Opinion Blog

Peter DeWitt's

Finding Common Ground

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. He can be found at www.petermdewitt.com. Read more from this blog.

Social Studies Opinion

The Need for Media Literacy and Civics Education Isn’t Just for Students

By Peter DeWitt — February 03, 2021 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Truth Decay - A Seat at the Table

On Thursday, Jan. 28, for Education Week’s A Seat at the Table, I moderated a chat with Jennifer Kavanagh and Alice Huguet from the Rand Corp. Kavanagh is the director of the Strategy, Doctrine, and Resources Program in the RAND Arroyo Center and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corp. She also leads RAND’s Countering Truth Decay initiative, a portfolio of projects exploring the diminishing reliance on facts and analysis in U.S. political and civil discourse.

Huguet is a policy researcher at RAND. She is interested in K-12 educational policies that influence the academic and life opportunities of students attending urban schools. Huguet’s research explores a variety of topics, including evidence-based decision-making; social and emotional learning; media-literacy education; alternative teacher-preparation programs; school leadership; and data- and instructional-coaching.

During the conversation, we discussed truth versus facts; the need for media literacy and civics education, not just for students but also adults; and the history of truth decay in our country from the very beginning. Click here to register and watch the show on-demand. It is well worth the hour.

If you’re an instructional coach, teacher leader, or school leader, consider signing up for DeWitt’s Educational Leadership Collective newsletter here.

Related Tags:

The opinions expressed in Peter DeWitt’s Finding Common Ground are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Equity & Diversity Webinar
Classroom Strategies for Building Equity and Student Confidence
Shape equity, confidence, and success for your middle school students. Join the discussion and Q&A for proven strategies.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Professional Development Webinar
Disrupting PD Day in Schools with Continuous Professional Learning Experiences
Hear how this NC School District achieved district-wide change by shifting from traditional PD days to year-long professional learning cycles
Content provided by BetterLesson
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Social Studies When It Comes to Social Studies, Elementary Teachers Are on Their Own
Teachers get less PD in the subject than reading and math and often rely on a mash-up of different materials and curricula.
8 min read
Globe, map, and colored pencils sitting on a desk with two young students in background working.
iStock/Getty
Social Studies Opinion Black History Month Is Over. Teaching Black History Shouldn’t Be
Here's a roundup of resources and commentary to teach Black history all year long.
3 min read
Collage of illustrations by Xia Gordon
Xia Gordon for education Week
Social Studies Opinion Fighting the Rise in Antisemitism: Advice for Teachers
Teaching students about the Holocaust isn’t enough. An instructional specialist offers a different approach to combat antisemitism.
Miriam Plotinsky
4 min read
Index fingers pointing at sad depressed person feeling denunciation.
Dmitry Kovalchuk/Getty<br/>
Social Studies The Demand for Asian American History Is Growing. See Where
Florida is among states facing the possibility of requiring Asian American and Pacific Islander history in K-12 curriculum.
5 min read
A woman holds a sign and attends a rally to stop AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) hate at the Logan Square Monument in Chicago on March 20, 2021.
A woman holds a sign and attends a rally to stop AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) hate at the Logan Square Monument in Chicago on March 20, 2021.
Nam Y. Huh/AP