Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus 129 of women in 1962 offering courses and personal counseling. The Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study offered from 1960 onwards scholarships for professional women willing to continue their education at the graduate level. There is also a reference to the Center for the Education of Women created at the University of Michigan in 1964 and its preoccupation with women’s professional aims. Flexibility has been, in the author’s view, the key to success. Continuing education remained disconnected from collective action until the feminist movement started to demand a place for women and their experiences on university campuses and in university programs. This is an important book that makes a substantial contribution to the understanding of the transition between the postwar era and the women’s movements of the sixties. Wilde, Stephanie, Ed. (2005) Political and citizenship education: International perspectives, Vol. 14, Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, Oxford, Symposium Books. Pages: 144 Price: 42.00 USD (paper). Reviewed by Yvonne Hebert University of Calgary This is a superb book, in a handy slim volume, very readable and widely suitable for all teacher educators, graduate students and teachers-in-preparation. Organized around issues of political citizenship, the volume offers broad geographical range and country reports. Briefly introduced by the editors, the chapters occur in two groupings. The first four chapters consist of reports of 14-year olds, from four countries (US, England, Australia, Hong King) on the results of their participation in the citizenship education study of the International Association of Educational Achievement (IEA), 1994-2000. These broad portrayals are balanced by case studies of citizenship in educational settings in Czechoslovakia and Germany. The first issue addressed, how students become citizens, is well illustrated with the American data. While the US participants generally have a good understanding of democratic principles, attitudes and behaviours, Carole Hahn also finds that school practices, open discussion, and classroom climate are key to the development of positive attitudes towards nation, symbols, and government institutions. Further research is needed, especially on the influences of class, race and gender with respect to citizenship knowledge and attitudes. A second issue, of the impact and influence of participation in the IEA study, is addressed with the English data set. David Kerr emphasizes that without a tradition of explicit citizenship education at the time of the study, the debate in England benefited greatly from the insights derived from the IEA study. This data set led to the formulation of an agenda of nine research questions, including these topics: how to help students develop depth of understanding 130 CJHE / RCES Volume 36, No. 1, 2006 about the democratic process; how to improve civic knowledge in ways that interest and encourage young people, how to convince young people that democratic engagement in society is worthwhile, and how to encourage schools and teachers to develop active participation approaches to citizenship education. Kerr ends his chapter with a brief discussion of six lessons learned. Some of the questions derived from the English data set are addressed in the Australian chapter, more specifically, what should future citizens know and be able to do, and how can access to such knowledge be guaranteed. Kerry Kennedy and Suzanne Mellor find that Australian students value democracy and have an understanding of the needs and preconditions of a healthy democracy. Describing this as a “democracy of the heart,” the two authors consider this insufficient and argue that is needed is a “democracy of the mind,” by which they would understand the impact of economic issues on democracy (the role of labour unions, the market economy, multinationals, and globalisation). This data also suggest that young people gain more civic knowledge from informal settings than from formal learning settings, although schools remain an important source for civic education. A fourth major issues organizing this volume, concerns the impact of sovereignty on young people’s understanding of democracy. The only Asian country to participate, Hong King, took part in Phase I as a British colonial territory and in Phase II, in 1999, as a Special Administration Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The findings indicate that the young people learned about democracy through exposure to public debates and political controversies in the process of political transition and developed their aspirations towards democracy in the midst of political uncertainties leading to the handover of the territory to the PRC. Heading off Part II, John Sayer addresses a fifth issue that traverses all the chapters in this volume: whether “democracy” in education refers to democratic processes or teaching about democracy. In other words, can children and youth learn about citizenship in schools or is it to be practised in schools? Drawing from several years of experience in Trans-European Mobility Programmes for University Students (TEMPUS), with Czechoslovakian network data, Sayer makes a strong plea for schools and teachers to teach about citizenship but also to provide a forum for students to experience active citizenship. Well situated in this collection, the next chapter addresses a sixth issue of teacher response to students who adopt a standpoint that is uncomfortable for teachers, that is, a radical right position. In other words, should an open classroom climate prevail when students express such opinions, leaving them unchallenged as an example of the freedom of speech, or are teachers obliged to challenge and change these views? The author, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, highlights the complexity of this issue and the teachers’ great need for external support and guidance. There is a great need here, for teachers (a) to be able to identify those students in their classes who are involved in radical right activities, and (b) to be prepared and able to deal effectively with counter-arguments, so as to Book Reviews / Comptes Rendus 131 assure a balance of views in the classroom. Thus, additional teacher education is needed, as are strong curriculum guidelines and materials. Finally, the editor of the volume takes up her pen (or rather her clavier) to focus on the issue of the contributions, if any, of extra-curricular and cross-cultural projects in schools in Germany, as citizenship education and international education. To be effective, Stephanie Wilde concludes that such programmes need to be carefully conceived and executed, demanding a great deal of time of both teachers and students, but the potential of such programmes should not be underestimated. Further research is needed, as the authors and editor conclude, on the nature of “open classroom climate,” and its impact on citizenship education learning, on what constitutes appropriate teacher preparation and professional development of the nurturing of confidence in this area, as well as the balance between the democratic knowledge base, citizenship values and practices. This book introduces the readers to key issues of citizenship education and education for democracy. The key argument is that citizenship can no longer be a marginalised subject in the school curriculum as it has been for the previous century. Young people as citizens must be ready to understand, participate, deliberate and defend democracy to meet local, national and global challenges that are lived today and that lie ahead. A must read for all!