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Full-Text Articles in Education
Heavy On The Solidarity, Light On The Adultism: Adult Supports For Youth Activism, Stephanie C. Serriere, Tennisha Riley
Heavy On The Solidarity, Light On The Adultism: Adult Supports For Youth Activism, Stephanie C. Serriere, Tennisha Riley
Democracy and Education
This data-based theoretical paper explores the contrasting tensions of adults being in “solidarity” with youths while not reproducing systems of oppression through adultism. Written by adults who have been engaged side-by-side with youth activism, the purpose of this article is to better understand what adult solidarity and support look like according to youth activists themselves as we grapple with the unintentional mechanisms of reinforcing oppressive power dynamics between young people and adults in activist communities. Extending on the Gaztambide-Fernández’s (2012) notion of relational solidarity, the findings offer four types of actions (modeling, connecting, supporting, and protecting) adults can do …
Land Education And Young People Working Toward Salamander: Collective Well-Being In Response To Bioindicators Of Socioenvironmental Justice, Rachael Arens, Ricardo Martinez
Land Education And Young People Working Toward Salamander: Collective Well-Being In Response To Bioindicators Of Socioenvironmental Justice, Rachael Arens, Ricardo Martinez
Democracy and Education
Our planet is facing many environmental challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity and habitat, and pollution, while many of our populations are also experiencing marginalization due to poverty, race, gender, language, ability, and environmental injustices. Environmental hazards and policies often impact those in society who are most at-risk, creating a need for an environmental education (EE) movement that encourages students to challenge and regain control of a system that impacts them. Teachers can implement a reflection tool known as the SALAMANDER Collective Well-Being in Response to Bioindicators of Socioenvironmental Justice Framework to prompt students and other educators to place …
The Privatization Movement Is Not Dead! A Book Review Of A Wolf At The Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling Of Public Education And The Future Of School, Jeffrey Frenkiewich
The Privatization Movement Is Not Dead! A Book Review Of A Wolf At The Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling Of Public Education And The Future Of School, Jeffrey Frenkiewich
Democracy and Education
In January of 2020, Diane Ravitch published Slaying Goliath, in which she claimed the movement to privatize America’s public school system was dying. While this might be true, the movement is not dead, and this review looks at Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire’s A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door, which examines the history of school privatization and calls for renewed vigilance by those who oppose it. Schneider and Berkshire argued that defenders of public education need three conceptual frames to fight privatization efforts: (a) a clear presentation of the aims and objectives of the privatization movement; (b) knowledge of the …
Practices To Live With, Invitations For Change. A Book Review Of Descriptive Inquiry In Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom In Create Democratic Schools, Dana Frantz Bentley
Practices To Live With, Invitations For Change. A Book Review Of Descriptive Inquiry In Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom In Create Democratic Schools, Dana Frantz Bentley
Democracy and Education
This review explores the discourse between theory and practice put forth in Cara E. Furman and Cecelia E. Traugh's Descriptive Inquiry in Teacher Practice: Cultivating Practical Wisdom to Create Democratic Schools. Through the practice of descriptive inquiry, these two authors engage in a lively examination of schools and educators developing individualized democratic practices. This review explores the engaging conversations between schools, educators, and school communities as they learn to center their democratic teaching on human dignity, and a focus on practical wisdom.
Supporting The Arts As Disciplines Of Learning. A Book Review Of The Role Of The Arts In Learning: Cultivating Landscapes Of Democracy, Karen Mcgarry
Supporting The Arts As Disciplines Of Learning. A Book Review Of The Role Of The Arts In Learning: Cultivating Landscapes Of Democracy, Karen Mcgarry
Democracy and Education
Learning through and in partnership with the arts has the potential to expand experiences beyond what can be measured on any standardized test assessment. The arts may offer sites of reflexive contemplation and engagement, extending learning outward, away from disciplinary silos and toward transdisciplinary action learning—a heuristic device enabling multiple modes or processes of multitextual knowing and becoming. In The Role of the Arts in Learning: Cultivating Landscapes of Democracy, the editors nurture a space of consideration toward democratic learning. By harnessing the historical and pragmatic theories and philosophies of John Dewey and Maxine Greene, in concert with additional …
Controversy And The Common Core. A Book Review Of Common Core: National Education Standards And The Threat To Democracy, Courtney L. Gilday
Controversy And The Common Core. A Book Review Of Common Core: National Education Standards And The Threat To Democracy, Courtney L. Gilday
Democracy and Education
For a decade, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been no stranger to controversy. Tangled in the discourse have been numerous scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and community members. Many of those in favor of the Common Core argue that national standards provide a foundation on which to build equitable opportunities for student success, while those opposed say that they disempower autonomy of local schools, community members, parents, and students themselves. In Common Core: National Education Standards and the Threat to Democracy, Tampio (2018) highlights how national standards create barriers for students to operate as citizens in a democratic society. He …
Dialectic Of Empathy. A Book Review Of Educating For Empathy: Literacy Learning And Civic Engagement, Dan Deweese
Dialectic Of Empathy. A Book Review Of Educating For Empathy: Literacy Learning And Civic Engagement, Dan Deweese
Democracy and Education
In Educating for Empathy: Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement, Mirra describes the value of teaching “critical civic empathy” in K–12 literacy classrooms. Distinguished from standard curricular uses of empathy that stress politeness at the level of the individual, critical civic empathy challenges students to take active steps toward questioning how imbalances of power and privilege arise and what assumptions should be questioned in order to address those imbalances. Mirra examines various teachers who center social issues in their literacy classrooms through the use of literature, the techniques of high school debate, research methodologies that see students as knowledge producers, …
Media Literacy As An Internal And External Process. A Response To “Red States, Blue States, And Media Literacy: Political Context And Media Literacy”, Jolie C. Matthews
Media Literacy As An Internal And External Process. A Response To “Red States, Blue States, And Media Literacy: Political Context And Media Literacy”, Jolie C. Matthews
Democracy and Education
Curry and Cherner’s article, “Red States, Blue States, and Media Literacy: Political Context and Media Literacy,” discusses preservice teachers’ perspectives of teaching media literacy skills in politically opposite “Red” and “Blue” States. In this response, I argue the inclusion of additional demographic information about participants might open up new avenues for which to analyze the data. I also address how the article theoretically takes up media literacy as well what other definitions exist, with suggestions for how the term might be expanded to include internal (self-reflective) and external (outside sources) processes for students and educators to consider.
Restoring The Political: Exploring The Complexities Of Agonistic Deliberation In Classrooms, John Ambrosio
Restoring The Political: Exploring The Complexities Of Agonistic Deliberation In Classrooms, John Ambrosio
Democracy and Education
This article is a response to a theoretical and philosophical examination of agonistic deliberation in classrooms, which requires accepting the legitimacy of perspectives that are outside of prevailing societal norms and the expression of political emotion. The author argues that students must develop certain dispositions to achieve productive ends in negotiations and that the role of teachers in the deliberative process must be clarified. He concludes that modifying instructional practices to include agonistic deliberation can potentially open up public spaces in classrooms for more inclusive and equitable deliberative practices.
Supporting Students' Choice And Voice In Discovering Empathy, Imagination, And Why Literature Matters More Than Ever, Kimberly Hill Campbell
Supporting Students' Choice And Voice In Discovering Empathy, Imagination, And Why Literature Matters More Than Ever, Kimberly Hill Campbell
Democracy and Education
This article explores why we need to be intentional about the literature we explore in our English language arts classrooms. It explores the question of what literature should be considered and strategies for using democratic practices in support of literature circles. It also reinforces the importance of collaborative practitioner research to explore curriculum decisions and classroom practice to ensure we are meeting the needs of the diverse students with whom we work.
Drawing On The Past To Open Up Possible Futures. A Response To "The Cultural Contours Of Democracy: Indigenous Epistemologies Informing South African Citizenship", John Ambrosio
Democracy and Education
This article is a response to a qualitative study that examined how the indigenous African notion of ubuntu informs how some school teachers in a Black township in South Africa conceptualize Western-oriented narratives of democracy. While the study acknowledges important differences in how ubuntu is understood and defined, the author argues that it nonetheless tends to overlook them in order to harness ubuntu as a force for positive social change and national development. The author argues that ubuntu could potentially serve as a powerful cultural force for change, but this requires a context in which some of the moral qualities …
Contention And Conversation In The K–12 Classroom. A Review Essay Of Teaching Controversial Issues And The Case For Contention, Robert Kunzman
Contention And Conversation In The K–12 Classroom. A Review Essay Of Teaching Controversial Issues And The Case For Contention, Robert Kunzman
Democracy and Education
This review essay explores the complexities and challenges involved in addressing controversial issues in the K–12 public school classroom, drawing from two recent books: Noddings and Brooks’s Teaching Controversial Issues: The Case for Critical Thinking and Moral Commitment in the Classroom and Zimmerman and Robertson’s The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools. This educational work requires thoughtful preparation by teachers, support from administrators and communities, and careful discernment about whether issues require pedagogical neutrality or directive instruction. Teaching young people how to understand unfamiliar perspectives and engage respectfully across ethical disagreement should be a fundamental priority for …
In Defense Of Ambiguity In Education. A Book Review Of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, And Sexuality, Caitlin Howlett
In Defense Of Ambiguity In Education. A Book Review Of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, And Sexuality, Caitlin Howlett
Democracy and Education
This article offers a positive review of Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality, a readable and refreshing account of the ambiguities and possibilities relating to gender and sexuality in education today. The review argues that, with a focus on public school experiences, this collection of vignettes, lessons, and critical essays, amounts to a resource that is of great value to teachers, preservice teachers, teacher educators, and citizens as they navigate the ever-changing winds of gender and sexuality, particularly as they diverge and multiply along categories of race, religion, ethnicity, and class. This book offers hope and excitement for those of us …
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
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.
Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy, Jill Bradley-Levine 4355986, Gina Mosier
Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy, Jill Bradley-Levine 4355986, Gina Mosier
Democracy and Education
Using the Degrees of Democracy Framework (Woods & Woods, 2012), we examined eight New Tech (NT) high schools to determine the extent to which they demonstrated characteristics of holistic democracy. We collected qualitative data, including observations and interviews during the fourth year of implementation. Findings indicated that the eight NT schools demonstrated many features of holistic democracy with a few exceptions. This study has implications for researchers and school communities interested in measuring holistic democracy in other schools and within school models.
What Kind Of Teacher For Our Citizens? A Book Review Of What Kind Of Citizen? Educating Our Children For The Common Good, Tony Decesare
What Kind Of Teacher For Our Citizens? A Book Review Of What Kind Of Citizen? Educating Our Children For The Common Good, Tony Decesare
Democracy and Education
Westheimer’s central argument in What Kind of Citizen? Educating our Children for the Common Good is that the current climate around public education—marked, in general, by standardization in our schools—is not conducive to the development of thoughtful and critically engaged public citizens. Westheimer demonstrated convincingly that schools—in response to recent education reform and, in some cases, pressure from parents and other education stakeholders—have increasingly emphasized individual goals at the expense of educating children for the common good. Furthermore and related, in this age of standardized testing, school curricula have become more narrowly focused on achievement in math and literacy at …
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 …
The Social And Emotional Components Of Gaming. A Response To “The Challenge Of Gaming For Democratic Education”, Ellen Middaugh
The Social And Emotional Components Of Gaming. A Response To “The Challenge Of Gaming For Democratic Education”, Ellen Middaugh
Democracy and Education
This response considers the role of video games in promoting the social and emotional aspects of civic education and engagement. Specifically, it discusses how design choices in iCivics and video games generally may impact students’ emotional responses to issues and other people, sense of internal efficacy, and social connectedness.
Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley
Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy, Audrey Lingley
Democracy and Education
Spirituality has been identified as an important component of democratic education by influential scholars such as Dewey, Freire, hooks, and Noddings. However, many teachers in the United States do not engage openly with a framework for understanding, organizing, and integrating pedagogical knowledge of spirituality within the context of culturally conscious social justice education. Drawing from an analysis of the works of Dewey, Noddings, Freire, and hooks and using a critical construct of spirituality that emphasizes inquiry, practical experience, meaning making, and awareness of interconnectedness, I argue that spiritually responsive pedagogy is a vital element of emancipatory, culturally responsive education in …
The Challenges Of Gaming For Democratic Education: The Case Of Icivics, Jeremy Stoddard, Angela M. Banks, Christine Nemacheck, Elizabeth Wenska
The Challenges Of Gaming For Democratic Education: The Case Of Icivics, Jeremy Stoddard, Angela M. Banks, Christine Nemacheck, Elizabeth Wenska
Democracy and Education
Video games are the most recent technological advancement to be viewed as an educational panacea and a force for democracy. However, this medium has particular affordances and constraints as a tool for democratic education in educational environments. This paper presents results from a study of the design and content of four iCivics games and their potential to meet the goals of democratic education. Specifically, we focus on the games as designed experiences, the nature and accuracy of the content, and the nature of intellectual engagement in the games. We find that the games, while easily accessible and aligned with standardized …
Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education, Lisa A. Sibbett
Toward A Transformative Criticality For Democratic Citizenship Education, Lisa A. Sibbett
Democracy and Education
This article uses a well-received recent text—Hess and McAvoy’s The Political Classroom—to suggest that democratic citizenship education today has a social accountability problem. I locate this discussion in the context of a longstanding conflict between the critical thinking approach to democratic citizenship education, the approach typified by The Political Classroom, and the critical pedagogical approach, which has an equal but opposite problem, that of indoctrination. If democratic citizenship educators are truly interested in transforming the social order, I suggest, then we need to listen appreciatively, and respond thoughtfully, to critiques of the approach we favor. The article ends …
Neoliberal Ideology And Democratic Learning. A Response To "Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism And The Erosion Of Democratic Education", Emery James Hyslop-Margison, Andrés Ramírez
Neoliberal Ideology And Democratic Learning. A Response To "Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism And The Erosion Of Democratic Education", Emery James Hyslop-Margison, Andrés Ramírez
Democracy and Education
In "Challenging Freedom: Neoliberalism and the Erosion of Democratic Education," the author suggests that the presumed decline of democratic learning in public schooling follows from two primary forces: (a) the metaphysical implications of Cartesian psychophysical dualism that support an ontological understanding of the self as distinct from social influence and (b) a corresponding concept of freedom emerging from this ontology that exonerates individuals from any meaningful level of social moral responsibility. Although we agree in large part with the general argument advanced in the essay, there are some theoretical and historical gaps that we attempt to bridge in this response. …
Necessary But Not Sufficient: Deweyan Dialogue And The Demands Of Critical Citizenship. A Book Review Of The Political Classroom: Evidence And Ethics In Democratic Education, Joseph C. Wegwert
Democracy and Education
This is a book review of The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education, by Hess and McAvoy.
"How To Be Nice And Get What You Want": Structural Referents Of "Self" And "Other" In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice, Franklin Vernon
"How To Be Nice And Get What You Want": Structural Referents Of "Self" And "Other" In Experiential Education As (Un)Democratic Practice, Franklin Vernon
Democracy and Education
This critical ethnography explores a social justice program utilizing nontraditional, democratic, "experiential" education practices. The author posits a historical legacy of pedagogy of self obscures its emancipatory, democratic potential while simultaneously expanding on contemporary discourses of self and other as aspects of the educational setting. Students' labors to reference and enact oppressive, capitalistic idealizations of either self or other problematizes pragmatic theories of self, and the author draws upon critical pragmatism to reposition self and other as aspects of pedagogy and curriculum in democratic education.
Interrogating The Relationship Between Schools And Society. A Book Review Of Can Education Change Society?, Wayne Au
Democracy and Education
This reviewer found Can Education Change Society? a typical Apple text, far-ranging in terms of scope and example and theoretically and conceptually ambitious.
Media Literacy For The 21st Century. A Response To "The Need For Media Education In Democratic Education", Peter Levine
Media Literacy For The 21st Century. A Response To "The Need For Media Education In Democratic Education", Peter Levine
Democracy and Education
We cannot pretend to educate young people for citizenship and political participation without teaching them to understand and use the new media, which are essential means of expressing ideas, forming public opinions, and building institutions and movements. But the challenge of media literacy education is serious. Students need advanced and constantly changing skills to be effective online. They must understand the relationship between the new media and social and political institutions, a topic that is little understood by even the most advanced social theorists. And they must develop motivations to use digital media for civic purposes, when no major institutions …
A Testimony Of Hope. A Book Review Of Critical Consciousness In Curricular Research, Audrey Lingley
A Testimony Of Hope. A Book Review Of Critical Consciousness In Curricular Research, Audrey Lingley
Democracy and Education
The anthology Critical Consciousness in Curricular Research: Evidence from the Field (William-White, Muccular, D., Muccular, G., & Brown, 2013) contains a multilogical collection of strategies for establishing curriculum work as an integral part of what it means to be a teacher. Although the contributors represent a diverse range of backgrounds, perspectives, and years in education, a common manifesto emerges: Curriculum inquiry is a pathway for the enactment of democratic pedagogy and enfranchisement of marginalized students (and teachers). The editors provide a vibrant and engaging testimony of hope with which to revitalize the notion of curriculum work as part of what …
Scrutiny Instead Of Silence. A Response To "Respect Differences? Challenging Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Barbara A. Peterson Dr.
Scrutiny Instead Of Silence. A Response To "Respect Differences? Challenging Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Barbara A. Peterson Dr.
Democracy and Education
Sensoy and DiAngelo (2014) argue for alternative behavioral guidelines than those currently being used in many social justice courses. Their alternative is to silence or constrain privileged voices so that marginalized voices have ample space to be heard and taken seriously. This raises the concern that silencing any group of persons runs too great a risk of alienating them to the point where their mistrust of the “other” is exacerbated rather than assuaged. This response suggests that, instead of silencing or even constraining privileged voices in the classroom, we may want to move toward developing in students the attitude that …
Moving Toward Equitable, Accessible, And Relevant Mathematics For All. A Book Review Of Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice By The Numbers, Lauren Provost
Democracy and Education
A book review of Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers, edited by Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson.
Nonviolent Action As A Necessary Component In Educating For Democracy, Barbara A. Peterson
Nonviolent Action As A Necessary Component In Educating For Democracy, Barbara A. Peterson
Democracy and Education
Educating for democracy, seen within a liberal democratic framework, requires that students develop the requisite knowledge and skills to recognize injustice and work effectively to oppose it. Stitzlein’s notion of dissent is examined in conjunction with Kahne and Westheimer’s argument for teaching democratic capacities by actively engaging students in addressing real world problem. This paper further suggests that for active dissent to lead to real change, we must extend our notion of dissent to include the knowledge and skills to influence the balance of power. Teaching students for democracy requires teaching them theory, history, and techniques of nonviolent action so …