550 Fall 2007 Theory and Research in Social Education Fall 2007, Volume 35, Number 4, pp. 550-572 © College and University Faculty Assembly of National Council for the Social Studies Civic Multicultural Competence: Searching for Common Ground in Democratic Education Jonathan Miller-Lane Middlebury College Tyrone Howard University of California, Los Angeles Patricia Espiritu Halagao University of Hawaii, Manoa Abstract During the past several decades, multicultural education has become an inte- gral part of the social studies as a means to authentically prepare students for living in an inclusive and democratic society. Topics traditionally omitted, such as race, ethnicity, culture, social class, and gender, are now included. Yet, while multicultural education has helped to bring such topics into the social studies discourse, social studies has generally fallen short of taking a more critical ap- proach to the preparation of citizens. In this work we review the professional literature in multicultural education and social studies education to clarify the distinctions between the ields. Then, we investigate the nexus between the two where we ind reason for hope in a time when national political discussion is often polarized. We propose the notion of civic multicultural competence as a concept that challenges scholars and educators to move forward towards better preparing students for life in a multicultural, global society. Introduction Both social studies and multicultural education have been guided by a commitment to create schools and, ultimately, a society that gener- ates equitable opportunities for citizens regardless of their differences (Banks, 2003; Evans, 2004; Grant & Sleeter, 1986; Parker, 2003). Yet, de- spite this shared goal the two ields have often seemed to talk past each other rather than speak in unison regarding what civic education should include (Banks, 1996; Boyle-Baise, 1996; Gay, 1997; Parker, 1997b). In this article, we irst review the diverse curricular approaches in both social