Ideology: The Challenge for Civic Literacy Educators

Abstract

The highly charged and polarized discourse between left and right political ideology among the media, politician, and the public has intensified the challenge placed on social studies educators to teach their students that open-mindedness and critical thinking should be the first principles of their civic life. The author provides an analysis of the ideas of liberty, social justice, and justice in an effort to bring more clarity to their differences and shared goals and how critical thinking and open-mindedness can allow students to democratic ideology. The author proposes that the tension between a liberty and social justice ideological stance is healthy for the advancement of a democratic ideology and suggests that social studies education focus on four pillars to insure the common civic literacy: Open-mindedness, Critical Thinking, Liberty and Social Justice.