Re-Imagining Citizenship Education: Empowering Students to Become Critical Leaders and Community Role Models

In this special edition, we call attention to the role of Critical Multicultural Citizenship Education (CMCE) in schools, societies and global contexts. The fundamental goal of CMCE is to increase not only the students' awareness of, and participation in, the political aspects of democracy, but also students' abilities to create and live in an ethnically diverse and just community.

Global migration and increasing diversity within nations are challenging conceptions of citizenship all over the world. The percentage of ethnic minorities in nation- states throughout the world has increased significantly within the past 30 years. The United States Census, for example, projects that 50% of the population will consist of culturally, linguistically, racially, ethnic, and religiously diverse groups by 2050. With an increase growth of diversity within national borders, issues concerning educational equity, equality, and civic engagement have not always been well attended to in educational and societal contexts. Growing ethnic diversity in schools/ society has not automatically led to a dismantling of persistent educational barriers or structural inequalities. In the past decade, culturally, ethnically, and linguistically diverse populations have faced barriers impacting their rights as citizens in the United States and international contexts. Citizenship, and the rights that are associated with being a citizen, are re-framed when culturally, ethnically, and linguistically students seek equality. In 2020, many urban cities in the United States witnessed Latino/Black youth demonstrate peacefully guided by social justice and their civic responsibilities. Similarly, in international contexts students have demonstrated civil disobedience by expressing concerns about their rights as citizens and the disempowerment of communities.

We emphatically believe that students in K-12 settings must begin to understand their rights as citizens and also advocate for the rights of others in order for communities in the U.S. and international contexts to achieve democracy.