About

Li-Ching Ho is a Professor of Social Studies Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research primarily focuses on global civic education, issues of diversity in civic education, and environmental citizenship education, with a particular emphasis on East and Southeast Asia. She has conducted extensive work collaborating with scholars, teachers, and students across countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brunei, and the Philippines. Professor Ho has received several awards recognizing her contributions, including the Vilas Faculty Associates Award, the Vilas Faculty Early Career Investigator Award, and the College and University Faculty Assembly Early Career Research Award. She has authored and co-edited significant publications, including her latest book, 'Curriculum for Justice and Harmony,' co-authored with Keith Barton, and the 'Palgrave Handbook of Global Citizenship and Education.' Her research has been published in prominent journals such as Theory and Research in Social Education, Journal of Curriculum Studies, Teachers College Record, and Teaching and Teacher Education. Her work often explores themes of social harmony, diversity, and deliberative civic education, and she has delivered keynote addresses and presentations at various international forums.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Environmental ethics
• Social psychology
• Public administration
• Public relations
• Social Science
• Psychology
• Pedagogy
• Engineering ethics
• Epistemology
• Engineering

Selected publications

• The future of civic education : rebuilding a democracy in ruins

  DR-NTU (Nanyang Technological University) · 2025-01-01

  book

  Speaking to the need to move beyond traditional formulations, this textbook presents radical visions for transforming civic education in the United States. Drawing on the experience of educators and scholars-including those rooted in feminist, queer, abolitionist, global, and race-conscious perspectives-this work offers new, practical ideas for civic education reform. Responding to recent political crises, many scholars, educators, and public commentators have called for a rebirth of civic education, but these all are grounded in the premise that the goal of civic education should be to teach students about the U.S. Constitutional system and how to operate within it. This book argues that the U.S. governmental system, including the Constitution, is infused with racist and anti-democratic premises and procedures. It asks: How can we seek a new path - one that is more democratic, more equitable, and more humane? A diverse range of leading civic educators, who are willing not just to push the boundaries of civic education but to operate outside its assumptions altogether, explore what future possibilities for civic education might look like and how these innovative ideas could be implemented in the classroom. Combining theory with practice, The Future of Civic Education will be important reading for those studying or researching in Social Studies Methods, Social Studies Issues, Citizenship, and Civic Education. It will also be beneficial to social studies teachers at elementary and secondary levels, as well as policymakers and NGOs.

  Publisher

• A Collaborative Deliberation Pedagogical Model from the United States for Social Justice, Critical Harmony, and Hope

  2025-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Applying narrative medicine to prepare empathetic healthcare providers in undergraduate pharmacy education in Singapore: a mixed methods study

  BMC Medical Education · 2024-03-15 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Narrative medicine demonstrated positive impact on empathy in medicine and nursing students. However, this pedagogical approach had not been evaluated in pharmacy education. This study sought to apply and evaluate the narrative medicine approach in extending empathy in Asian undergraduate pharmacy students. METHODS: Narrative medicine was applied through workshops which used narratives of people with different experiences and perspectives. First-year undergraduate pharmacy students who volunteered and attended these workshops formed the intervention group (N = 31) and the remaining first-year cohort formed the control group (N = 112). A sequential explanatory mixed methods approach was adopted in which quantitative methods were first used to measure impact on pharmacy students' empathy using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy- Health Professions Student (JSE-HPS), and qualitative methods (i.e. group interviews) were then used to assess pharmacy students' emotional responses to narratives, and the perspectives of pharmacy students and faculty of this pedagogical approach. RESULTS: There was no difference in JSE-HPS scores between intervention and control groups across baseline (i.e. upon matriculation), pre-intervention, and post-intervention timepoints. Pharmacy students in the intervention group had lower scores in Factor 3 ("Standing in People's Shoes") following the intervention. Five themes, guided by internal and external factors in cognition, emerged from the Group Interviews: (1) incongruence between students' motivation and faculty's perception, (2) learning context, (3) academic context, (4) cognitive system, and (5) affective system. Themes 1, 4 and 5 referred to internal factors such as students' motivation, perceived learnings, and feelings. Themes 2 and 3 referred to external factors including workshop materials, activities, content, and facilitation. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to demonstrate that pharmacy students engaged with the narrative medicine approach as narratives elicited emotional responses, exposed them to diverse perspectives, and deepened their appreciation of the importance of empathy and complexities of understanding patients' perspectives. Scaffolded educational interventions using narratives and real-life patient encounters, alongside longitudinal measurements of empathy, are necessary to bring about meaningful and sustained improvements in empathy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Transcendent civic education

  2024-07-30

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  In this chapter, we make the case for a conception of civic education that is hopeful, rooted, and globally transcendent across time and space. We argue that the curriculum should not shy away from introducing issues, ideas, and perspectives that are both distant and unfamiliar, while also enabling students to explore and challenge what is known, convenient, and easily understood. We suggest two interrelated pedagogical approaches for a globally transcendent and rooted civic education curriculum. First, we propose adopting a cross-national case study approach based on perennial issues and conceptual themes affecting all of humanity. In this approach, the U.S. case is one of several cases that students will critically explore and provides students with an opportunity to consider these enduring issues from a diversity of perspectives, contexts, and scales. Second, we propose framing the curriculum in terms of critical and transformative hope. Using environmental civic education as an example, we recommend three principles to guide teachers in developing a curriculum of hope: (1) embracing a diversity of individual hopes; (2) incorporating familiar and distant collective hopes; and (3) fostering actional hope across different temporal and spatial scales.

  PublisherDOI

• Empathy and Compassion in Geography Education

  2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Social studies education research for sustainable democratic societies: Addressing persistent civic challenges

  Theory & Research in Social Education · 2023 · 34 citations

  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  Social studies education and research can and must play a central role in sustaining democratic societies. As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of this vital journal that aims to strengthen social studies education, democratic societies face numerous serious challenges. Although today’s circumstances are unique, many of our current challenges have existed (and will continue to exist) in some form throughout the history of democracy. In this article, scholars from various sub-fields of social studies education explore how research, scholarship, and practice in the field can address seven of these persistent civic challenges: ecological sustainability, media literacy, equity and inclusion, civic engagement, political pluralism, civic competency, and sociohistorical change. Essays on each of these topics analyze relevant prior research and offer suggestions for how future research and scholarship can explore how educators can help to address these persistent civic challenges, with the goal of supporting robust participatory democracy.

  PublisherDOI

• Transmitting Social and National Values Through Education in Singapore

  Springer international handbooks of education · 2023-01-01 · 2 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Collaborative deliberation in the classroom

  Phi Delta Kappan · 2023-02-01 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author

  To expand students’ preparation for civic life, many teachers regularly engage students in discussions related to contentious issues. These discussions, however, typically restrict the range of communicative styles allowed and prioritizes disagreements between fixed and competing choices. Keith C. Barton & Li-Ching recommend that educators instead engage students in collaborative deliberation — an authentic problem-solving model of discussion that is premised on relationships, mutual trust, common interests and concerns, and diverse forms of communication. To support collaborative deliberation, teachers need to pay attention to how they frame issues, how they organize student groups, and what kinds of discourse they encourage.

  PublisherDOI

• Applying Narrative Medicine to Prepare Empathetic Healthcare Providers in Undergraduate Pharmacy Education in Singapore: A Mixed Methods Study

  Research Square · 2023-12-06 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract Background: Although narrative medicine has demonstrated positive impact on learners’ empathy in medical education, this pedagogical approach has not been evaluated in pharmacy education. This study sought to apply and evaluate the narrative medicine approach in extending empathy in undergraduate pharmacy students. Methods: Narrative medicine was applied through workshops which used narratives of people with different experiences and perspectives. First-year undergraduate pharmacy students who volunteered and attended these workshops formed the intervention group (N=31) and the remaining first-year cohort formed the control group (N=112). Group interviews (GIs) assessed pharmacy students’ engagement with the narrative medicine approach, their emotional responses to narratives, and the perspectives of pharmacy students and faculty of this pedagogical approach. Pharmacy students’ empathy was measured using Jefferson Scale of Empathy – Health Professions Student (JSE-HPS). Results: Five themes, guided by internal and external factors in cognition, emerged from GIs: 1) incongruence between students’ motivation and faculty’s perception, 2) learning context, 3) academic context, 4) cognitive system, and 5) affective system. Themes 1, 4 and 5 referred to internal factors such as students’ motivation, perceiving learnings and feelings. Themes 2 and 3 referred to external factors including workshop materials, activities, content and facilitation. There was no significant difference in JSE-HPS scores between intervention and control groups across 3 timepoints. Conclusion: Pharmacy students engaged with the narrative medicine approach as narratives elicited emotional responses, exposed them to diverse perspectives, and deepened their appreciation of the importance of empathy and complexities of understanding patients’ perspectives. The narrative medicine approach needs to be repeated and scaffolded within the curriculum to bring about meaningful and sustained improvements in empathy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Informal environmental citizenship education

  Elsevier eBooks · 2022-11-18 · 3 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Keith C. Barton

  18 shared

• Theresa Alviar-Martin

  8 shared

• Tricia Seow

  7 shared

• Jasmine B.‐Y. Sim

  Nagoya City University

  5 shared

• Enrique Niño P. Leviste

  Ateneo de Manila University

  3 shared

• Paula McAvoy

  North Carolina State University

  3 shared

• Constance Xue Rui Neo

  Khoo Teck Puat Hospital

  2 shared

• Charis Jia Yan Soon

  National University of Singapore

  2 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1990

• M.S., Curriculum and Instruction

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  1986

• B.S., Education

  National Taiwan Normal University

  1983

Awards & honors

• KAME Presidential Research Travel Award, Korean Association…
• Vilas Faculty Early Career Investigator Award, University of…
• Early Career Research Award, College and University Faculty…
• National Institute of Education Teaching Excellence Award, N…
• Overseas Graduate Scholarship (Doctoral), National Institute…