Primary and secondary education is essential because it not only provides students with critical literacy and numeracy skills, but also, for many students, it begins their civic education. The goals of civic education vary by country, but a consistent goal is to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to be productive members of society. Globally, approximately thirty-six million children are living outside of their country of nationality. With the growing number of migrant children, states are facing two challenges to effective civic education. The first is access to schools, and the second is creating a civic education curriculum that effectively prepares all students to participate in society in ways that align with democratic principles and goals. This essay focuses on unauthorized migrant children’s access to public schools and argues for civic education to incorporate the exploration of membership boundaries so that students, citizen and noncitizen alike, can study unauthorized migrants’ participation in society within the context of membership status. This exploration offers students the opportunity to consider how to better align unauthorized migrants’ lived realities with their legal status–and to better realize democracy’s promise.

At a time when equalizing measures like affirmative action are being challenged, a women’s university is uplifting the most neglected and defenseless populations in Bangladesh. Yet the Asian University for Women (AUW) faces additional challenges in providing excellent higher education. This essay discusses how AUW also confronts mounting pernicious state control of education by transforming state-university relationships, and how, despite resurfacing nationalism and parochialism, it advocates for regional collaboration in its student body. In a conflict-ridden world, it marshals political, financial, and diplomatic prowess to provide a liberating pathway to those marooned in conflict. While fostering equality through its undergraduate and graduate programs, AUW has raised an age-old question concerning a university’s function in an unjust, violence-prone, and divided world. Its answer: the best institutions embrace disadvantaged members of society through education aimed at emancipating those under the yoke of oppression.