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Full-Text Articles in Education

Beyond Just Techniques: Toward Deliberation Facilitation That Minimizes Harm. A Response To “Deliberative Facilitation In The Classroom: The Interplay Of Facilitative Technique And Design To Make Space For Democracy”, Wayne Journell Oct 2023

Beyond Just Techniques: Toward Deliberation Facilitation That Minimizes Harm. A Response To “Deliberative Facilitation In The Classroom: The Interplay Of Facilitative Technique And Design To Make Space For Democracy”, Wayne Journell

Democracy and Education

In "Deliberative Facilitation in the Classroom: The Interplay of Facilitative Techniques and Design to Make Space for Democracy," the authors offered several useful techniques for the facilitation of standard classroom deliberations. However, not all open controversial issues are created equal, and many have the potential to implicate student identities. In those cases, it is imperative that facilitators move beyond basic techniques and think about how to conduct deliberations that protect marginalized students and do not validate systemic injustices. In this response to "Deliberative Facilitation in the Classroom," I extend upon the authors' argument and offer suggestions for how to effectively …


Deliberative Facilitation In The Classroom: The Interplay Of Facilitative Technique And Design To Make Space For Democracy, Kei Nishiyama, A. Wendy Russell, Pierrick Chalaye, Tom Greenwell May 2023

Deliberative Facilitation In The Classroom: The Interplay Of Facilitative Technique And Design To Make Space For Democracy, Kei Nishiyama, A. Wendy Russell, Pierrick Chalaye, Tom Greenwell

Democracy and Education

Widespread global interest and adoption of deliberative democracy approaches to reinvigorate citizenship and policymaking in an era of democratic crisis/decline has been mirrored by increasing interest in deliberation in schools, both as an approach to pedagogy and student empowerment and as a training ground for deliberative citizenship. In school deliberation, as in other settings, a key and sometimes neglected element of high-quality deliberation is facilitation. Facilitation can help to establish and maintain deliberative norms, assist participants to deliberate productively, and enable collective goals. By participating in facilitated deliberation, students can develop awareness, skills, and voice that empower them to engage …


Without A Philosophy, Chaos Ensues. A Book Review Of When Kids Rule The School: The Power And Promise Of Democratic Education , Kara Follosco, Sue Ellen Henry, Victoria Loffredo, Tyler Rifkin, Garbielle Walsh May 2021

Without A Philosophy, Chaos Ensues. A Book Review Of When Kids Rule The School: The Power And Promise Of Democratic Education , Kara Follosco, Sue Ellen Henry, Victoria Loffredo, Tyler Rifkin, Garbielle Walsh

Democracy and Education

This is a book review of When Kids Rule The School, by Jim Rietmulder.


Understanding Conflict In Education For Democracy. A Response To "The Value Of Conflict And Disagreement In Democratic Teacher Education", Steven P. Camicia Oct 2020

Understanding Conflict In Education For Democracy. A Response To "The Value Of Conflict And Disagreement In Democratic Teacher Education", Steven P. Camicia

Democracy and Education

Teachers are often apprehensive about facilitating deliberation in classrooms because conflicts can develop when deliberations surround issues of authentic concern to students. However, conflict is central to deliberation, and the identities and experiences of participants must be reflected in deliberation. These differences challenge the assumptions of neutrality and a common good that can restrain conflict. Harell’s article focuses upon many of these aspects of deliberation and the essential role of facilitators as conflicts emerge from deliberation. In my response to Harell, I extend his findings by developing the themes of conflict, identity, and inclusion. These themes are conceptually linked and …


Dialectic Of Empathy. A Book Review Of Educating For Empathy: Literacy Learning And Civic Engagement, Dan Deweese May 2020

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 May 2020

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.


Storypath: A Powerful Tool For Engaging Children In Civic Education, Margit E. Mcguire, Laurie Stevahn, Shari Wennik Bronsther Oct 2019

Storypath: A Powerful Tool For Engaging Children In Civic Education, Margit E. Mcguire, Laurie Stevahn, Shari Wennik Bronsther

Democracy and Education

This article explains why elementary school children need civic education, identifies common obstacles that frustrate efforts, then describes how the Storypath approach can provide all students with opportunities for powerful civic learning. An actual application in a culturally diverse fourth-grade classroom illustrates how children grappled with Seattle’s affordable housing issue as they created and enacted Storypath’s five components, namely setting, characters, context, critical incidents, and concluding event. It also demonstrates how Storypath effectively integrates social studies content, literacy skills, and social-emotional learning (SEL) through cooperative small-group episodes that produce meaningful and memorable lived experiences for …


Restoring The Political: Exploring The Complexities Of Agonistic Deliberation In Classrooms, John Ambrosio May 2019

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.


Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms, Julia Collins, Michael E. Hess, Charles L. Lowery May 2019

Democratic Spaces: How Teachers Establish And Sustain Democracy And Education In Their Classrooms, Julia Collins, Michael E. Hess, Charles L. Lowery

Democracy and Education

Democratic education focuses on developing students using democratic principles and processes in the classroom. In this study, we aim to understand how self-identified democratic educators practice democratic education in public-school classrooms. Nine participants, teachers in K12 schools, were interviewed for this qualitative study. In investigating how public-school teachers implemented and sustained democratic education in their classrooms, six themes emerged—fostering relationships, empowering students, and teaching and using democratic skills, democratic educative structure, democratic teacher praxis, and obstacles.


Last Year's Choice Is This Year's Voice: Valuing Democratic Practices In The Classroom Through Student-Selected Literature, Michael D. Boatright, Amelia Allman Oct 2018

Last Year's Choice Is This Year's Voice: Valuing Democratic Practices In The Classroom Through Student-Selected Literature, Michael D. Boatright, Amelia Allman

Democracy and Education

The authors of this article explore democratic practices in the classroom by using student-selected literature. After multiple class sets of student-selected young adult novels were purchased using grant money, the authors set out to see what happens in a classroom when student choice is at the forefront of pedagogical decision-making and how students resonated with and voiced their experiences reading about those chosen novels. Because canonical texts are often used to help students understand allusions in contemporary texts, one adolescent novel and one canonical novel became the focal points for this project. With democratic practices undergirding this project, the authors …


The Impact Of Student Political Identity Over The Course Of An Online Controversial Issue Discussion, Christopher H. Clark Oct 2018

The Impact Of Student Political Identity Over The Course Of An Online Controversial Issue Discussion, Christopher H. Clark

Democracy and Education

As civic educators become increasingly concerned about polarized political environments, researchers have begun explore the ramifications of contentious political discourse on young people. Through a quantitative analysis of data gathered from two rural, Midwestern schools, this study provides evidence that the degree to which a student socially identifies with a political party is influential over the course of an online discussion. Strength of identification was associated with students’ relative amount of knowledge for and against their position on a controversial issue and with the types of contributions students made to the online forum.


The Critique Of Deliberative Discussion. A Response To “Education For Deliberative Democracy: A Typology Of Classroom Discussions", David I. Backer May 2017

The Critique Of Deliberative Discussion. A Response To “Education For Deliberative Democracy: A Typology Of Classroom Discussions", David I. Backer

Democracy and Education

My response to Samuelsson’s (2016) recent essay offers a different paradigm with which to think about education, deliberative discussion and democracy. I call this paradigm the critique of deliberative discussion. Following Ruitenberg’s application of Mouffe’s critiques of deliberative democracy to education, the critique of deliberative discussion focuses on what Jameson called the “political unconscious” of deliberative discussions like those presented by Samuelsson. There is literature that critique traditionally moderate-liberal notions of deliberative discussion, which Samuelsson defines his typology: reason, willingness to listen, and consensus. While others, like Ruitenberg, have developed this critique of deliberative-democratic citizenship education, the critique of deliberative …


“If You Cannot Live By Our Rules, If You Cannot Adapt To This Place, I Can Show You The Back Door.” A Response To "New Forms Of Teacher Education: Connections To Charter Schools And Their Approaches", Barrett A. Smith Apr 2015

“If You Cannot Live By Our Rules, If You Cannot Adapt To This Place, I Can Show You The Back Door.” A Response To "New Forms Of Teacher Education: Connections To Charter Schools And Their Approaches", Barrett A. Smith

Democracy and Education

Stitzlein and West (2014) are primarily concerned with how Relay and Match risk failing to prepare their residents to practice democratic education. My aim is to provide a more thorough account of specific practices employed by Match and their no-excuses approach in order to illustrate and support points made by Stitzlein and West. It is my hope that this deeper examination will substantiate the concerns of Stitzlein and West while further problematizing the practices employed by and advocated for throughout Match.


Limiting Student Speech: A Narrow Path Toward Success. A Response To "Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Marissa C A Minnick Apr 2015

Limiting Student Speech: A Narrow Path Toward Success. A Response To "Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Marissa C A Minnick

Democracy and Education

In this response, Minnick asserts that unequal representation of students' voices, an idea presented in Sensoy and DiAngelo’s “Challenging the Common Guidelines in Social Justice Education,” presents multiple negative classroom implications. Foremost, Minnick argues that Sensoy and DiAngelo’s lack of clarity regarding when a teacher should limit student speech (either before the student begins to talk or midcomment) has a large effect on the success of their strategy. Second, Sensoy and DiAngelo’s discussion strategy may result in the targeting of minority students and the judging of students. These concerns are driven by considerations of how teachers’ relationships with students influence …


Scrutiny Instead Of Silence. A Response To "Respect Differences? Challenging Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education", Barbara A. Peterson Dr. Sep 2014

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 …


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.


Moving Toward Equitable, Accessible, And Relevant Mathematics For All. A Book Review Of Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice By The Numbers, Lauren Provost Apr 2014

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.


Toward Resonant, Imaginative Experiences In Ecological And Democratic Education. A Response To "Imagination And Experience: An Integrative Framework", Michael Derby, Sean Blenkinsop, John Telford, Laura Piersol, Michael Caulkins Oct 2013

Toward Resonant, Imaginative Experiences In Ecological And Democratic Education. A Response To "Imagination And Experience: An Integrative Framework", Michael Derby, Sean Blenkinsop, John Telford, Laura Piersol, Michael Caulkins

Democracy and Education

In this response to Fettes's "Imagination and Experience," the authors further consider the varieties of educational experience that inspire ecological flourishing and a living democracy. The essential interconnectedness of encounter-driven and language-driven ways of knowing are explored with particular reference to the authors' involvement in a research project at an innovative elementary school in British Columbia, Canada.