Education for Sustainable Democracy
This show explores how we can prepare the next generation for informed civic engagement, environmental stewardship, and the development of a more just and peaceful world. Host Brett Levy is a researcher of civic and environmental education and an associate professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Episodes feature interviews with leaders, innovators, and scholars in civic and environmental education. Please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or listen from your computer. For information about upcoming episodes, guests, and more, please visit www.esdpodcast.org. Thank you!
Episodes
59 episodes
Election Education in 2024, with Dan Hornick (Ballston Spa High School, New York)
How should secondary school teachers help their student learn about the election during this heated political moment? In this episode, Brett speaks to Dan Hornick, who teaches high school government in a politically diverse district in upstate ...
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42:38
Parenting for Good Citizenship, with Lindsey Cormack (Stevens Institute of Technology)
As the central adults in children’s lives, what should be the role of parents in creating well-informed and active civic participants? This episode's guest wrote a book to help answer that question. Lindsay Cormack is an associate professor of ...
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34:56
Bridging Political Divides Among Youth, with Mary Hunt and Brett Levy (University at Albany, SUNY)
How can young people living in vastly different communities learn to understand each others' political perspectives? The Youth Civic Connections Project aims to answer that question. This episode explores the origins of this project and how it ...
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52:05
Best of ESD: Creating Inclusive Environments and Curricula for LGBTQ+ Youth, with Marc Lewis (R.J. Grey Junior High, Acton MA)
How can educators create inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ youth? To explore this question, Brett speaks to a veteran middle school social studies teacher in Massachusetts, Marc Lewis, who has been enacting and experimenting with strategies and...
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Best of ESD: Learning about Election Integrity, with Tom Connolly and Brendan Lovullo (NYS Board of Elections) and Meghan Cook (Center for Technology in Government)
How do we ensure that elections are free and fair? For the past few years, we’ve heard more and more false claims about stolen elections, but the truth is that our election systems are very well-managed. Yes, there are areas where systems can b...
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46:47
Best of ESD: Democracy Prep Charter Schools, with Rashid Duroseau (Civics Program Director, Democracy Prep Public Schools)
What if a school made preparation for democracy its central goal? That’s what Democracy Prep tries to do - not in just one school but in many. This charter school network includes 24 schools in five states, with schools at the elementary, middl...
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50:48
Best of ESD: Teaching Elections & Modeling Political Tolerance, with Wayne Journell (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
This is a rebroadcast of an interview with Professor Wayne Journell about teaching elections, recorded in 2020. How should educators teach about elections? How can they maximize student learning, foster engagement, and minimize overly h...
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26:06
Maximizing Youth Voter Registration, with Laura Brill (The Civics Center)
We have millions of young people in school every year who become eligible to register during their time in school, but there are few mechanisms in place to get them registered. Laura Brill is starting to change that. Through her new organizatio...
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37:14
Lateral Reading & Other Media Literacy Skills, with Sarah McGrew (University of Maryland)
In today’s media environment, there’s no shortage of information and disinformation – so how do we know if we’re being misled? How can young people know? The ability to tell fact from fiction is vital for maintaining a healthy civil society, an...
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37:48
Best of ESD: Guiding Productive Political Discussions, with Diana Hess (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
What do students learn when they discuss controversial political issues? What are the benefits and limitations? How can teachers guide these discussions and maintain a positive classroom environment? In this episode - published originally in la...
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38:45
Civic Education during a Democratic Crisis, with Walter Parker (University of Washington, Seattle)
How should educators prepare youth for democratic participation at a moment when democracy itself seems so fragile? For ESD's third anniversary episode, Walter Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Washington - Seattle, explores the a...
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49:19
Creating "Brave Spaces" for Learning, with Dr. Kewsi Burgess (Hackett Middle School, Albany, NY)
How can literacy learning support civic engagement? How can educators best support the literacy learning of young African-American males? On this episode, Brett speaks with Kewsi Burgess, a veteran middle school teacher in the City School Distr...
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36:32
Best of ESD: Learning to Care for Our Community Environments, with Dr. Ethan Lowenstein (Eastern Michigan University & Southest Michigan Stewardship Coalition)
How can we help young people learn to care for their local communities and their natural environments? Ethan Lowenstein believes that a big part of the answer is place-based education - a method that enables youth to explore, analyze, and...
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40:29
Best of ESD: Integrating History and Current Events & Creating an Open Classroom Climate, with Amber Joseph (East Side Community School, NYC)
This is a re-broadcast of one of ESD's most popular episodes. Amber Joseph, a public school social studies teacher in New York City, discusses how teachers can create safe spaces for discussing controversial public issues and how th...
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45:30
A Research-Practice Partnership for Civic Education, with Kei Kawashima-Ginsburg (Tufts & CIRCLE) and Mary Ellen Daneels (Illinois Civics Hub)
How can state laws improve civic education, and how can research-practice partnerships support the enactment of these state laws? This episode explores how an ambitious Illinois civic education law, passed in 2015, is being enacted with t...
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54:19
A High School Course on Public Policy, with Tim Northrop (Saratoga Springs High School, NY)
How can high school courses help adolescents learn to carefully analyze public policies and summarize their analyses in writing? In this episode, veteran teacher Tim Northrop explains how his public policy courses foster these important skill...
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46:14
Three Types of Civically Engaging Pedagogy, with Brett Levy (University at Albany, SUNY)
In this episode, Brett Levy summarizes how concepts of intrinsic motivation, civically engaging pedagogy, and inquiry-based learning can help to strengthen civic and social studies education.Episode Resources
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9:12
Building Skills for Environmental Advocacy, with Dr. A.J. Schneller (Skidmore College)
How can we help young people build the skills they need to become advocates for environmental sustainability? In this episode, Professor A.J. Schneller of Skidmore College describes how his course helps students develop their advocacy toolkit b...
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48:22
Facilitating Youth Podcasting, with Gerardo Mancilla (Edgewood College) and Luz Rodriguez Camacho (Dominican University)
How can young people learn to share their stories and perspectives through podcasts? In this episode, we hear about a youth podcasting program for Latino and Latina youth in Madison Wisconsin. Gerardo Mancilla, a professor at Edgewood Col...
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46:37
Taking the Long View, with Vince Meldrum (President & CEO of Earth Force)
Vince Meldrum, the President and CEO of the non-profit Earth Force, discusses the power and importance of taking local civic action, how Earth Force prepares educators to get kids excited about addressing local environmental issues, and the man...
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39:53
The ABCs of Rich Talk with Children, with Rebecca Rolland (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
For many years, educators have touted the value of classroom discussions, but what frameworks and principles can help us to guide these discussions? In this episode, Brett Levy speaks with Rebecca Rolland, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate Sch...
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28:40
Learning about Election Integrity, with Tom Connolly and Brendan Lovullo (NYS Board of Elections) and Meghan Cook (Center for Technology in Government)
How do we ensure that elections are free and fair? For the past couple of years, we’ve heard more and more false claims about stolen elections, but the truth is that our election systems are very well-managed. Yes, there are areas where systems...
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46:47
Scholar Collectives for Improving Education, with Kevin Kumashiro (former Dean, University of San Francisco School of Education)
How can scholars of education work together to strengthen educational policy and practice? In this episode, I talk to Kevin Kumashiro about some of his recent work to build education scholar collectives, groups of scholars and researchers...
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43:54
The New Seal of Civic Readiness for High School Diplomas, with Lisa Kissinger (Academic Administrator for Social Studies, Shenendehowa Central School District, NY)
What is the Seal of Civic Readiness, and how can students earn it on their high school diplomas? Last year, New York became the fifth U.S. state to begin awarding this honor to graduating high school seniors for demonstrating certain levels of ...
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42:39
Connecting Students with the Natural World, with Dr. Cornelia Harris (Highland Middle School in Highland, NY)
How can we foster young people's sense of connection to the natural environment? For over twenty years, teacher Cornelia (Lia) Harris has been helping adolescents develop this sense of connection. In this episode, Brett Levy talks to Lia ...
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28:39
