Civic Education in Wisconsin’s Schools,” will address strategies to help provide Wisconsin’s students with an essential and practical citizenship education.

The conference, aimed at educators and administrators, will be held at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St., from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Presentations will examine topics such as the teaching of free speech, public-policy service learning, and democracy and social justice.

The conference is a collaboration involving the School of Education, the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, the Wisconsin Historical Society, Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies, Wisconsin Law Foundation and the State Bar of Wisconsin.

Keynote speaker Peter Levine, deputy director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the University of Maryland, will focus on the “Six Promising Approaches to Civic Education.”

A second keynote, “We’ll Be Democratic If It’s on the Test: The Challenge of Democratic Education in Undemocratic Times,” will be delivered by UW–Madison Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings, an expert in culturally relevant teaching, multicultural education and social studies education.

The conference has been made possible, in part, by funding from the Wisconsin Law Foundation and the Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies.

For more information on the conference, and a conference brochure, contact: Linda Shirberg, (608) 262-4477, shriberg@education.wisc.edu, or visit the School of Education’s outreach Web site.