Research Issues in Contemporary Education

Research and Issues in Civic Education in the Wake of the 2020 Election

Guest Editor: Dr. Jeremiah Clabough

Manuscripts Due: January 15, 2021

“As the 2020 election nears and our world, nation, and local communities grapple with the unprecedented convergence of health, economic, environmental, and political crises, it is more important than ever that we look to our young people to be part of the solution” (Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2020, Par 1). This means that social science educators at the K-12 level must be mindful of teaching activities and assessments utilized to discuss issues connected to civic education. Regardless of the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, social science education teachers and scholars will be left with the tremendous responsibility of discussing issues connected to civic education with an extremely polarized American public in the wake of this coming election cycle. Therefore, this is an ideal time to reconsider new and innovative research to teach issues connected to civic education in the K-16 social science classrooms.

Therefore, the focus for this themed issue is to have authors speak to innovative approaches for teaching issues connected to civic education through qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods research studies. We are also interested in theoretical papers to examine key issues in civic education. Since we are looking for innovative approaches for research and theory with issues connected to civic education, our focus is on emerging scholars who are doctoral students about to enter the profession of social science education or assistant professors. It is fine for contributing authors to have more experienced social science education scholars as second authors. Some potential topics for civic education that the authors might focus on with this themed issue may include the following (non-exhaustive):

• Teaching U.S. politics in an age of hyperpartisanship
• Discussing controversial issues in the K-16 social science classroom
• Exploring issues of race in the K-16 social science classroom
• Examining issues of gender in the K-16 social science classroom
• Analyzing the role of protests in a democratic society for the K-16 social science classroom
• Building students’ civic thinking, literacy, and argumentation skills as advocated for in the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History by the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
• Researching the validity of a source’s claims to determine whether it is accurate or fake news
• Preparing students to take civic action as future democratic citizens

Manuscript Submissions

All manuscript must be written in MS Word and follow the guidelines of the latest version of the APA 7^th edition manual. The manuscript must include the following:

• A cover page that includes: a working title, the name of the author(s), affiliation, and e-mail address.
• An abstract of 150-200 words, including a purpose/rationale, and lessons learned or implications for practice section.
• The recommended manuscript length is 5,000 to 10,000 words, excluding references.

Manuscript questions should be e-mailed to Dr. Jeremiah Clabough at jclabou2@uab.edu. Manuscripts will be submitted through the RICE journal website at: http://www.leraweb.net/ojs/index.php/RICE. When submitting your manuscript select the section “2020 Election Special Issue.”

All accepted manuscripts will go through a double-blind peer-review process, wherein all contributing authors will be expected to review at least one manuscript scheduled to be included in this special issue. If at any point the reviewers and/or editors find the manuscript is not consistent with the highest standards of academic scholarship, the editors reserve the right to remove the manuscript from the special issue.

Tentative Schedule for Publication

Manuscript submission deadline: January 15, 2021

Manuscript review will be completed: February 19, 2021

Author revisions submitted: March 19, 2021

Second round of reviews and final acceptance: April 23, 2021

Page proofs e-mailed to authors: June 11, 2021

Anticipated publication date: July 2021

Research Issues in Contemporary Education (RICE) is a double-blind, peer-reviewed online journal that publishes educational research studies, literature reviews, theoretical manuscripts, and practitioner-oriented articles regarding issues in education. RICE is an online journal (ISSN 2690-9251) indexed by the U.S. Department of Education ERIC Database and affiliated with the Louisiana Educational Research Association. Views expressed in all published articles are the views of the author(s), and publication in RICE does not constitute endorsement. 

Reference

Harvard Graduate School of Education (2020). Overview. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ppe/program/civics-education-and-youth-participatory-politics-teaching-2020-presidential-election

RICE accepts manuscripts on a continual basis. Manuscripts can be any length from 5,000 - 10,000 words, excluding references, and must follow the 7th Edition of the APA Publication Manual. 

Research Issues in Contemporary Education (RICE) is a nationally indexed, double blind peer-reviewed, online journal that publishes educational research studies, literature reviews, theoretical manuscripts, and practitioner-oriented articles regarding issues in education. Views expressed in the articles are the views of the authors, and publication in RICE does not constitute endorsement. Submission of an article implies that it has not been published elsewhere and is not currently under review for publication elsewhere. Authors should submit their manuscripts through the RICE online journal portal.