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Full-Text Articles in Education

Learning From Literature And Legality: Supreme Court Cases And Young Adult Literature In A Social Foundations Of Education Course, Cody Miller May 2023

Learning From Literature And Legality: Supreme Court Cases And Young Adult Literature In A Social Foundations Of Education Course, Cody Miller

Democracy and Education

In this article, I detail how I revised a social foundations of education course to center major Supreme Court cases relating to K–12 public schools. Scholars in social foundations of education have articulated a vision for the field that fosters and promotes democracy and democratic dispositions. Focusing on the Supreme Court in a social foundations of education course is the result of two factors. First is the Supreme Court’s storied role in shaping K–12 public education. Second is the Supreme Court’s increasingly steep lurch toward antidemocratic jurisprudence, which many legal scholars and journalists covering the judicial branch are raising alarm …


Scientifically Based Research And Teacher Agency: Combating “Conspiracies Of Certainty”, Kurt Stemhagen, Brionna C. Nomi Oct 2021

Scientifically Based Research And Teacher Agency: Combating “Conspiracies Of Certainty”, Kurt Stemhagen, Brionna C. Nomi

Democracy and Education

This project considers how certain types of educational research position teachers as problems to be managed or worked around. We start with a discussion of scientifically based research (SBR), particularly how the quest for generalization/objectivity are often pursued at the expense of relevance. We use the way teachers are positioned in the growing field of Implementation Science as an example of what’s wrong with SBR. A fundamental tension emerges—researchers’ need for scientific control is inescapably at odds with the idea of teacher as professional. Finally, we provide an example of an approach that has potential to counter the SBR-influenced idea …


Epistemic Inclusion And The Argument From Circumspection, James Scott Johnston May 2019

Epistemic Inclusion And The Argument From Circumspection, James Scott Johnston

Democracy and Education

In this response to Martin's "Should Deliberate Democratic Inclusion Extend to Children?" I examine Martin's comments against the "argument from circumspection," which is dubious regarding the claims children make to change democratic policies and procedures. I explain there are good reasons for being circumspect. One of these concerns the need for all in public discourse to supply not just claims but reasons and to have both these claims and reasons adjudicated in the logical space of reasons. Children, as with all who practice public discourse, must have their claims and reasons assessed for these to be admitted as candidates for …


Should Deliberative Democratic Inclusion Extend To Children?, Christopher Martin Oct 2018

Should Deliberative Democratic Inclusion Extend To Children?, Christopher Martin

Democracy and Education

To what extent should the child’s point of view be included when a political community endeavors to make just decisions, and why? Democrats are committed to a principle of political inclusion grounded in equal respect for persons. Yet we regularly deny children the right to vote and we often just assume that the citizens doing the hard work of democratic deliberation are adults. As I will show, electoral conceptions of democracy can plausibly reconcile this tension in a way that requires no serious adjustment to the principle of inclusion. However, I also argue that a similar reconciliation seems unavailable to …


Does The Common Core Further Democracy? A Response To "The Common Core And Democratic Education: Examining Potential Costs And Benefits To Public And Private Autonomy", Johann N. Neem Apr 2018

Does The Common Core Further Democracy? A Response To "The Common Core And Democratic Education: Examining Potential Costs And Benefits To Public And Private Autonomy", Johann N. Neem

Democracy and Education

The Common Core does not advance democratic education. Far from it, the opening section of the language standards argues that the goal of public K–12 education is “college and career readiness.” Only at the end of their introductory section do the Common Core’s authors suggest that K–12 education has any goals beyond the economic: learning to read and write well has “wide applicability outside the classroom and work place,” including preparing people for “private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a republic.” The democratic purposes of K–12 education are not goals but, in the Common Core’s words, a “natural outgrowth” of …


Empowering Young People Through Conflict And Conciliation: Attending To The Political And Agonism In Democratic Education, Jane C. Lo May 2017

Empowering Young People Through Conflict And Conciliation: Attending To The Political And Agonism In Democratic Education, Jane C. Lo

Democracy and Education

Deliberative models of democratic education encourage the discussion of controversial issues in the classroom (e.g., Hess, 2009); however, they tend to curtail conflicts for the sake of consensus. Agonism, on the other hand, can help support the deliberative model by attending to antagonism in productive ways (Ruitenberg, 2009). In this paper, I present how agonistic deliberation (the infusion of agonism into deliberation) can work as an account of the political that may help empower young people. The paper presents two classic democratic classroom practices—structured academic controversy (SAC) and debate—together as examples of how agonistic deliberation can help students engage politically. …


Teaching For Toleration In Pluralist Liberal Democracies, Betto A.F. Van Waarden May 2017

Teaching For Toleration In Pluralist Liberal Democracies, Betto A.F. Van Waarden

Democracy and Education

This article determines which education enables the perpetuation of diverse ways of life and the liberal democracy that accommodates this diversity. Liberals like John Rawls, Stephen Macedo, and William Galston have disagreed about the scope of civic education. Based on an analysis of toleration—the primary means for maintaining a pluralist liberal democracy—I argue that schools should teach democratic participatory skills and a minimal exposure to diversity to enable citizens to participate in the democratic process of defining which cultural and religious practices the state should tolerate or prohibit through its laws. To make this argument, I contend, in contrast to …


Media Literacy As Mindful Practice For Democratic Education. A Response To “Transaction Circles With Digital Texts As A Foundation For Democratic Practices”, Theresa Redmond Nov 2016

Media Literacy As Mindful Practice For Democratic Education. A Response To “Transaction Circles With Digital Texts As A Foundation For Democratic Practices”, Theresa Redmond

Democracy and Education

This essay is a response to Brown’s (2015) article describing her strategy of transaction circles as a student-centered, culturally responsive, and democratic literacy practice. In my response, I provide further evidence from the field of media literacy education (MLE) that serves to enhance Brown’s argument for using transaction circles in order to promote democratic discourse, specifically augmenting her ideas by connecting the purposes and processes of transaction circles with key implications of media literacy pedagogy. I invite Brown to consider how her concept of transaction circles may be extended in three ways: (a) through acknowledging the indispensable role of the …


Sam And Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between A Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color By Schools, Samuel J. Tanner, Cristina Corrie Nov 2016

Sam And Cristina: A Critical Dialogue Between A Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color By Schools, Samuel J. Tanner, Cristina Corrie

Democracy and Education

This article was written by a white high school teacher (Sam) and a high school student of color (Cristina) in order to consider the harmful potential for schools in the United States to commoditize students of color at the expense of critical, antiracist work. It was written out of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study and uses a critical whiteness framework in order to examine how Cristina, in dialogue with Sam, came to theorize that her racial identity was commoditized as a cultural asset of their high school in exploitative ways. Her thinking, juxtaposed with Sam’s consideration of his …


Enacting Social Justice Ethically: Individual And Communal Habits. A Response To "Ethics In Teaching For Democracy And Social Justice", Michael G. Gunzenhauser Nov 2015

Enacting Social Justice Ethically: Individual And Communal Habits. A Response To "Ethics In Teaching For Democracy And Social Justice", Michael G. Gunzenhauser

Democracy and Education

In response to Hytten’s provocative opening of a conversation about an ethics for activist teaching, in this essay I address three interesting contributions that Hytten made. First, I explore the significance of the imagined ethical subject in Hytten’s example and in many prior authors’ work on ethics in social justice teaching. Expanding the imagined ethical subject (beyond the resistant student with limited experience of difference), which Hytten began to do, is fruitful for additional contexts. Second, I attend to the philosophical basis upon which Hytten rested her ethical theory and suggest some ways that philosophers might follow her critical and …


Educating Each According To His Needs: A Response To “Beyond The Schoolhouse Door: Educating The Political Animal In Jefferson’S Little Republics”, Andrew Holowchak Apr 2015

Educating Each According To His Needs: A Response To “Beyond The Schoolhouse Door: Educating The Political Animal In Jefferson’S Little Republics”, Andrew Holowchak

Democracy and Education

This essay is a reply to Brian Dotts’s “Beyond the Schoolhouse Door,” which focuses on the need of a system of general education in Jefferson’s writings on educative reform.


Beyond The Schoolhouse Door: Educating The Political Animal In Jefferson’S Little Republics, Brian W. Dotts Apr 2015

Beyond The Schoolhouse Door: Educating The Political Animal In Jefferson’S Little Republics, Brian W. Dotts

Democracy and Education

Jefferson believed that citizenship must exhibit republican virtue. While education was necessary in a republican polity, it alone was insufficient in sustaining a revolutionary civic spirit. This paper examines Jefferson's expectations for citizen virtue, specifically related to militia and jury service in his 'little republics.' Citizens required not only knowledge of history and republican principles, but also public spaces where they could personify what they learned. Jefferson often analogized the nation as a ship at sea, and while navigational instruments are necessary in charting an accurate course, i.e., republican theories, they become inconsequential without the decisive action required for their …


Democratic Teaching: An Incomplete Job Description, Rachel Bradshaw Sep 2014

Democratic Teaching: An Incomplete Job Description, Rachel Bradshaw

Democracy and Education

The importance of public education in democratic states is almost beyond dispute. Too often, though, discussions of democratic education focus solely on policies and systems, forgetting the individual teachers who are ultimately responsible for educating future citizens. This paper attempts to illustrate just how complex and significant the role of teachers in a democratic republic can be.


Jefferson And Democratic Education. A Response To "Thomas Jefferson And The Ideology Of Democratic Schooling", M. Andrew Holowchak Apr 2014

Jefferson And Democratic Education. A Response To "Thomas Jefferson And The Ideology Of Democratic Schooling", M. Andrew Holowchak

Democracy and Education

This essay is a reply to James Carpenter's “Thomas Jefferson and the Ideology of Democratic Schooling.” In it, I argue that there is an apophatic strain in the essay that calls into question the motivation for the undertaking.


Is Jefferson A Founding Father Of Democratic Education? A Response To "Jefferson And The Ideology Of Democratic Schooling", Johann Neem Oct 2013

Is Jefferson A Founding Father Of Democratic Education? A Response To "Jefferson And The Ideology Of Democratic Schooling", Johann Neem

Democracy and Education

This response argues that it is reasonable to consider Thomas Jefferson a proponent of democratic education. It suggests that Jefferson's education proposals sought to ensure the wide distribution of knowledge and that Jefferson's legacy remains important to us today.


“The Diffusion Of Light”: Jefferson’S Philosophy Of Education, M. Andrew Holowchak Oct 2013

“The Diffusion Of Light”: Jefferson’S Philosophy Of Education, M. Andrew Holowchak

Democracy and Education

Jefferson's republicanism—a people-first, mostly bottom-up political vision with a moral underpinning—was critically dependent on general education for the citizenry and higher education for those who would govern. This paper contains an analysis of Jefferson’s general philosophy of pedagogy by enumerating some of its most fundamental principles, applicable to both elementary and higher education.