Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society

In this second edition of Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society— which includes three new chapters—Banks argues that an effective citizenship education helps students to acquire the knowledge, skills, and values needed to function effectively within their cultural communities, nation states, regions, and the global community. It also helps students to acquire cosmopolitan perspectives and values needed to attain equality and social justice for people around the world. In the new chapters, Banks draws heavily upon his recent work which focuses on how students in multicultural nations around the world can be educated in ways that will help them to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and values needed to make decisions and to take action to create a more just and humane world.

Praise for the First Edition

“James Banks captures for us an essential element of American citizenship—diversity. This volume is a tribute to the triumphs, challenges, and sometimes tragedies of citizenship in a democratic and multicultural society. This is must reading for the student of U.S. history, civics, and the political process.”

—Gloria Ladson-Billings

University of Wisconsin—Madison

“The 11 essays that comprise the book provide a comprehensive blending of Banks’s work in multicultural education and citizenship education. This is an outstanding book, one that is worthwhile reading for all students, educators, and those interested in the political process.”

—Laurel Garrick Duhaney

State University of New York,

College at New Paltz

Review in MultiCultural Review

“Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society will provide both the novice and the expert with an instructive perspective for considering multicultural education. By shifting the lens to citizenship, a lively topic in academic circles right now, Banks once again demonstrates his intellectual leadership in this field.”

—Margaret Smith Crocco

Teachers College, Columbia University

Review in Multicultural Education

James A. Banks is Kerry and Linda Killinger Professor in Diversity Studies and Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is the editor of the Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education, a past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), and a member of the National Academy of Education. Professor Banks is the editor of the Multicultural Education Series of books published by Teachers College Press.