Opinion Blog

Finding Common Ground

With Peter DeWitt & Michael Nelson

A former K-5 public school principal turned author, presenter, and leadership coach, Peter DeWitt provides insights and advice for education leaders. Former superintendent Michael Nelson is a frequent contributor. 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 Finding Common Ground With Peter DeWitt & Michael Nelson 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
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Managing AI in Schools: Practical Strategies for Districts
How should districts govern AI in schools? Learn practical strategies for policies, safety, transparency, and responsible adoption.
Content provided by Lightspeed Systems
Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
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
Student Absenteeism Webinar
Turning Attendance Data Into Family Action
This California district cut chronic absenteeism in half. Learn how they used insight and early action to reach families and change outcomes.
Content provided by SchoolStatus

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 Opinion How Two Educators Are Teaching History Right Now
The "fire hose" of current events provides an opportunity for classroom discussion.
9 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
Social Studies Bible Tales, Election Denial Aren't in Okla.'s Proposed Social Studies Standards
The proposed new standards do not include several concepts championed by former state Superintendent Ryan Walters.
Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton, Tulsa World
1 min read
Bible In Schools Oklahoma 25288732719260
Copies of the Bible are displayed Aug. 12, 2024, at the Bixby High School library in Bixby, Okla. Proposed social studies standards under former Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters included Bible stories and called for students to identify "discrepancies" in the 2020 presidential election won by former President Joe Biden.
AP Photo/Joey Johnson
Social Studies Opinion Studying Black History Primary Sources? Try the Sankofa Framework (Downloadable)
A blueprint for unearthing truths from Black history when grappling with a vast assortment of complex sources.
Nick Kennedy
1 min read
Black History books behind a Sankofa bird image
Erin K. Robinson for Education Week
Social Studies Opinion My Secret for Engaging Students in a Black History ‘Jawn’
Here’s the class discussion you should be having before introducing a new history lesson.
Abigail Henry
3 min read
Black History teacher class with hands raised in front of Philadelphia skyline Jawn orange
Erin K. Robinson for Education Week