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Full-Text Articles in Education

The Measure Of Youth Policy Arguments: An Approach To Supporting Democratic Participation And Student Voice, Ben Kirshner, Shelley Zion, Daniela Digiacomo, Ginnie Logan Oct 2020

The Measure Of Youth Policy Arguments: An Approach To Supporting Democratic Participation And Student Voice, Ben Kirshner, Shelley Zion, Daniela Digiacomo, Ginnie Logan

Democracy and Education

Although experiential approaches to democracy education are gaining increased support from educators and scholars, few educational resources exist to support youth in constructing and delivering high-quality, evidence-based policy arguments to authentic audiences. Such presentations are often the first time that young people step into the public sphere and speak to public officials; they represent rich opportunities for youth political development and activism. In this paper, we introduce an assessment tool, called the Measure of Youth Policy Arguments (MYPA), which is intended to be a resource for community and school educators. Drawing on data from two years of field-testing and iterative …


The Struggle For Strong Democracy: We Need To Go Deeper. A Response To "Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms", Rick Ayers May 2020

The Struggle For Strong Democracy: We Need To Go Deeper. A Response To "Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms", Rick Ayers

Democracy and Education

The article by Collins, Hess, and Lowery (2019) explores struggles teachers faced in order to pursue Deweyan educational practices. This response proposes that even more is needed for a critical educational practice, called “strong democracy.” Such an approach requires addressing and countering the White supremacist legacy of U.S. capitalism and U.S. education. The article advances examples and various projects in strong democratic education.


Disrupting Whiteness In Curriculum History. A Book Review Of Reclaiming The Multicultural Roots Of U.S. Curriculum: Communities Of Color And Official Knowledge In Education, Christopher L. Busey May 2019

Disrupting Whiteness In Curriculum History. A Book Review Of Reclaiming The Multicultural Roots Of U.S. Curriculum: Communities Of Color And Official Knowledge In Education, Christopher L. Busey

Democracy and Education

The canon and curriculum of curriculum history remain grounded in Whiteness. Little attention is given to multicultural narratives of curriculum history, especially those that emerge from marginalized communities of color in the U.S. This book review details how Reclaiming the Multicultural Roots of U.S. Curriculum: Communities of Color and Official Knowledge in Education (Au, Brown, & Calderón, 2016) aims to address a void in the canon of curriculum history. Through the lens of Indigenous peoples, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans, the field of curriculum history is enriched with discourses as to how communities of color both …


Human Rights Education In Different Contexts. A Book Review Of Human Rights And Schooling: An Ethical Framework For Teaching For Social Justice, Steven P. Camicia Apr 2018

Human Rights Education In Different Contexts. A Book Review Of Human Rights And Schooling: An Ethical Framework For Teaching For Social Justice, Steven P. Camicia

Democracy and Education

In her book, Human rights and schooling: An ethical framework for teaching for social justice, Audrey Osler covered design and implementation of human rights education (HRE) within local and global contexts, as well as for students ranging from childhood to university levels. One of the central themes that Osler developed throughout the book is a complex recognition of diversity while embracing solidarity in the name of social justice. Osler supported the development of her framework through examples from multiple contexts around the globe where HRE education has been implemented. These tangible illustrations from her experiences and research provided pictures …


Pathways To Strengthen Multicultural Education. A Book Review Of Citizenship Education And Global Migration: Implications For Theory, Research, And Teaching, Isolde De Groot Apr 2018

Pathways To Strengthen Multicultural Education. A Book Review Of Citizenship Education And Global Migration: Implications For Theory, Research, And Teaching, Isolde De Groot

Democracy and Education

The edited book Citizenship Education and Global Migration, published by the founding director of the University of Washington’s Center for Multicultural Education, James Banks, offers a rich and multivocal account of conceptual and empirical work on multicultural education in light of persistent—and perhaps intractable—issues that follow from migration movements in the history of mankind, as well as recent shifts in migration patterns. To illustrate the significance of the book, I highlight some of the theoretical frameworks that the authors adopt and some of the teacher initiatives employed within and across different contexts. As a teacher educator in citizenship and …


Is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Enough? Toward Culturally “Real”-Evant Curriculum. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", James A. Gambrell May 2017

Is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Enough? Toward Culturally “Real”-Evant Curriculum. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", James A. Gambrell

Democracy and Education

In this response to Lingley's (2016) article "Democratic Foundations of Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy," the author invites the framework of (a)spiritually responsive curriculum to include a more direct engagement with a culturally relevant curriculum as well. The author agrees with Lingley's postulation that (a)spirituality is deeply embedded within the worldview of many students in K–12 classrooms, whether educators include this important aspect of their epistemology or not. Similar to the problems that come when we ignore identities of race, gender, (a)sexuality, (dis)ability, and social class, ignoring these important characteristics of students’ lived experiences is detrimental to learning outcomes and reinforces dominating …


Ypar, Critical Whiteness, And Generative Possibilities. A Response To “Sam And Cristina: A Dialogue Between A High School Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color”, Chris Corces-Zimmerman, Jamie Utt, Nolan L. Cabrera May 2017

Ypar, Critical Whiteness, And Generative Possibilities. A Response To “Sam And Cristina: A Dialogue Between A High School Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color”, Chris Corces-Zimmerman, Jamie Utt, Nolan L. Cabrera

Democracy and Education

In this response to the article by Tanner and Corrie, the authors provide three critiques of the methodology and theoretical framing of the study with the hopes of informing future scholarship and practice. Specifically, the three critiques addressed in this paper include the integration of CWS frameworks and YPAR methodology, the application and description of CWS and YPAR frameworks, and the role of power in the relationship between educator and student that served as the central medium for the study.


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 …


Deliberative Democracy: A Contested Interactive Space. A Response To "Deliberative Democracy In English Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community", Esperanza De La Vega Nov 2016

Deliberative Democracy: A Contested Interactive Space. A Response To "Deliberative Democracy In English Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community", Esperanza De La Vega

Democracy and Education

This is a response to Liggett’s (2014) call to implement “deliberate democracy” in English language education classrooms. While the concept of participating in deliberate democracy is a solid ideal and worthy of pursuit, I present questions and scenarios that illustrate the complicated nature of the tasks. By sharing my testimonio along with the research, I propose that in order for teachers to guide their students' participation in deliberate democratic activities, they must step back and understand the context of the sociocultural interactive space created in the classroom and whether ELL students are able to and/or prepared to speak in an …


Critical Pedagogy And Participatory Democracy: Creating Classroom Contexts That Challenge "Common Sense." A Response To "The Political Nuances Of Narratives And An Urban Educator's Response", Lilia D. Monzó, P. Zitlali Morales May 2016

Critical Pedagogy And Participatory Democracy: Creating Classroom Contexts That Challenge "Common Sense." A Response To "The Political Nuances Of Narratives And An Urban Educator's Response", Lilia D. Monzó, P. Zitlali Morales

Democracy and Education

In this response to “The Political Nuances of Narratives and an Urban Educator’s Response,” the authors applaud Pearman’s critical approach to deconstructing and challenging narratives of heroic figures who single-handedly change the world and agree with him that these narratives restrict the sense of agency that may propel citizens to become actively involved in social change efforts. We argue that it is important to question why these narratives exist and to understand them in light of the hegemonic capitalist structure that exploits the masses in service to the capitalist class. Although we agree with Pearman that democracy is best served …


Building The Dream: Transformational Resistance, Community-Based Organizations, And The Civic Engagement Of Latinos In The New South, Eleanor A. Petrone Dr May 2016

Building The Dream: Transformational Resistance, Community-Based Organizations, And The Civic Engagement Of Latinos In The New South, Eleanor A. Petrone Dr

Democracy and Education

This article examines how a group of Latino youth living in the Southeast experienced, adapted to, and resisted oppressive social structures within their community through their involvement with youth media. Through the content analysis of a teen radio show produced by and for Latino youth, in conjunction with semistructured interviews and ethnographic field notes, the author investigates how five Mexican-born high school students confronted and attempted to transform the educational practices that served to keep them subordinate. The study posits the community organization that sponsored the radio show as a pedagogical site of resistance and transformation, which provided the students …


“I Didn’T See It As A Cultural Thing”: Supervisors Of Student Teachers Define And Describe Culturally Responsive Supervision, Linda B. Griffin, Dyan Watson, Tonda Liggett May 2016

“I Didn’T See It As A Cultural Thing”: Supervisors Of Student Teachers Define And Describe Culturally Responsive Supervision, Linda B. Griffin, Dyan Watson, Tonda Liggett

Democracy and Education

Student teaching supervisors can play an integral role in teacher candidates’ ability to understand and enact culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP). However, supervisors may lack the awareness, knowledge, skill, or willingness to serve as culturally responsive supervisors. This paper reports the findings from a qualitative study to find out how supervisors described and supported CRP. We found that supervisors hold unsophisticated views of CRP and face the following challenges enacting culturally responsive supervision: feelings of inadequacy, difficulty talking about race, color-blind orientations, and a tendency to purposefully avoid race talk. We provide recommendations for professional development to address these challenges and …


Giving Power Its Due: The Powerful Possibilities And The Problems Of Power With Deliberative Democracy And English Language Learners. A Response To "Deliberative Democracy In English-Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community", Jarrod S. Hanson Apr 2015

Giving Power Its Due: The Powerful Possibilities And The Problems Of Power With Deliberative Democracy And English Language Learners. A Response To "Deliberative Democracy In English-Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community", Jarrod S. Hanson

Democracy and Education

The use of deliberation with English Language Learners presents possibilities to both improve language learning, but also expand the potential for civics education for all students. In particular, this response examines the issue of power to extend Liggett's (2014) arguments for using deliberative democracy with English Language Learners and provides practical suggestions on how to address issues of power and improve civic education.


Critical Discomfort And Deep Engagement Needed For Transformation. A Response To "Respect Differences? Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Rick Ayers Sep 2014

Critical Discomfort And Deep Engagement Needed For Transformation. A Response To "Respect Differences? Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Rick Ayers

Democracy and Education

This essay seeks to engage the discussion about how to successfully conduct social justice and critical pedagogy classes for teacher candidates. Because the identity and consciousness of teachers is such a crucial factor in equity education, teacher-educators seek to challenge and transform hegemonic assumptions. The essay seeks to engage some of the main points of Sensoy and DiAngelo and to extend the conversation to other considerations and issues that arise in the work to develop educators committed to equity and justice.


Deliberative Democracy In English-Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community, Tonda Liggett Sep 2014

Deliberative Democracy In English-Language Education: Cultural And Linguistic Inclusion In The School Community, Tonda Liggett

Democracy and Education

One of the most notable aspects of democracy in schooling lies in the challenge of schools to prepare individuals with the skills to participate and deliberate with others who have varying beliefs and worldviews. Deliberation and dialogue are seen as core components for academic achievement and cross-cultural connections between English language learners (ELLs) and native English speakers. I analyze the notion of deliberative democracy in English language education as a way to promote a certain type of education that would foster ELL inclusion as well as expand the perspectives of native English speakers. I argue that this type of education …


Beating The Odds. A Book Review Of Democratic Education In Practice: Inside The Mission Hill School, Gregory Smith Apr 2014

Beating The Odds. A Book Review Of Democratic Education In Practice: Inside The Mission Hill School, Gregory Smith

Democracy and Education

Democratic Education in Practice by Matthew Knoester provides a powerful antidote to the despair progressive teachers too easily can feel in the face of the corporate-sponsored onslaught against 21st-century public schools. The book provides a fine-grained view of the Mission Hill School in Boston, started in 1997 by two of the nation’s most committed and creative progressive educators.


A Teacher-Educator Uses Action Research To Develop Culturally Conscious Curriculum Planners, Muriel Simms Oct 2013

A Teacher-Educator Uses Action Research To Develop Culturally Conscious Curriculum Planners, Muriel Simms

Democracy and Education

Experienced teachers need to have opportunities to discuss and plan curriculum in ways that meet the academic needs of a demographically changing student population. According to the experienced teachers in this study, these opportunities did not occur in their teaching environments or in their teacher preparation courses. Moreover, the literature on multicultural education supported the experienced teachers’ claims. To address the problem of the lack of opportunities to discuss and plan a multicultural curriculum, this teacher-educator used a self-study approach to experiment with action research as a way to change her own curriculum to be multiculturally based.


Teacher, Researcher, And Accountability Discourses: Creating Space For Democratic Science Teaching Practices In Middle Schools, Cory A. Buxton, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Martha Allexsaht-Snider Oct 2013

Teacher, Researcher, And Accountability Discourses: Creating Space For Democratic Science Teaching Practices In Middle Schools, Cory A. Buxton, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Martha Allexsaht-Snider

Democracy and Education

This study explores the role of competing discourses that shape current practices in U.S. schools and how professional development efforts can support teachers and researchers in finding ways to reinsert more democratic processes into their collaborative work. We examine the case of one research and professional development project with the goal of supporting middle school science and ESOL teachers in fostering more meaningful science learning for all their students but especially their English language learners. Using Gee’s notion of big-D discourses and Fairclough’s notion of interdiscursivity, we trace how the Discourse of accountability, the Discourse of science teaching, and the …


Let’S Produce Culturally Responsive Pedagogues On Deck. A Response To "There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective", Christopher C. Jett Nov 2012

Let’S Produce Culturally Responsive Pedagogues On Deck. A Response To "There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective", Christopher C. Jett

Democracy and Education

In this response, I extend the conversation started by Hayes and Juárez (2012) by highlighting how culturally responsive teaching is spoken in one teacher education program where I worked and served in the preparation of middle-level teachers. I also share my reflections concerning this idea and pose questions for critical thought, dialogue, and action. Finally, I challenge teacher-educators to speak, enact, and work to produce culturally responsive teaching/teachers in their teacher preparation programs.


It’S More Than Just Music: A Review Of Urban Science Education For The Hip-Hop Generation, Jose M. Rios Feb 2012

It’S More Than Just Music: A Review Of Urban Science Education For The Hip-Hop Generation, Jose M. Rios

Democracy and Education

A review of the book Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation, by Christopher Emdin (Sense Publishing, 2010).


Moving Beyond Seeing With Our Eyes Wide Shut. A Response To “There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here”, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Vanessa Dodo Seriki Feb 2012

Moving Beyond Seeing With Our Eyes Wide Shut. A Response To “There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here”, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Vanessa Dodo Seriki

Democracy and Education

A struggle exists to engage in culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) that authentically represents the voices and interests of all across the K–20 spectrum, from higher education institutions, to teacher preparation programs, and into U.S. classrooms. This article responds to Hayes and Juárez's piece “There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here” by extending the conversation with the suggestion that one of the major problems in speaking CRP has to do with a disconnect between articulated commitments and actual practices. This response article takes a critical look at the landscape in which educators work to reveal the nature of overrepresentation of …


There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective, Cleveland Hayes, Brenda Juarez Feb 2012

There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here: A Critical Race Perspective, Cleveland Hayes, Brenda Juarez

Democracy and Education

In this article, we are concerned with White racial domination as a process that occurs in teacher education and the ways it operates to hinder the preparation of teachers to effectively teach all students. Our purpose is to identify and highlight moments within processes of White racial domination when individuals and groups have and make choices to support rather than to challenge White supremacy. By highlighting and critically examining moments when White racial domination has been instantiated and recreated within our own experiences, we attempt to open up a venue for imagining and re-creating teacher education in ways that are …


Let A Thousand Teachers Bloom. A Response To "Creating Communities", David L. Keiser Phd Oct 2011

Let A Thousand Teachers Bloom. A Response To "Creating Communities", David L. Keiser Phd

Democracy and Education

Public education in the United States is nominally inclusive and open to all, but is also nuanced and complicated, particularly for students with special learning needs or for English language learners. For refugee students, who may also belong to either or both these two groups, the challenge can be compounded by previous traumas to themselves and their families. Roxas’s description of teacher Patricia Engler illustrates how complicated, but ultimately doable, is the work of educating refugee youth. The key strategy that the article illustrated was the need for attention to connections between school and home life. The students experienced these …


Creating Communities: Working With Refugee Students In Classrooms, Kevin C. Roxas Oct 2011

Creating Communities: Working With Refugee Students In Classrooms, Kevin C. Roxas

Democracy and Education

This article critically examines the reality of building community in public schools and specifically identifies the obstacles faced by teachers who try to create community with refugee students. The research in the article focuses on Ms. Patricia Engler, a teacher in a newcomer center for refugee students located in an urban setting. Engler created and fostered a sense of community for middle-school students in her classroom who often felt disconnected to their fellow students, their school, and the neighborhoods in which they lived, and was able to focus on work that she intuitively felt was right for her students based …


The Courage To Critique Policies And Practices From Within: Youth Participatory Action Research As Critical Policy Analysis. A Response To “Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School”, Anjale Welton Apr 2011

The Courage To Critique Policies And Practices From Within: Youth Participatory Action Research As Critical Policy Analysis. A Response To “Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School”, Anjale Welton

Democracy and Education

This response to “Buscando la Libertad: Latino Youths in Search of Freedom in School” by Jason G. Irizarry demonstrates how youth participatory action research (YPAR) as an instrument of subverting oppressive school policies and structures is a form of critical policy analysis (CPA). As an evolving method, CPA acknowledges the absent voices in policy, questions policy inequities, fosters empowerment, and influences policy. Youths who engage in YPAR, as demonstrated by Project FUERTE, have the courage to critique school policies that have the power to alter their educational trajectories, which offers more hope for change than scholarly elites who critique policies …


Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School, Jason Irizarry Apr 2011

Buscando La Libertad: Latino Youths In Search Of Freedom In School, Jason Irizarry

Democracy and Education

Drawing from a two-year ethnographic study of Latino high school students engaged in youth participatory action research (YPAR), this article describes students’ quest for freedom in schools, locating their struggle within a larger effort to realize the democratic ideals of public schooling. Using Latino/a Critical Race Theory as a theoretical lens, the author demonstrates how popular discourse around the “achievement gap” often obscures the oppressive policies and practices implemented by educators that limit freedoms necessary for educational and personal development and profoundly influence the identities and life trajectories of Latino youth. The article concludes with an exploration of YPAR as …