About Us

Civic Voices is a joint effort of two international civic education projects: Civics Mosaic and the Democracy Memory Bank. The United States Department of Education funds both projects under the Education for Democracy Act approved by the United States Congress. The United States Department of State cooperates in the work of these projects.

Civics Mosaic is dedicated to the principle of comparative civics—that the politics and government of one country can be learned most effectively by comparing them with other countries.. The first phase of Mosaic explored political ideas like democracy by comparing their historical development and current application in political systems around the world. The primary product of that phase is a high school reference book, titled Exploring Political Ideas, published by CQ Press (January 2010). The second phase enables teachers and students to apply political ideas to current civic issues. The learning resources for this phase are housed at the Student Voices section of this website. Mosaic developed these resources with teachers who participated in a series of international civic exchanges, seminars, and conferences. Civics Mosaic is headquartered at the Council for Citizenship Education at Russell Sage College in Troy, New York, and operates exchanges with six Eurasian countries. For a complete list of partners in this project, see the Contact Us section.

The International Democracy Memory Bank engages teachers and students from around the world in developing a rich bank of oral histories from democratic activists. Students learn how to conduct oral histories and preserve the legacy of their country’s democratic struggles, harnessing the stories of the past to inspire the citizens of the future. This project is coordinated by the American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation, headquartered in Washington DC, in cooperation with teachers’ unions and other partners in eight countries around the world. For a complete list of partners in this project, see the Contact Us section.

Background
These projects were developed under the umbrella of Civitas-Russia and Civitas-Eurasia—partnerships in Civitas, an international civic education network founded in 1995 and coordinated by the Los Angeles-based Center for Civic Education. Civitas works with partners around the world as they exchange ideas and experiences in civic education. Civitas also creates instructional materials on emerging democracies for students in the United States.

One of the cornerstone projects of the Civitas network is Project Citizen. It is an interactive civic education program created by the Center for Civic Education. Participating students identify a public issue that is important to them. Students then gather information about the issue, discuss alternative solutions, propose their solution, and create an action plan to implement it. Hundreds of thousands of students in Russia and Eurasia have participated in Project Citizen. Civics Mosaic and the Democracy Memory Bank offer unique opportunities to enhance and deepen the educational value of such project-based, experiential teaching methods.

Civic Voices was inaugurated in 2007 at the First International Project Citizen Showcase, titled “Empowering a New Generation for Democracy.” In July of 2007, young people from 31 countries gathered in Washington DC, for that showcase and all participating teams were invited to contribute essays to the Civic Voices site. In those essays, students related their experiences to core Mosaic concepts. Essays selected for publication are housed on this site.

Acknowledgements
The student survey found on this site is based on a citizenship and involvement survey developed by the Center for Democracy and Civil Society at Georgetown University. The results of the Georgetown survey were analyzed by Russell Dalton, professor at the University of California, Irvine, in his book, The Good Citizen. His research focuses on the role of citizens in the political process in industrially developed democracies.

Photographer Howard Korn took the pictures for this site as part of the International Project Citizen Showcase in 2007. The students are pictured in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Freedom House developed the 12 democratic principles used to index the Memory Bank Each year, Freedom House issues a Freedom in the World report and a Map of Freedom. Recently, in conjunction with the Albert Shanker Institute, Freedom House created an online resource to promote classroom use of these materials, which is housed at www.democracyweb.org. Democracy Web is composed of an interactive world map and an online study guide. Links to Democracy Web are provided throughout the Civic Voices site.

The contents of this site were developed with the support of grants from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.