RERUN: Teaching Democracy with Joel Westheimer

As we head into one of the most consequential midterm elections, we are revisiting an episode that first aired back in September 2024 just ahead of our last presidential election. In this episode, I speak with Joel Westheimer, Professor of Education at the University of Ottawa and author of What Kind of Citizen? Educating Our Children for the Common Good. We talked about the role of education in a democratic society, what it means to be an engaged citizen, and how we can prepare young people to be active participants in this society. Here we are two years later and our democracy faces ever-increasing pressures – from the growing influence of big tech, the concentrated wealth and influence in our political systems, and the erosion of public trust. This episode challenges us to think deeply about what kind of citizens we want to cultivate, and what kind of society we want to live in. We think you will find this conversation as relevant today as it was when we first recorded it, as one of the most fundamental challenges we face today may be how we understand, value, and teach democracy itself.