Journal of International Social Studies, v. 7, n. 2, 2017, pp. 1-3 Corresponding author: rapoport@purdue.edu ©2012/2018 National Council for Social Studies International Assembly http://www.iajiss.org ISSN: 2327-3585 Page 1 From the Editor: What language is spoken in France? Silly question—French, of course. In Italy? Italian. In Argentina? Spanish. If you ask residents of Moldova the same question, however, the answer will be “the state language.” I recently returned from Moldova, where I made a presentation at a conference and conducted workshops on student-centered teaching. The trip came with a caveat: five days before the departure, my host and co-author Andrey Borshevsky, Director of the Institute for Democracy, told me that the workshop would be in Transnistria, a separatist part of Moldova not recognized by any UN member state. Oh-ho! I was concerned, anxious, and excited. The trip was fantastic (and adventurous), and I met many wonderful people and made many new friends. The “state language” trick at first bewildered me, but later I understood that it is a wise compromise that residents of both Moldova proper and non-recognized Transnistria agreed to follow in order to keep the dialogue going. (Although the 1992 military conflict and partition of Moldova was politically and ideologically motivated, the formal pretext was linguistic: ethnic Moldovans in Moldova proper argue that the language they speak is Romanian using the Latin alphabet, but residents of Transnistria call this language in the Cyrillic alphabet Moldavian). This is only one of few compromises, however, and the small European nation (a third of the size of Indiana) is still divided. The radical nationalism, separatism, and xenophobia that swarmed Eastern and Central Europe in the 1990s have recently revived in the West. Brexit in Great Britain, the radical shift to anti- globalism and isolationism in U.S. politics, the rise of radical nationalists in France, the most recent elections in Austria, and the referenda in Catalonia and two Italian provinces are clear evidence that xenophobic fears, ultra-nationalist sentiments, and jingoism are on the rise. This new political trend presents a clear and present danger to education for democratic citizenship and an immediate and serious challenge to social studies educators. Education, and social studies education in particular, is traditionally seen as having a twofold mission: on the one hand, school is an intermediary that socializes students in the idea of national exceptionality and unity, but on the other hand, schools have become a place to teach tolerance, appreciation of diversity, and critical comprehension of reality. Is a kind of “state language” compromise a viable solution for school practitioners or teacher educators? I am not sure. After all, residents of Moldova argue that their state language is Romanian, and residents of Transnistria, Moldavian. mailto:rapoport@purdue.edu http://www.iajiss.org/ Journal of International Social Studies, v. 7, n. 2, 2017, pp. 1-3 Corresponding author: rapoport@purdue.edu ©2012/2018 National Council for Social Studies International Assembly http://www.iajiss.org ISSN: 2327-3585 Page 2 This volume includes a selection of articles and essays that will interest scholars and classroom teachers alike: Effectively engaged civic leaders often have strong relationships with key stakeholders in their communities, but the nature of these relationships is not known among those with more typical levels of civic engagement. Alison Cohen of UC Berkley and Jason Fitzgerald of Wagner College in New York City surveyed residents of two neighboring French towns and found that people perceive their neighbors to be, on average, more engaged than they perceive themselves to be, and that few individuals can provide specific action steps for how they would tackle social issues in their community. Their findings suggest that action civics curricula should engage students in relationship building, enabling them to construct instrumental, personal civic networks. In Global Citizenship Education and the Development of Globally Competent Teacher Candidates, Michael Kopish of Ohio University presents findings from a reflective inquiry of one global educator’s attempt to develop globally competent teacher candidates in an elective general education course. The goals of the study were to make the elements of global education more explicit for practitioners and to demonstrate the extent to which teacher candidates learned and developed global competencies as a consequence of participation in the course. Findings from this inquiry demonstrate the efficacy of global citizenship education practices and the power of collaboration. The study concludes that efforts to prepare teacher candidates for globalized contexts should be a coordinated approach integrated across disciplines and in courses and programs for prospective teachers. Alon Lazar of the Center for Academic Studies in Or Yehuda, Israel, and Tal Litvak Hirsch of Ben Gurion University of the Negev analyzed inputs of members of the Yahoo! Answers Q&A online community following students’ questions about the differential treatment of Japanese, German, and Italian American citizens during World War II, and whether the internment of Japanese Americans was justified. In Online Answers Dealing with the Internment of Japanese Americans During World War II, the authors analyzed the responses of students who struggled with their coursework. The majority of responses to the first question justified the differential treatment, citing national security and presenting Japanese Americans as a threat. The dominant position in the case of the second question negates internment legitimacy and views it as a gross violation of justice and as a racially motivated act. mailto:rapoport@purdue.edu http://www.iajiss.org/ Journal of International Social Studies, v. 7, n. 2, 2017, pp. 1-3 Corresponding author: rapoport@purdue.edu ©2012/2018 National Council for Social Studies International Assembly http://www.iajiss.org ISSN: 2327-3585 Page 3 Findings in Perceptions of Student Teaching Abroad: Upon Return and Two Years After by Frans Doppen and Kristin Diki of Ohio University indicate that preservice teachers perceive their student teaching abroad experience as both advantageous and effective and that it enhances their global-mindedness. More than two years after student teaching abroad, the experiences continue to have a personal and professional impact as preservice teachers find themselves to be more global-minded and seeking opportunities to share their experiences. The Function and Influence of the Emancipatory Binary and the Progressive Triad in the Discourse on Citizenship in Social Studies Education by Marcus Johnson of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, explains how two named conceptual structures, along with standard citation practices in academic journal writing, function to sustain and regenerate a progressive perspective within social studies education scholarship. The final essay in this volume, The Third World Perspective on the Cold War: Making Curriculum and Pedagogy Relevant in History Classrooms by Iftikhar Ahmad of Long Island University, addresses the complex problem of an alternative interpretation of a historical period. It challenges the Western perspective of the Cold War usually presented in textbooks. The author argues that since the Cold War impacted the lives of people in the Third World as well, their stories deserve a place in the history curriculum. Anatoli Rapoport Editor mailto:rapoport@purdue.edu http://www.iajiss.org/